Platt Hall has multiple histories that have all left their trace on the building in different ways. How should we respond to this when planning the Hall's future use?
In 2016 Manchester Art Gallery commissioned a report on the historical and architectural significance of the Hall, to inform thinking on its care, refurbishment and future use. Here is a little of what we know. |
Platt Hall is an excellent example of a small mid-eighteenth century mansion built in the English Palladian manner by the craftsman-architect Timothy Lightoler." |
The building of Platt Hall, 1763Platt Hall was built for Manchester textile merchant John Lees and his wife Deborah Worsley. Initial designs for the house were produced by the London architect William Jupp in 1760. Further designs were produced by John Carr of York in 1761. In the event, Platt Hall was built around 1763 to amended designs by Lancashire architect Timothy Lightoler. The cost was approximately £10,000.
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The building has a symmetrical plan, with a central block flanked by two pavilions. The central block was designed - in accordance with fashion - with the most important rooms on the first floor. The Dining Room was at the front in the centre, flanked by the Drawing Room to the east and Common Parlour to the west.
Most of the bedrooms were on the second floor, with the exception of the first floor Alcove Bedchamber. The designs for this room show ornate plasterwork and wall painting, none of which now survive.
The ground floor housed the servants' rooms, with a separate servants' staircase on the west side..
The two side pavilions housed the services, with kitchen, brewhouse, scullery, pantry and larder in the west pavilion, and stables and coach house to the east.
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Conversion to an art gallery, 1925
By 1925, the Worsley family had long since departed. The Hall had been sold in 1907 and was used as a tea room for the new Platt Fields Park and as temporary housing during the First World War. In 1925, management of the building passed from the Parks Committee to the Art Galleries Committee, and a full survey was commissioned in preparation for turning the building into an art gallery.
The 1925 plan records how the last residents of Platt Hall used the different rooms and how this had changed since the 1760s. The ground floor servants' rooms were now used by the resident family as the dining room, morning room and a billiard room, while the first floor master bedroom had become a library.
For conversion into an art gallery, the main house was kept more or less intact, with domestic rooms turned into display areas. Major changes, however, were made to the two pavilions. The upper floors and internal walls were removed and skylights added, to create two dramatic top-lit galleries showing a range of paintings from Manchester Art Gallery's collections.
War use, 1939-45
Further changes were made to the building in 1941, when the Chief Constable of Manchester Police requested the Hall as a temporary divisional headquarters. In the midst of World War II, he was keen to avoid the risk of disruption to city policing if city centre headquarters were to suffer bomb damage. A plan of the alterations carried out to turn the Hall into a functioning police station still survives in the Hall's archives.
The pavilion galleries were dismantled, the walls stripped and the skylights blacked out. The front entrance and windows to the main house were blocked off with 12-foot walls to prevent bomb damage (in red on the plan) and a new public entrance created in the link room between the West Pavilion and main house.
The Gallery of Costume, 1947-2017
The Hall was returned to the Art Galleries Committee in 1945, at the same time as the major acquisition of Drs Cecil Willett Cunnington and Phyllis Cunnington’s extensive collection of historic dress. It was decided to create a dedicated Gallery of Costume at Platt Hall to house the collection.
Upper floors were reinstated in the pavilions to provide extra storage space, and the ground and first floor rooms had their windows screened and full height display cases installed to create a suite of costume galleries. Only the Dining Room remained unchanged, its Georgian interior preserved to remind visitors of the building's earlier history as a domestic house.
The Gallery of English Costume, the first museum in the world dedicated to the history of dress, opened in 1947, with displays drawn from a collection of 4,000 articles of clothing and textiles. Over the following decades the collection grew to over 24,000 items, ranging from high fashion to everyday dress. In 1995 it was renamed The Gallery of Costume, in recognition of the collection's global cross-cultural reach. But by 2017, it had become apparent that the building was no longer fit for purpose. Lack of space, urgently needed repairs to the historic building, and a moth infestation resulted in the necessary closure of the Gallery of Costume after 70 years at the forefront of the study of dress history.
Upper floors were reinstated in the pavilions to provide extra storage space, and the ground and first floor rooms had their windows screened and full height display cases installed to create a suite of costume galleries. Only the Dining Room remained unchanged, its Georgian interior preserved to remind visitors of the building's earlier history as a domestic house.
The Gallery of English Costume, the first museum in the world dedicated to the history of dress, opened in 1947, with displays drawn from a collection of 4,000 articles of clothing and textiles. Over the following decades the collection grew to over 24,000 items, ranging from high fashion to everyday dress. In 1995 it was renamed The Gallery of Costume, in recognition of the collection's global cross-cultural reach. But by 2017, it had become apparent that the building was no longer fit for purpose. Lack of space, urgently needed repairs to the historic building, and a moth infestation resulted in the necessary closure of the Gallery of Costume after 70 years at the forefront of the study of dress history.
And now?
In 2017 the Hall entered its next phase of life. While the dress collection is prepared for relocation to safer and more accessible housing, a major programme of renovation has enabled essential repairs to the building and the creation of an enclosed outdoor area. Display cases have been removed, opening up rooms and windows for the first time in 70 years, and revealing a sense of the building as a domestic house once more. We are working with local residents and communities to plan what happens next to ensure the future of this historic local landmark is as fascinating as its past.