Manchester: An Architectural History

Let me begin with an acknowledged bias. While there is no lack of monumental grandeur in Manchester, there is a lack of ‐ how to put it? ‐ focus, in the pure Latin sense, a hearth, and so of a heart. It is this missing element that distinguishes the city from its great neighbour, Liverpool, whose monumental gravitas though probably quantitatively less than Manchester’s has it visibly concentrated, with sublime effect, on its river front. To confer “presence”, nobility, and rippling vitality a river is essential, a river of considerable magnitude like the Mersey. The Irwell is a poor specimen,...