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The Hollings Building, formerly Hollings College, part of Manchester Metropolitan University until 2013, and originally the Domestic and Trades College, was designed by the Manchester City architect L. C. Howitt
Manchester City Council’s chief architect from 1946 until his retirement in 1961. (1896–1964). It was completed in 1960, and became known as the Toast Rack owing to its distinctive form.[1][2]
The origins of the Domestic and Trades College lay in the Central Girls and Women’s Institute, established in 1901 and absorbed by the Manchester Metropolitan University in 1992. The building is named after the college’s first Principle, Miss Elsie Hollings.[2]
The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner has described the building as “pop architecture, as engaging now as it was then”.[3] It was designated a Grade II listed building
Structure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. in 1998, described as a “distinctive and memorable building which demonstrates this architect’s love of structural gymnastics in a dramatic way”.[1][2]
Architecture
The building’s structure consists of a concrete frame with a brick infill on the bottom half of each storey. It is seven storeys high, and its hyperbolic paraboloid frame, consisting of twenty-three reinforced concrete arches, continues on the exterior, hence the toast rack comparison. Although the building’s unorthodox form is playful, its tapering shape also helps to divide space into varying sizes for larger and smaller classes. A semi-circular restaurant block attached to the west, popularly known as the poached egg, was originally designed to serve meals made by students at the college to the public.[2][4]
The workshop block to the east originally housed the tailoring department, isolated from the main building owing to the noise and vibration caused by the sewing machines.[2]
Recent history
Manchester Metropolitan University vacated the Hollings Building in 2013,[2] and the following year it was bought by Estrela Properties for £5 million. In 2023 Estrela put the estate up for sale again, with planning consent for a mixed-use scheme comprising 211 residential units and 7,582 square feet (704 m2) of commercial space.[5]
