Welcome to this digital tour game!

The tour starts outside the John Rylands University Library on Deansgate.

Not to lost! This maps shows the tour points in the city.

John Rylands Library

This is the John Rylands Deansgate Library!

The building was founded by Mrs. Enriqueta Augustina Rylands in memory of her late husband, John Rylands, an English entrepreneur and philanthropist who owned the largest textile manufacturing concern in the United Kingdom. Rylands was Manchester’s first multi-millionaire! First opened in 1900, the building was extended in 1912. Also in 1912, the architect who designed the John Rylands Library Deansgate was awarded a Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects.


Name that architect!

Museum of Science and Industry. MOSI

In this museum there is a very special automobile that was not only built in Manchester in 1912, but was also Britain’s best selling car between 1912 and 1923.
 
Check out the Air and Space Hall – can you find that car?


FOR BONUS POINTS... Alan Turing was born on June 23rd, 1912. Can you find and tweet a photo that evidences Turing’s influence to computer science?

Building at King Street

Can you discover the secrets behind the bank? 

Tweet the name of one of the previous buildings that stood here. 

FOR BONUS POINT! Check out the Historypin image and tweet a picture of another building in the city that mimics this facade.

Grey Horse Pub

Welcome to the Grey Horse Inn, Manchester’s second smallest pub! 

Tweet me this: Which Brewery was incorporated in December 1912?

Piccadilly Gardens

Although now a bustling plaza, Piccadilly gardens used to be a little more formal. In 1912 buildings here were converted into the central library after its previous home was demolished.

Can you figure out what was located here until 1912?

Bridgewater House

This is Bridgewater House. In 1912, it was designed as a shipping warehouse by architect Harry S. Fairhurst.  The building was actually named for a very important individual, whose image is immortalized in the medallion above the door. 

Can you find out what this man is famous for?

FOR BONUS POINTS! Tweet a picture of another building designed by Harry S. Fairhurst.

Manchester Opera House

The Manchester Opera House on Quay Street opened on Boxing Day, 1912. It was originally called the New Theatre and became the Queen’s Theatre in 1915. It didn’t become the Opera House until 1920. The Theatre was the main touring house until 1979. Due to the hierarchal nature of Edwardian society, the theatre was built with a separate side entrance for the “poor”. During the Second World War, the building survived the heavy bombing remarkably unscathed.

What is Opera House’s sister building in Manchester?

The Refuge Assurance Building

This is the Refuge Assurance Building, now the Palace Hotel. In 1912, it was the head office of the Refuge Assurance Company Ltd, a life insurance and pensions company that serviced all of England. Although the majority of the building was built in 1890s, the iconic clock tower was added in 1912. Until only a few years ago, the clock had to be wound manually each day. 

Can you find out what the original name of this important Mancunian company?

The Royal Exchange

Welcome to the Royal Exchange building! 

It was here, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that Mancunian sellers and buyers met to exchange commodities, goods, and services. Between 1914 and 1931 it was the largest trading room in England! The cotton trade reached its peak in 1912, and at one point the Exchange was even named after it! Following the First World War, the high cost of British cotton, and the increase in production elsewhere in the world, led to a slow decline of the British cotton industry. 

Just how much cotton was manufactured and sold from Manchester in 1912?

Take a guess! 

 

A. 600 million square yards (501.676 km²)

B. 3 billion square yards (3,508 km²)

C. 8 billion square yards (6,700 km²)

 

Free Trade Hall

The Free Trade Hall has seen a lot of demonstrations. One hundred years ago, one of the hottest topics was the women’s suffrage movement, which actually had its beginning in demonstrations at the Free Trade Hall.

The Women’s Social and Political Union was formed by women members of the Independent Labour Party on 10 October 1903 to campaign for women’s suffrage. Two years later the organisation hit the headlines when two of its leading members were arrested after disrupting a meeting in the Free Trade Hall. In 1912, a co-founder of the movement fled to France to avoid arrest.

Check historypin for a clue and tweet the name of this suffragette.