Didsbury School of Education
The Didsbury College of Education, Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, Manchester, England, is a campus of Manchester Metropolitan University. Originally a "handsome house of circa 1785",[1] the building was massively expanded for use as a Wesleyan training college in the 19th century and then became a school of education.[1] Didsbury College opened as a Wesleyan Methodist college in 1843 but after the Methodist reunion of 1932 it was not the only Methodist college of its type in Manchester; during World War II the site was used as a military hospital and after the war the church closed it and sold the site.[2] The college was designated a Grade II* listed building on 25 February 1952.[3]
The original brick house can still be seen from the courtyard at the back of the college. The Wesleyans encased the building in a substantial Grecian frame, the architect being Richard Lane. The college comprises eleven bays. The Grecian order is from the Tower of the Winds and can also be seen at 84 Plymouth Grove,[1] the home of Elizabeth Gaskell, which is broadly contemporaneous. The building has "sandstone ashlar facades, with rear and courtyard walls of red brick in Flemish bond with sandstone dressings".[3]
The interior contains a fine "entrance hall with [a] screen of reeded columns [and an] elliptical open-well staircase with wrought-iron balustrade".[3]
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