Context 151 - September 2017

34 C O N T E X T 1 5 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 retained as a museum. Simon Malam of Donald Insall Associates took the group around the site explaining how the Thompson family ran the salt works. We were shown the different spaces and structures which housed this process, starting with firing the pan to heat the brine, and leading on to the almost poetic sounding elements of raking, lumping, lofting, crush- ing, cutting and packing the salt. It was a complete production line on one relatively small site. Malam explained that a repair-as-found philosophy had been adopted in the main since there were good records from 1896 for reference. If in doubt the ques- tion ‘What would theThompsons do?’ was deliberated. A key exception to this was the rebuilding of the stove house, which had partially collapsed. The restoration scheme saw this rebuilt, with a glazed eastern side marking out the line of the associated Pan House 5, and a glazed entrance in a corner mocking the collapse of the original building. The group expressed differing views on this approach. As with the Anderton boat lift, a main issue at the site is corrosion from salt, not only of the metal pans, but the building timbers too. The group saw that various timbers had been kept in situ but had been strengthened with new timbers adjacent and subor- dinate to the original to ensure that original fabric remained revealed. The second main issue at the site is subsidence: the site is falling towards the Trent and Mersey Canal, which adjoins the site to the north east. This has proved challenging in respect of conservation works to structures, but also in terms of the salt works being accessible as a museum: this has been overcome by the installation of inconspicuous lifts and timber through- ways within the buildings, which do not detract from the experience. Rosamund Worrall Ancoats, the world’s first industrial suburb Led by Simon Green, Seven Architecture My previous visits to Manchester had been to the city centre, full of outstandingVictorian civic and commer- cial architecture, the art gallery, the town hall, and to Manchester’s historic Anglican cathedral, and its more contemporary surroundings. My two IHBC walking tours were therefore a real surprise (Thursday’s was with Julian Holder to Castlefield): first, for the amaz- ing survival of the canal network behind the streets I had explored, and the amazing surviving railway her- itage (a collection of firsts) and, second, for the scale of the remaining industrial buildings and regeneration at the Ancoats suburb, visited with Manchester architect Delegates in front of the ruinous entrance to the Lion SaltWorks (Photo: MariaYioutani-Iacovides) A retained rusty beam showing salt corrosion at the Lion SaltWorks (Photo: Roy Lewis)