Alternative names The Toast Rack Type Academic Opened 1960 Construction started 1957 | Status Grade II Owner Estrela Properties Ltd Architectural style Brutalist architecture Renovated 1994 | |
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Location Fallowfield, Manchester Similar Estate Exchange, Church of St Michael and All A, Smithfield Market Hall, Store Street Aqueduct, Odeon Cinema - Manchester | ||
The Toast Rack, or formerly known as the 'Hollings Building', is a Modernist building in Manchester, England. The building was completed in 1960 as the Domestic Trades College, became part of Manchester Polytechnic then Manchester Metropolitan University until closure of the "Hollings Campus" in 2013. It was designed by the city architect, Leonard Cecil Howitt and is known as the Toast Rack due to its distinctive form (reflecting its use as a catering college).
Map of Toast Rack, Manchester, UK
The pre-eminent architecture critic Nikolaus Pevsner described the building as "a perfect piece of pop architecture". It was Grade II listed in April 1998 by English Heritage who describe the structure as, "a distinctive and memorable building which demonstrates this architect's love of structural gymnastics in a dramatic way". To others the building symbolises the ideals of the Festival of Britain and architectural positivity following World War II.
The building's structure consists of a concrete frame with a brick infill on the bottom half of each storey. The building is seven storeys high and its hyperbolic paraboloid frame continues on the exterior, hence the toast rack comparison. Although the building's unorthodox form is playful, its tapering shape also helps to divide space into varying sizes for larger and smaller classes. A semi-circular restaurant block is attached to the west and is informally known as the Fried Egg
Manchester Metropolitan University left their Hollings Campus in 2013 as they consolidated their facilities towards the city centre. The Toast Rack is now up for sale and it is hoped it will be renovated.