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      Thomas Worthington

(1826-1909)
Thomas Worthington was the architect and designer of Manchester's Albert Memorial which dominates the square in front of the Town Hall. He was born in The Crescent in Salford, the son of an affluent local businessman. A talented young man, he worked for the architects Bowman and Crowther from the age of 14, and had already by the age of 18 won a Society of Arts Gold Medal for one of his designs. He had already contributed many drawings to the book "The Churches of the Middle Ages".
In 1845, at the age of 19, he was given his first complete project, and he designed "Broomfield", a large house in Alderley Edge, Cheshire. Later he married the daughter of this house, and was to live there himself from 1869 until he died in 1909. He worked with the notable Sir William Tite, accompanying him on a tour of Italy to see and draw some of its architectural splendours. Shortly after arriving back in England, he set up his own small company in Manchester, which was highly successful and received many large and important commissions. A strong moral purist and socialist, Worthington attended the Unitarian church and was to be associated with other local social reformers like Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell, the novelist.
Whenever possible, he sought to secure "social" commissions, and wrote a book "Dwellings of the Poor" in 1857. In this connection he designed the Manchester & Salford Baths and Laundries in 1857, and the Chorlton Union Hospital in 1865 ( later to become part of Withington Hospital). His pioneering hospital design won the praise of no less a figure than Florence Nightingale. In 1861, on the death of Prince Albert, was perceived as a great national tragedy, and Memorial Funds to build monuments to his memory sprang up all over Britain. Manchester was no exception. The Mayor donated a statue of Prince Albert to the city, and in 1862 Worthington was commissioned to design a suitable place in which to stand it. His design was the first in Britain, and its better known London counterpart designed 15 months later by Sir George Gilbert Scott borrowed a great deal from Worthington's style and concept. The monument is, naturally, "Gothic", a style in which Worthington excelled; it takes the form of a medieval canopy   (or "ciborium"), which is decorated with representations of Art, Science, Commerce and Agriculture, in keeping with Prince Albert's wide interests, as well as portrait heads and heraldic motifs and finials.

 

Worthington's
Albert Memorial in
Albert Square

As yet, the present Town Hall was to built - it was to be erected 15 years later - and Worthington's monument dominated Albert square. Worthington had many other architectural successes in Manchester. The City Police & Sessions Court, built in Minshull Street in the city centre in 1868 is, in many ways, one of his greatest planning achievements. On a more modest scale, he also designed many Unitarian chapels on the outskirts of the city. "The Towers", in Didsbury was a collaborative effort between him and his partner John Elgood.

 

Manchester projects

• Overseers and Churchwardens Office, 46 Fountain Street (1852-1859)

• Greengate Baths, Collier Street (1856)

• the Albert Memorial (1862-1867) and Albert Memorial Hall (later turned into a public house, the 'Square Albert'), Albert Square (1863-1866)

• City Police and Sessions Court (1867-1873).

• Chorlton Union Workhouse, Withington Hospital (1865)

• Prestwich Union Infirmary, Crumpsall Hospital (1866-1870)

• Crown Court, Minshull Street (1867-1873)

• The Towers, Didsbury (1868-1872) – home to Manchester industrialist Daniel Adamson from 1874, this building was later (1920) used by the British Cotton Industry Research Association, later called the 'Shirley Institute'

• Brookfield Unitarian Church, Gorton (1870)

• Monton Green Unitarian Church (1875)

• Flowery Field Church, Newton Street, Hyde (1876-1878)

• Nicholls' Hospital School, Ardwick, later Ellen Wilkinson School (1879-1880)

• Dovecote, Sale Old Hall (1880)

• Peacock Mausoleum, Gorton (1890)

• Diamond Jubilee Memorial Fountain, Albert Square 1896-1897)

• Dunham Road Unitarian Chapel, Altrincham

 

 Other projects

• Unitarian Chapel, Liverpool

• Garlands Hospital, Carlisle (originally the Cumberland and Westmorland Lunatic Asylum, 1862)

• Wigan Infirmary (1870)

• Sutton Oaks (a country house), London Road, Macclesfield, Cheshire (1875)

• Manchester College, Oxford (1889-1893)

• Royal Bath Hospital, Harrogate

• Royal Infirmary, Halifax

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