George Noel Hill

Described by Manchester City News in 1938 as "young, tall and bespectacled," George Noel Hill was only the second City Architect of Manchester, succeeding Henry Price on his retirement in August 1932. He was born in Liverpool and was educated at the King William’s College in the Isle of Man, from where he went to the Liverpool University School of Architecture. Between 1912 and 1926 he held posts with three private firms in Liverpool and served in the First World War from 1914 to 1919. In 1926 he became senior assistant in the City Architect’s Department at Liverpool, and two years later he moved to Leicester as chief architectural assistant to the Leicester Corporation Surveyor’s Department, a position which he held until 1932 when he was appointed City Architect of Manchester. While in Leicester he designed the new City Police Headquarters and additions to the Town Hall which included a new Council Chamber and a new suite for the Lord Mayor. As Manchester City Architect he designed a new police headquarters in Bootle Street and was involved with the development of Wythenshawe, and the scheme for a new Central Reference Library and Town Hall Extension (architect Vincent Harris).  In June 1945 he was appointed to the post of Lancashire County Architect, retiring in 1958.

Reference    Manchester City News 19 March 1932 Page 6 – appointment as City architect
Reference    Manchester Guardian 9 June 1945 page 6 – appointed Lancashire county architect
Reference    Manchester Guardian 7 November 1958 page 18 - retirement
Obituary      RIBA Journal  vol. 93, no. 2, 1986 Feb., p. 89.