The Whitworth, Oxford Road, Manchester, Greater Manchester UK.
Manchester’s The Whitworth (formerly known as Whitworth Art Gallery ) stands amongst Whitworth Park, it’s origins stem from the time of the Industrial Revolution, when Manchester was the largest centre of manufacturing. The gallery was founded in 1889 by Robert Dukinfield Darbishire with a donation from Sir Joseph Whitworth, as “The Whitworth Institute and Park”.
Edmund Crompton-Potter (the uncle of Beatrice Potter) owned Rusholme House (built around 1810), which once stood on the corner of Moss Lane East and Wilmslow Road. His estate spanned Rusholme Brook, which separated Rusholme from Chorlton-on-Medlock and included Grove House,(built about 1830) and an area called “Potter’s Field”, in total an area of 20 acres. When Crompton-Potter died in 1884 arrangements were made to sell the whole estate. The Manchester Guardian debated the case for the City Council acquiring the Potter Estate for a public park. During this time Robert Darbishire opened the garden of Rusholme House and Potter’s Field to the public, who turned up at weekends in their thousands, on occasion being entertained by a brass band!
Whitworth Park In 1907.
On Joseph Whitworth’s death, in January 1887, his legatees bought the estate for the Whitworth Trust at about the original asking price. An offer was made to give the land conditionally to the city for a public park subject to the council building an art gallery. Rusholme House was demolished, and Alfred Wilsher, the park superintendent was sent to the continent to see examples there, and the whole estate re-laid as an organised Park with wide avenues, new trees and flower beds, a bandstand and shelters, and later a lake with large fountain, islands, boathouse and pavilion.
Whitworth Park In 1910.
Grove House became home to a growing collection of sculpture and paintings and on 16 June, 1890 the Whitworth Institute, which had been incorporated in 1889, quietly opened Whitworth Park to the public as “a woodland park and pleasure ground”, the event being marked by a public notice on the gate and in newspapers but no formal ceremony was held. The Park was very popular and attracted large numbers of people and more attractions were added. An observatory to record meteorological data was added by Owens College next to the lake in 1893 and in 1895 Darbishire donated a sculpture by George Tinworth, Christ blessing the Children. This was, apparently, the first sculpture erected in a Manchester Park. Band concerts were a regular feature. I would love to have seen the park in it’s heyday as a pleasure ground I’m sure it never looked more beautiful.
The Whitworth Institute made plans for its growing art collection and in 1891 an architectural competition to rebuild Grove House as an Art Gallery, was won by J.W.Beaumont, a Manchester architect already involved in other projects including the design of the buildings in the Park. The rear part of Grove House was demolished to make way for new galleries built to the winning design between 1892 and 1898.Although the Park was very successful, the cost of its development and maintenance was inhibiting the completion of Beaumont’s scheme, and in 1904, the Park was leased to the City Council for 999 years in exchange for a small annual rent. The Institute retained Grove House and about two acres of the original 20 acre plot.
Invitation To The Opening Of The Gallery 1908.
Although Darbishire died shortly afterwards, his contribution to late 19th and early 20th century life in Manchester had earned him the freedom of the city in 1899. His obituary in the Manchester Guardian describes a man of an independent and non-conformist nature who pursued his interests and objectives with great tenacity, who donated his collections to public institutions and found ways to promote and enable many good causes.
Aerial View Of Whitworth Art Gallery And Park In 1922.
A statue of King Edward VII by John Cassidy on the east side, unveiled in 1913, commemorates the royal visit when the new Royal Infirmary was opened in 1909. The bronze statue, mounted on a square, stepped granite plinth and pedestal, is a grade II listed structure.
King Edward VII By John Cassidy Photographed In 1920 With The Art Gallery Behind , Photographed From The Entrance, Early 20th, And Today.
In the early years of the 20th century, the emphasis was on creating national collections of print and modern art. Margaret Pilkington, gallery director from the 1930s to 1950s, oversaw 339 acquisitions, with more to come when the gallery became part of the University of Manchester in 1958. And in 1967, the Whitworth was given a collection of wallpapers that stands alongside that of the V&A.
The Whitworth’s North And Central Gallery Early 1900’s.
Around this time, the university decided to overhaul the Edwardian building. The architects Bickerdike, Allen and Partners transformed the gallery, and by the late 1960s its breathtakingly bold, open-plan, Scandinavian-style spaces, along with a reputation for championing new artists of the time such as David Hockney, which led to it acquiring a new nickname, dubbing it, “Tate of the North”.
The Whitworth’s Art Gallery Darbishire Hall 1908.
The Whitworth’s Gallery Entrance Early 1900’s and Today.
The Whitworth Art Gallery In 1930.
In 1995, another extension – the RIBA award-winning Sculpture Court, was added, but even so the Whitworth quickly began to run out of space. In 2015, the Whitworth reopened after it was transformed by a £15 million capital redevelopment that doubled its exhibition spaces, restored period features and opened itself up to its surrounding park. The gallery received more than 440,000 visitors in its first year and was awarded the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year prize in 2015.The present day building expansion was created by the innovative practice, MUMA (McInnes Usher McKnight Architects). The original building, meanwhile, has been beautifully restored.
The Beautiful Interior Of The Original Whitworth Building.
The Gallery recently hosted Albrecht Dürer’s material world exhibition, the first major exhibition of the Whitworth’s outstanding Dürer collection in over half a century. Woodcuts, etchings, and engravings, from the Whitworth’s collection, are juxtaposed with a range of objects from Dürer’s time, including armour and tableware, books and scientific instruments, textiles, and exotic artefacts. We’d visited the gallery especially and weren’t disappointing it went far beyond our expectations and gave us a chance to visit the rest of The Whitworth my first visit in many years. Considering Dürer’s contribution to printing it is very relevant to a writer such as myself.
Aspects Of The Albrecht Dürer’s Material World Exhibition.
The Whitworth, Oxford Road, Manchester, Greater Manchester UK.
Lillian.K.Logan Author 