The prologues are over. It is a question, now, Of final belief. So, say that final belief Must be in a fiction. It is time to choose. Wallace Stevens – Asides on the Oboe (1940) Elsie Hollings (foreground, in polka dots) At the end of our exploration, and in the final post of our creative residency, it … Continue reading
The launch of a new publication from Manchester Modernist Society about Manchester’s landmark building – the Toastrack. The Toastrack, also known as the Domestic & Trades College, or the Hollings Faculty of Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), now stands empty. As MMU prepared to relocate to the city centre, Manchester Modernist Society spent a year at … Continue reading
John Owen contacted Manchester Modernist Society in response to an article featured in the Manchester Evening News (Help cast light on the riddle of the missing Toastrack sculpture, 7/11/13 – not currently available online) covering the ongoing search for Hubert Dalwood’s lost Icon. Icon (1958) I worked at the Toastrack as Deputy Faculty Secretary (senior … Continue reading
In 1996, Manchester-based architects MBLA transformed the ‘Poached Egg’ from assembly hall to library. This is how it happened… Further reading: Down The Aisles, Along The Titles Continue reading
All photographs provided by Brian Ellwood. Continue reading
In early 2013, Manchester Modernist Society discovered a commemorative brochure produced for the official opening ceremony of the Domestic and Trades College, performed by Princess Margaret on March 8th 1962. The brochure outlined the college’s history, departments and staff, and offered some information on the building’s unique structure and design. Contained within was a photograph, … Continue reading
“For too long, information has been stagnant in the corridors of our department. This newsletter aims to change all that.” So began the first edition of Clothesline, an in-house newsletter produced for staff and students of the Toastrack’s Clothing Design Technology department. Issue 1, from November 1989, includes a struggle with Hong Kong bureaucracy, an … Continue reading
The college can claim not only sound film projections, a language laboratory and resources centre facilities, but a television studio of its own where students can make, as well as watch, programmes on the college premises and on ‘location’. The CCTV unit provides interest, entertainment, instruction and training in a variety of ways and is … Continue reading
To accompany The Process Revealed, a series of exceptional photographs documenting the Toastrack’s construction from its very beginning to near-completion. All images courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council. Site clearance in preparation for the Toastrack – Birchfields, previously featured in Look Outside, can be seen in the background. Note Leonard C. Howitt, City Architect, featured on … Continue reading
Toastrack 