The site of Manchester’s first power station has reopened as offices in the heart of the city centre — and used mid-century design to inspire it.
Linley House, a ten-storey 1960s building on Dickinson Street, off Portland Street, has been refurbished by architects MoreySmith.
Originally, the site was home to Manchester’s first power station, designed by Dr John Hopkinson. Dr Hopkinson opened the plant in 1893 to provide electricity for the surrounding half-mile-squared.
Within two years of its opening, electricity demand had surged across the city — so the site powered ‘to a wider suburban area, stretching east and south of the city centre, as far as Failsworth, Audenshaw, Heaton Norris and Withington’, according to Jan Hick, Archives Manager at the Science and Industry Museum. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features. Join our FREE Manchester City Centre WhatsApp group by clicking here Eventually, Dr Hopkinson’s plant became obsolete, so it was demolished in the middle of the 20th century.
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