Manley Hall, Manchester
Manley Hall was a large house in Whalley Range, Manchester. It was a two-storey Victorian Italianate building with 50 rooms, very grandly furnished and with a fine art collection. It stood in 80 acres (32 ha) of exotic gardens with artificial lakes and many greenhouses in which orchids were grown
The house was built for the wealthy businessman Samuel Mendel in 1861. Born in Liverpool of Jewish origin he was the so-called "Merchant Prince" of Manchester's textile industry, who made a fortune by providing the fastest export routes round the Cape of Good Hope to India and Australia. At the height of his commercial success he converted from Judaism to High Church Anglicanism, and became a significant local figure as trustee of St. Clement's Church Chorlton-cum-Hardy. When the Suez Canal opened in 1869 he lost his commercial advantage and in 1875 was forced into bankruptcy. The contents of the house were sold in an auction that lasted five days. In 1879 a company formed to buy the estate and turn the gardens into a public pleasure park failed after two years. Its most famous visitor was "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show".[1] The grounds were then progressively sold for housing and the hall itself finally demolished in 1905. Manley Park playing fields is the only part of the original grounds which has not been built over.
References
Notes
- ↑ Lloyd (1986), p. 36
Bibliography
- Lloyd, John (1986), Looking Back at Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Willow, ISBN 978-0-946361-14-4