Friends Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester

The Friends Meeting House is one of the few pre-Victorian buildings remaining in central Manchester. The Quakers had established a meeting house on the site as early as 1795 with the original main entrance on South Street. Although no longer apparent, street names in the area suggest that the site chosen by the Quakers formed a distinct geographical feature.

The new meeting house was a Classical stone building. A rusticated ground floor, raised up above street level was approached by wide steps and a paved forecourt, a device used by Lane to allow the classical proportions of the building to be better appreciated. The design was based on the Temple on the Ilissus. Stewart noted that the front to Mount Street was "in its way as fine a replica of the front of the Temple on the Ilisssus as anything of similar size by Sir Robert Smirke".  However, this frontage conceals a dull-looking simple brick box. Lane's buildings were usually restrained but in this design the lack of ornament was even more pronounced. The four attached Ionic columns are unfluted and the capitals lack even the egg and dart mouldings to the echinus while simple undecorated panels are placed beneath the first floor windows. A contemporary writer commented that "its simplicity is perfectly accordant with the unostentatious character of the Society for whose use it was erected". When built it was the largest Quaker meeting house in the country.

A report by the Building Committee to a meeting held on 29 December 1831 gave details of the heating and lighting systems. Two outside lamps on stone piers lit the entrance and gas was piped from the cellars to chandeliers in each room. The principal rooms were heated by warm air carried from the stove in flues under the middle aisles and five large ventilators were provided in the roofs of the two main rooms to maintain a fresh air supply. The report also contained a description of the moveable division wall between the men's and women's meeting rooms to allow the creation of a unified space. A wooden partition, filled with woollen cloth for sound proofing, was divided horizontally, half being lowered into the floor and half retracted up into the ceiling by means of a crane in the roof void. It would appear that these moving partitions remained operational until alteration work in 1923 and the lifting gear for the upper shutter is still in place.

The original interior of the main room is now lost but an article published in 1845 described it as being "... particularly handsome, reaching indeed to elegance in its dimensions and finish. The gallery is supported by five fine fluted columns on each side, of the Grecian Doric order and the cornice is extended across the minister's gallery by way of a sounding board".

MEETING-HOUSE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. The new meeting-house in Mount-street, for the Society of Friends in this town, was opened for divine worship on Sunday week. The exterior of the building is not quite finished, but the internal accommodations are all completed. Although opened for public worship, an entire disregard to display was manifested on the occasion, in accordance with the simplicity of this Christian sect. The building, which reflects honour on the individuals by whose liberality it has been erected, has a portico entrance of fine white stone, which admirable specimen of the Ionic order. The interior of the meeting-house is divided by a sliding partition into two compartments, for the convenience of the society in the exercise of their discipline. Attached to the building are convenient rooms for the purposes of a library, committee-meetings, &c. The design for the building was furnished by Mr. Lane, to whose taste it does credit, and the brick-work was contracted for by Mr David Bellhouse, jun., who has executed it in a superior manner. The meeting-house, when completed, will be another architectural ornament to this town. [Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Saturday 19 June 1830]

Reference           Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Saturday 19 June 1830
Reference          Plate in Lancashire Illustrated inscribed 'R. Lane Architect'.