[Illustration: Map of Manchester and Environs.]
Of the Roman Catholic churches that of the Holy Name, which belongs to the Jesuits, is remarkable for its costly decoration. The Greek Church and most of the Nonconformist bodies have places of worship. There are twelve Jewish synagogues. The meeting-house of the Society of Friends is said to be the largest of the kind in the kingdom and will seat 1200 persons.
_Public Buildings._--The Royal Infirmary, founded in 1752, having become inadequate for its purposes, a new building has been erected on the south side of the city near the university, from designs by Edwin T. Hall and John Brooke; it was opened in 1909 by king Edward VII. The central site in Piccadilly thus became available for other purposes, and the corporation gave instructions for plans to be made for a new library and art gallery. The art gallery already existing in 1909 was founded as the Royal Institution, but in 1882 passed under the control of the city council. The building was designed by Sir Charles Barry. The collection contains some fine paintings by Etty, Millais, Leighton and other artists. The sculpture includes casts of the Elgin marbles and a statue of Dr John Dalton by Chantrey. The most striking of the public buildings is the town hall, probably the largest municipal building in the country, but no longer entirely adequate to the increasing business of the city council. It was completed in 1877 from designs by Alfred Waterhouse, who selected as the style of architecture a form of Gothic, but treated it very freely as purposes of utility required. The edifice covers 8000 sq. yds., and includes more than two hundred and fifty rooms. The building consists of continuous lines of corridors surrounding a central courtyard and connected by bridges. The principal tower is 286 ft. high to the top of the ball, and affords a view which extends over a large part of south Lancashire and Cheshire and is bounded only by the hills of Derbyshire. The tower contains a remarkable peal of bells by Taylor of Loughborough, forming an almost perfect chromatic scale of twenty-one bells; each bell has on it a line from canto 105 of Tennyson's _In Memoriam_. The great hall is 100 ft. long and 50 ft. wide, and contains a magnificent organ built by Cavaillé-Coll of Paris. The twelve panels of this room are filled with paintings by Ford Madox Brown, illustrating the history and progress of the city. The royal exchange is a fine specimen of Italian architecture and was erected in 1869; the great meeting-hall is one of the largest rooms in England, the ceiling having a clear area, without supports, of 120 ft. in width. The exchange is seen at its best on market days (Tuesday and Friday). The assize courts were built in 1864 from designs by Waterhouse. The style is a mixture of Early English and Decorative, and a large amount of decorative art has been expended on the building. The branch Bank of England is a Doric building designed by C. R. Cockerell. There are separate town-halls for the townships of Ardwick, Chorlton, Hulme, Cheetham, Broughton and Pendleton. The Free Trade hall is a fine structure in the Lombardo-Venetian style, and its great hall will accommodate about five thousand people. It is used for public meetings, concerts, &c., and was built by Edward Walters. The Athenaeum, designed by Barry, was founded by Richard Cobden and others associated with him for "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge." The institution has, perhaps, not developed exactly on the lines contemplated by its promoters, but it has been very useful. The advantages enjoyed by members of social clubs, with the addition of facilities for educational classes and the use of an excellent news-room and a well-selected library, are offered in return for a payment which does not amount to a penny a day. The mechanics' institution has developed into the school of Technology, which now forms a part of the university. The Portico is a good specimen of the older proprietary libraries and newsrooms. It dates from 1806, and has a library. The Memorial Hall was built to commemorate the memory of the ejected ministers of 1662; it is used for meetings, scientific, educational, musical and religious. The Whitworth Institute is governed by a corporate body originating from the liberal bequests of Sir Joseph Whitworth. The Institute contains a valuable collection of works of art and stands in the centre of a woodland park. In the park, which has been transferred to the corporation, is a sculpture group of "Christ and the Children," executed by George Tinworth from the designs of R. D. Darbishire, by whom it was presented.