Ferranti and MSS buildings
The Ferranti building housed part of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. It was situated between the Maths and Social Science and Faraday towers in Area A. Designed by Cruickshank and Seward, the building was dominated by its High Voltage Laboratory, a windowless aluminium and concrete block (it was originally proposed as a dome). The HVL was the first of its kind completed in the UK since the War. It included a large impulse generator, a 1-MV generator and 700 KV %0-hertz ac equipment.
An adjoining three storey section of offices and workshops leads towards the MSS tower. The building opened in 1970.
The Maths and Social Sciences Tower was the tallest building on the UMIST campus. Originally planned as a more modest building, its actual size reflected UMIST’s desire to expand beyond purely science and technology subjects. It housed the departments of mathematics, management sciences, linguistics and computation.
The Tower was a grouping of connected blocks of varying heights. A largely windowless two-storey lecture theatre building ajoined on the London Road side. The building opened in 1970. Despite its size, the Tower was soon short of space, and some parts of the Department of Management Sciences had to be accommodated in the Renold building.
The photograph shows the building under construction in the late 1960s, before the construction of the Mancunian Way flyover.
The Charles St car park was one of the redevelopment’s more mundane additions. Car parks were not eligible for UGC funding, so it was built using a loan, which was redeemed by parking fees and leasing shops within the complex. These included the Swinging Sporran pub and a bank.
The building could accommodate 870 cars, primarily for staff and students.
In the distance can be seen one of UMIST’s lesser-known buildings. This was the Marton building, for many years the home of Ophthalmic Optics (Optometry) until this department moved to the Moffat building. The site is now occupied by a hotel.