University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology

The foundation of UMIST can be traced to 1824 during the Industrial Revolution when a group of Manchester businessmen and industrialists met in a public house, the Bridgewater Arms, to establish the Mechanics' Institute in Manchester, where artisans could learn basic science, particularly mechanics and chemistry.^[2] Hundreds of such institutions were founded in towns and cities throughout the country and while many of the fine Victorian buildings built to house them remain, Manchester's alone survived as an independent institution serving some of its original educational aims throughout the 20th century.^[3]


The meeting, convened by George William Wood on 7 April 1824,^[2][3][4] was attended by prominent members of the science and engineering community, including:


A committee was elected to realise the planned institution, including Wood, Fairbairn, Heywood, Roberts and John Davies and the institute opened in 1825 with Heywood as chairman.^[2]


However, the institute's intentions were paternal and no democratic control by its students was intended. In 1829, radical Rowland Detrosier led a breakaway group to form the New Mechanics' Institution in Poole Street, a move that had a serious effect on the recruitment and finances of the original institute. Subscriptions and memberships in 1830 and 1831 were an all-time low and only the gradual opening of the board up to election by the members rectified the situation. Detrosier's break away ultimately rejoined the institute.^[2]


By 1840, the institute was established with 1,000 subscribers and a library of some 5,500 books. However, the increased popularity had been somewhat at the cost of science education as more and more lectures on non-scientific subjects were occupying its programmes.^[2]


The institute occupied a building on Cooper Street (near the present St Peter's Square) and later moved to its present site on David Street (later renamed Princess Street). This still stands and is a Grade II* listed building.

The Tech (1883–1917)[edit]

In 1883 secretary of the institution John Henry Reynolds reorganised the institution as a technical school using the schemes and examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute. A new building was begun in 1895 and opened by the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour in October 1902.^[6] On the site previously had been cheap crowded inner-city housing occupied by Irish immigrants.^[7]


This is the western end of the Sackville Street Building, until 2005 known as the UMIST Main Building, pictured above, a Grade II listed building by Spalding and Cross with Renaissance motifs of Burmantofts terracotta.^[8] By this time the institution was called the Manchester Municipal School of Technology or fondly known as the Tech.^[9] As a project of the Manchester City Council it includes in the decoration many portrayals of the city's coat of arms.


As befits its roots in the early chemical industry of the region the Tech had pioneered chemical engineering as an academic subject in Britain, indeed the lectures by George E. Davis in 1888 were highly influential in defining the discipline. Similarly in the 1920s it pioneered academic training in management, with the formation of a Department of Industrial Administration funded by an endowment from asbestos magnate Sir Samuel Turner.^[10]


In 1905, the Tech become the Faculty of Technology of the Victoria University of Manchester, allowing the award of BSc and MSc degrees. The principal of the School of Technology was now also dean of the faculty and an ex officio member of the university's senate.^[11]


After the recent merger with Victoria University of Manchester the UMIST Main Building was renamed as the Sackville St. Building.

Alumni groups[edit]

Until the late 1980s, UMIST's official alumni organisation was called the Manchester Technology Association, a name which was a relic of UMIST's past incarnation as 'The Tech'. The organisation's name was then updated to become the UMIST Association. It published a glossy magazine for UMIST graduates called Mainstream.


In 2004, at the time of the university merger, the UMIST Association also merged with its equivalent organisation at the Victoria University of Manchester. This step was taken after minimal consultation with its membership. From that point on, there was no official association specifically for past UMIST students or staff. However, the growth of social networking websites has allowed the development of a number of unofficial UMIST alumni groups in cyberspace, particularly on Facebook. The UMIST alumni group on LinkedIn ^[24] has over 6,500 members and has a sub-group for each of UMIST's academic departments.

UMIST moved to its present location just south of Manchester city centre at the end of the 19th century. The Main Building^[8] (now called the Sackville Street Building) was purpose-built between 1895 and 1902 by Spalding and Cross. Starting in 1927, plans were drawn up by the architects Bradshaw Gass & Hope for an extension which would approximately double the size of the original building. However, construction was delayed by the war and other factors, so that the extension was not fully completed until 1957.


In the 1960s the institution expanded rapidly to the south, growing from a single large building to an entire campus. Around a dozen modern buildings were constructed on the other side of the railway viaduct from the Main Building. The new edifices were designed by leading Manchester architects and were all built out of concrete. They included the George Begg Building (Mechanical Engineering), the Maths and Social Sciences Tower, the Faraday Building, the Renold Building, and the Barnes Wallis Building, the last two of which faced each other across a bowling green, which later became a landscaped garden.