Schorlemmer Laboratory, Owens College, Burlington Street, Manchester

Owens College, Manchester, has had a further addition made to its already extensive range of buildings by the erection of an organic laboratory in memory of the late Professor Schorlemmer. The new laboratory, designed by Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, R.A., measures 60 ft. by 30 ft. and some 30 ft. in height, and will accommodate a professor, two demonstrators, and thirty-six students. There is a lower laboratory designed for forty-five students, together with a reagent room. The cost has been about £4,800. [British Architect 10 May 1895 page 324]

THE OWENS COLLEGE. OPENING OF THE SCHORLEMMER LABORATORY - An interesting ceremony took place at the Owens College yesterday afternoon, when Dr Ludwig Mond formally opened the Schorlemmer Laboratory for Organic Chemistry, together with a large laboratory for medical students and room fur the preparation and storage of reagents. Upon the death of Professor Schorlemmer his friends and pupils, under the lead of Sir H. E. Roscoe, M.P., late professor of chemistry at the College, took steps with a view to fittingly commemorate his services to the College and to the advancement of organic chemistry. It was generally felt that the best memorial would be the erection of a laboratory for organic chemistry, to be called after his name, and a subscription list was accordingly opened. Tho appeal, which was generously headed by Dr. Mond, was so well responded to, both in this country and in Germany, that in a short time a sum of £2,500 was subscribed. Meantime the Council of the College had to take into serious consideration the rapid growth of the chemical department. Originally designed for 100 students, the Laboratories had for several years been overcrowded, and the private rooms built for research work had to be given up for the general instruction of the students. The increase in the number of the students in the chemical laboratories will be seen in the fact that while in the session of 1890-1 they numbered 120, there were entered up to the present, month 205. In view of this steady increase in numbers, the Council became convinced of the necessity of extending the chemical department. They accordingly accepted the fund raised by the Schorlemmer Memorial Committee, and instructed Mr. Alfred Waterhouse to prepare plans for a Schorlemmer Organic Laboratory, and for a new laboratory for elementary students, on a plot of land adjoining the present laboratories acquired by the College for the purpose of their extension. The Schorlemmer Laboratory, designed by Mr. Waterhouse, is at end of the main corridor in the old chemical building measures 60 feet by 30 feet, and has an arched roof 30 feet high. The laboratory is designed to accommodate a professor, two demonstrators, and 36 students. It is fitted in the most complete manner with every requisite for the important work, which is to be carried on within it, and in some particulars is arranged after the plan of the Munich organic laboratories. The lower laboratory is designed for 45 students. The fittings are similar to those in the old laboratories designed by Sir Henry Roscoe. The re-agent-room, 23 feet by 20 feet, communicates by a flight of steps with Burlington-street. The total cost, of the new building is £4,800. [Manchester Guardian 4 May 1895 page 9]

The Schorlemmer Laboratory, also designed by Alfred Waterhouse, was set back from Burlington Street and attached to the west side of the Chemical Laboratories. It was funded by public subscription and was built as a memorial laboratory to Carl Schorlemmer (1834-1892), the first professor of organic chemistry in England. The building opened in May 1895. Schorlemmer had initially been employed as Roscoe's private assistant in 1859, having previously studied in Germany and attended lectures by Bunsen, which had resulted in his adopting chemistry as a profession. He was subsequently appointed lab assistant, lecturer, and then professor in 1874. Schorlemmer's work on hydrocarbons resulted in a hypothesis which became one of the fundamental concepts of modern organic structural theory. He also worked on aniline dyes. He was friends with Friedrich Engels and also knew Karl Marx, whose views he shared, using his scientific ideas in his political philosophy. Schorlemmer's influence in Communist ideologies (though he was never a practising communist) was acknowledged in the Soviet Union and much of eastern Europe until the end of the 1980s. [Listing Text]

Reference    British Architect 10 May 1895 page 324
Reference    Manchester Guardian 4 May 1895 page 9