4. City of Civic Pride and Industrial Paternalism, c1860-c1890

This chapter explores the conscious effort made to bring together and regulate social classes within the built environment of Manchester in an era of emerging mass politics. Alfred Waterhouse’s new Town Hall and Albert Square, opened in 1877, was emblematic of civic pride and social cohesion during this phase, with the Gothic style defining a distinctive architecture of industrial paternalism. While the city centre became the focus for civic ceremonies, commerce, clubs and societies, the old institutions of corporate order, workhouses, hospitals and prisons were moved to the periphery. There was also a notable expansion of Manchester’s industrial base, especially on the eastern fringes, which emerged as the prime centre for engineering in the city. Accompanying these developments was a further process suburbanisation with the rise of more cosmopolitan and socially mixed townships. The prominence of middle class religious and charitable institutions in the built environment is another feature of this phase, together with new municipal interventions in the form of parks, board schools and cemeteries.