Barton Arcade, Manchester

Corbett, Raby and Sawyer built the Barton Arcade in 1871, a modern Victorian shopping centre of cast iron and glass. The Milan Galleria was a big influence on this cutting edge civic space. The octoganal dome in the center is 106 ft high. The rich iron work was created by the Macfarlane’s Saracen Foundry in Glasgow. As arcades were popular venues at that time all around Europe, the architect for this project was Italian, the engineer French, and the sponsor British.

It has four floors with balconies overlooking the central street. St. Ann Square runs into the white painted front of the arcade. The original floor and shop fronts were never restored. The craze that followed the completion of the Barton Arcade fizzled as people viewed such a commercial venture as impractical… until the strip mall came along.

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(tom_bullock– flickr/creative commons license)

(René Clausen Nielsen– flickr/creative commons license)
 

(featured image by dnisbet on flickr/creative commons)