RESOURCE: The Biographical Dictionary of Greater Manchester Architects, 1800-1940

Resource: The Biographical Dictionary of Greater Manchester Architects, 1800-1940

Created under the auspices of the Manchester Group of the Victorian Society to mark its jubilee, Manchestr Victorian Architects (DGMA) ia a database providing biographical information and details of commissions awarded for all architects known to have been born, trained, lived, or worked in Greater Manchester between 1800 and 1940. The Biographical Dictionary of Greater Manchester Architects, 1800-1940 is now live on-line, at www.manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk providing details of over 1,000 architects, 400 partnerships and 10,000 buildings.

The title “Biographical Dictionary” is important as it is essentially a text-based resource dealing with architects known to have been born, trained, lived or worked in Greater Manchester between 1800 and 1940.  The resource is searchable by name or location of architect, practice, or building. Architects based in the Greater Manchester area have their known works catalogued as fully as possible. Details of architects based elsewhere in the United Kingdom are included insofar as their commissions relate to the Greater Manchester area. Likewise, the works of architects who were born or trained in Manchester but practised elsewhere in the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, and the USA are less comprehensively catalogued.

Information is mainly based on contemporary newspaper reports and, from 1843, The Builder. Much detail has then been cross-referenced to civil records of Births, Marriages, Deaths and Census Returns.

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