84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester

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The modern 84 Plymouth Grove

84 Plymouth Grove is a grade-II*-listed neoclassical villa in Manchester, UK,^[1] which was home to the Gaskell family between 1850 and 1913.

The house was designed in the Greek Revival style, probably by architect Richard Lane, circa 1838, as part of a wider development of the area, then on the edge of the city, for the newly emerging middle class. The design of the building is unique; the house contains twenty rooms on three floors with a rectangular front porch containing four columns carved with a lotus leaf shape, reminiscent of the Tower of the Winds in Athens.^[1]^[2]

1 History
2 Current condition
3 See Also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Elizabeth Gaskell, in portrait of 1851 by George Richmond

The Gaskells moved into the house (then numbered 42) in June 1850, after the publication of Elizabeth Gaskell's first book, Mary Barton.^[3] Gaskell described the house as 'a beauty', but worried that it was selfish to take such an expensive house (the rent was £150 per annum) while others lived in poverty.^[4] Charlotte Brontë, who visited the house three times between 1851 and 1854, described it as 'a large, cheerful, airy house, quite out of Manchester smoke'.^[3]

Gaskell lived at Plymouth Grove with her family until her death 15 years later, and all of her later books were written there. Her husband, William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister and educationalist, held welfare committees and tutored the poor in his study. Besides Brontë, visitors to the house during Elizabeth Gaskell's lifetime included Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, American writer Charles Eliot Norton and conductor Charles Hallé.^[2]

The house remained in the Gaskell family until the death of Gaskell's daughter, Margaret Emily (Meta) in 1913.^[3] It was then offered to many organisations, including the local authority, who refused it, stating 'The house belonged to one of the ugliest periods of architecture and was of no value beyond its association with the Gaskell family.'^[2] The University of Manchester purchased the building in 1969, converting it for use by the International Society. The university relinquished the building in 2000.

[edit] Current condition

The building was purchased in 2004 by the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust who plan a £2.5m restoration of the building, with the aim of allowing it to be opened to the public. A modern plaque states (inaccurately) 'Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell 1810–1865 novelist and authoress of 'Mary Barton' 'Cranford' and many other works lived here 1849–1865'.^[5] As of 2006, the house is in a very poor state of repair with severe structural problems,^[2] and is listed on the English Heritage Buildings at Risk Register. It stands within a five minute walk of Victoria Baths, another Victorian-era landmark requiring substantial restoration.