This look like a campaign we might have a collective opinion on - can the committee write a letter of support?

kevin flude

Help needed in the fight to save Ancoats Dispensary

Left: Ancoats Dispensary before the roof was removed

The campaign group called Fight 2 Save Ancoats Dispensary has been set up to try and prevent the demolition of the last of nineteen Grade II-listed buildings on the historic Ancoats Hospital site in Manchester. Private Eye, SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the Victorian Society are all on board, as is the local newspaper, and a petition calling for a halt to the proposed demolition has garnered 5,000 signatures (a significant proportion of the population of Ancoats).

The campaigners are calling for help from the wider heritage community and say they are looking specifically for assistance from anyone with experience of project management, structural scaffolding and fund raising. ‘We have got a friendly surveyor on board but architectural input would also be appreciated’, says campaign secretary Gillian Potter-Merrigan.

Left: Ancoats Dispensary after the removal of the roof

A vigil has been mounted at the Dispensary site (as a result of which they have already received a visit from some very non-communicative and camera-shy besuited visitors) and an offer has been made to the developers, Urban Splash, to buy the site for £2 — twice as much as they paid for it in 2001 when they promised to refurbish the building and create new homes. Instead, the roof was removed and the building was allowed to deteriorate to the point where demolition is now claimed as the only option. Experts dispute this, and two educational organisations (one a local college) are keen to utilise the building.

The Gothic Revival building was designed by Lewis & Crawcroft and opened in 1891. Ancoats Hospital was the first in the world to specialise in bone fractures, and is regarded as the home of modern orthopaedics; it has also been in the vanguard of research into hay fever, blood typing and the treatment of stab wounds. Manchester University plans a symposium on Ancoats’ role in the history of medicine and the organisers are said to be appalled at the prospect that this last remaining building of a once world-leading hospital may soon be gone.