Withington
Public Hall and Institute - origins
An
unusual small building on the north side of Burton Road,
between the White Lion and the Orion, is Withington Public
Hall and Institute. It has the date of 1861 in the brickwork
and was a gift of
William
Tatton, 1st Baron Egerton of Tatton (1806-1883) to the
people of Withington. The Hall has functioned as a members'
club since 1906 [1], and in the 1990s it had a membership of
some 400. It was originally a men-only club, but moved to
admit women in 2017. It closed in early 2019. It is now
(2020) under new ownership and new management and is due to
open as a resource for the community.
See
the Manchester
Evening News article.
History
Originally,
in the main room of the building, there used to be a large
fire in the winter for members and visitors. Upstairs,
there was an early lending library for
Withington (1861-1911), a forerunner of the present
Withington Library. Fletcher
Moss, of the Old Parsonage, Didsbury, campaigned for a
library for Withington during his time as alderman. The
following quote from Fletcher Moss's Fifty
Years Public Work in Didsbury refers
to the library in Withington Public Hall:
"In 1895 and several succeeding years, I moved a resolution for the adoption of the Public Libraries Act and was always sat upon by the conservative majority. Mr Joe Lunn (Conservative builder) of Withington told us that there was a library in Withington in an upper room somewhere behind the White Lion and all the folk that ever went into it were a few women a week. What was the good of having another library?"
In
2017, one of the Civic Society members had the opportunity
to view the interior as well as an extensive historical
archives of documents, committee minutes, photographs,
newspaper articles, etc. Here are some photographs of
the building and example documents from the archives,
including an indenture (1882) between Baron Egerton of
Tatton and others, mentioning the Public Library, Reading
Room and Literary Institution in the Public Hall.
[1] A
history of Withingon. Kenneth
Whittaker, (1957, Rev. Ed. 1969). E.J. Morten Publishers.
Click
images to enlarge.
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