The Owens College, Manchester

Abstract

IT is now upwards of twenty-two years since this college was opened—for the foundation of which in Manchester, John Owens, a merchant of that city, left 100,000l.—in a house that belonged to Mr. Cobden, in Quay Street, which was purchased and presented to the trustees by Mr. John Faulkner, the first chairman. The number of students during the first session was 64, which went on increasing year by year, until last session the day, students numbered 327, and the evening students 513. A few years ago it was felt that the original house had become much too small, and that a new building ought to be erected adequate to the increased needs of the College. Accordingly, in 1866, a circular was prepared, setting forth the disadvantages of the then institution, and propounding an extension scheme which should include the additions to the College of a school of Engineering, a Medical School, and the Natural History Museum, which the Council of the Natural History Society recommended should be deposited in Owens College, “if it should appear that the scheme for enlargement was likely to be successfully carried out within a reasonable period.” The trustees therefore appealed for funds which would enable them to lay the foundations of an institution which would virtually be the University of South Lancashire, and of the neighbouring parts of Cheshire and Yorkshire.