Faraday Building
The Faraday Building's architect was Harry Fairhurst, of the long-established Manchester firm of H.S. Fairhust & Son. It was constructed in 1967 by J. Gerrard & Sons. The building housed, until mid-to-late 2007, part of the University of Manchester School of Chemistry. The School of Chemistry is now located mainly at the Chemistry Building on Brunswick Street, however a significant number of former Faraday-based academics researching biologically related chemistry are now based in the nearby Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre. Appropriately, given its chemistry roots, the building houses a mural called The Alchemist's Elements, by Hans Tisdall. As part of the closure of the North Campus, the building was closed in 2015, and partially demolished in 2016.
The Faraday building had been another Manchester one I had been trying on and off for the last couple years - a clearly abandoned educational tower that didn't seem to have had much attention over the years, despite it's visibility from everywhere in South Manchester. However, despite the graffiti around it's lower walls and some movement of furniture in the backyard noticed on the many, many checks over the big Palisade round the back, it always remained tight as a bugger. Security of the University do make regular checks around the building at night, and some of their cameras still work, meaning they would come and sniff you out if your nosy was a bit too obvious, perhaps knowledgeable of some of the old reports of this building and others on the forum. Many things were tried between early 2021 and late 2022 with @DustySensorPhotography , @jtza and solo on far too many occasions, the most extravagant probably being climbing up the building's huge external lift shaft to the roof, but that never occurred. Finally, in late November, after a little night time visit to that theatre in Rotherham when I lost my torch, our regular scout proved worthwhile. We were in and simply too, in an access that definitely wouldn't last longer than a few days. Slipping around the building quickly, we confirmed the power worked in every room and there was no internal sensors. Unfortunately, @jtza never made the return the next morning, but the nutcase @DustySensorPhotography drove up on a second's notice and sat outside my flat as every alarm I'd set to be up at the right time didn't go off. Quite typical... but thankfully, nothing had changed overnight or in the morning and we were back in.
The place is truly magical in my opinion. It's very repetitive. Dated lab after lab after lab, but minimal decay and zero vandalism. Seeing the Manchester skyline out of a decaying room 10+ stories up was pretty cool too. We did notice some '28DL' and 'Ojay said it was sealed' on various chalkboards, or something like that that I'd assume dates back to those 2011 visits, so whoever it was, send some pictures as I'd be interested to see if it had changed much. I was surprised that it had stayed so off the grid for so long, and it's condition has stayed the exact same, despite it's very central position, but that's what we have been finding with these Manchester buildings. Anyway, enough waffle, here's some pictures from low to high.
Corridor with lockers.
Modernised lecture theatre.
Few modern labs on the lower floors, where it seemed the building had been occupied more recently.
First Aid Room with curtain rail.
Getting into some of the really nice labs now.
Details on the cupboards, but there was a complete absence of flasks, beakers, pipettes etc.
The higher we got, the more decay had settled in.
Loved this corridor particularly.
Office.
Smaller lab with some notices up.
As we got nearer to the top of the building, I gave up on snapping the labs, as there was four or five on every floor. There were some classrooms towards the top that were quite nice as well, especially with the view over the city.
Across to the MSS tower
Another classroom with the tables setup.
To be continued.
The Faraday Building's architect was Harry Fairhurst, of the long-established Manchester firm of H.S. Fairhust & Son. It was constructed in 1967 by J. Gerrard & Sons. The building housed, until mid-to-late 2007, part of the University of Manchester School of Chemistry. The School of Chemistry is now located mainly at the Chemistry Building on Brunswick Street, however a significant number of former Faraday-based academics researching biologically related chemistry are now based in the nearby Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre. Appropriately, given its chemistry roots, the building houses a mural called The Alchemist's Elements, by Hans Tisdall. As part of the closure of the North Campus, the building was closed in 2015, and partially demolished in 2016.
The Faraday building had been another Manchester one I had been trying on and off for the last couple years - a clearly abandoned educational tower that didn't seem to have had much attention over the years, despite it's visibility from everywhere in South Manchester. However, despite the graffiti around it's lower walls and some movement of furniture in the backyard noticed on the many, many checks over the big Palisade round the back, it always remained tight as a bugger. Security of the University do make regular checks around the building at night, and some of their cameras still work, meaning they would come and sniff you out if your nosy was a bit too obvious, perhaps knowledgeable of some of the old reports of this building and others on the forum. Many things were tried between early 2021 and late 2022 with @DustySensorPhotography , @jtza and solo on far too many occasions, the most extravagant probably being climbing up the building's huge external lift shaft to the roof, but that never occurred. Finally, in late November, after a little night time visit to that theatre in Rotherham when I lost my torch, our regular scout proved worthwhile. We were in and simply too, in an access that definitely wouldn't last longer than a few days. Slipping around the building quickly, we confirmed the power worked in every room and there was no internal sensors. Unfortunately, @jtza never made the return the next morning, but the nutcase @DustySensorPhotography drove up on a second's notice and sat outside my flat as every alarm I'd set to be up at the right time didn't go off. Quite typical... but thankfully, nothing had changed overnight or in the morning and we were back in.
The place is truly magical in my opinion. It's very repetitive. Dated lab after lab after lab, but minimal decay and zero vandalism. Seeing the Manchester skyline out of a decaying room 10+ stories up was pretty cool too. We did notice some '28DL' and 'Ojay said it was sealed' on various chalkboards, or something like that that I'd assume dates back to those 2011 visits, so whoever it was, send some pictures as I'd be interested to see if it had changed much. I was surprised that it had stayed so off the grid for so long, and it's condition has stayed the exact same, despite it's very central position, but that's what we have been finding with these Manchester buildings. Anyway, enough waffle, here's some pictures from low to high.
Corridor with lockers.
Modernised lecture theatre.
Few modern labs on the lower floors, where it seemed the building had been occupied more recently.
First Aid Room with curtain rail.
Getting into some of the really nice labs now.
Details on the cupboards, but there was a complete absence of flasks, beakers, pipettes etc.
The higher we got, the more decay had settled in.
Loved this corridor particularly.
Office.
Smaller lab with some notices up.
As we got nearer to the top of the building, I gave up on snapping the labs, as there was four or five on every floor. There were some classrooms towards the top that were quite nice as well, especially with the view over the city.
Across to the MSS tower
Another classroom with the tables setup.
To be continued.
