The Institute, Didsbury

This building was situated on the north side of Elm Grove in Didsbury and accommodated a Literary Institute and a Lads’ Club. The literary side was run by Edith Simon, the wife of the engineer Henry Gustav Simon. In 1908, Didsbury’s first Free Library was set up here, where it continued to function until the opening of the present library building in 1915. By the mid-1930s, it had been replaced by a picture house, although there is still a registered charity called the “Didsbury Institute and Lads Club And Emily Simon Charity”. No images of the building have been found. – Richard Fletcher

Reference     Works by Joseph Swarbrick listed in his FRIBA nomination paper, 11 February 1903