Thomas Worthington (architect)

Thomas Worthington (1826 – 1909) was an eminent 19th-century English architect, particularly associated with public buildings in his native Salford.

Training

Worthington was the fourth of six sons of a Salford Unitarian cotton merchant. He left school, aged 15, and was articled to Henry Bowman, architect. After completing his articles in 1847, he went, in 1848, on an eight-month study tour to Italy. The following year, he returned to Manchester and established his own architectural practice in King Street, though he subsequently undertook a second tour to Italy in 1858.

ocial concerns

Worthington was strongly influenced by his Unitarian upbringing, becoming committed to social reform and improvement, and joining numerous learned societies, including the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, the Portico Library and the Royal Manchester Institution.

Partly as a result of his social concerns, Worthington was often commissioned to design public buildings, ranging from public baths and hospitals to workhouses and Unitarian churches. These were often designed in a Gothic style, not dissimilar to that of his contemporary and rival Alfred Waterhouse.

Manchester projects

*Overseers and Churchwardens Office, 46 Fountain Street (1852–1859)
*Greengate Baths, Collier Street (1856)
*the Albert Memorial (1862–1867) and Albert Memorial Hall (later turned into a public house, the 'Square Albert'), Albert Square (1863–1866)
*City Police and Sessions Court (1867–1873).
*Chorlton Union Workhouse, Withington Hospital (1865)
*Prestwich Union Infirmary, Crumpsall Hospital (1866–1870)
*The Towers, Didsbury (1868–1872) – home to Manchester industrialist Daniel Adamson from 1874, this building was later (1920) used by the British Cotton Industry Research Association, later called the Shirley Institute
*Brookfield Unitarian Church, Gorton (1870)
*Monton Green Unitarian Church (1875)
*Flowery Field Church, Newton Street, Hyde (1876–1878)
*Nicholls' Hospital School, Ardwick, later Ellen Wilkinson School (1879–1880)
*Dovecote, Sale Old Hall (1880)
*Peacock Mausoleum, Gorton (1890)
*Diamond Jubilee Memorial Fountain, Albert Square 1896–1897)
*Dunham Road Unitarian Chapel, Altrincham

Other projects

*Unitarian Chapel, Liverpool
*Garlands Hospital, Carlisle (originally the Cumberland and Westmorland Lunatic Asylum, 1862)
*Wigan Infirmary (1870)
*Sutton Oaks (a country house), London Road, Macclesfield, Cheshire (1875)
*Manchester College, Oxford (1889–1893)
*Royal Bath Hospital, Harrogate
*Royal Infirmary, Halifax

Legacy

His sons followed in his footsteps, training as architects and working in the family firm, Thomas Worthington & Sons. Hubert, later Sir Hubert Worthington (1886–1963) trained with Sir Edwin Lutyens and was professor of architecture at the Royal College of Art. Percy Worthington also worked in the family firm.