Whitworth Art Gallery Facade, Manchester

30 September 2019 · Manchester

The Whitworth's red brick facade rises at a low angle, corner turret and clustered pinnacles pressing into a cloud-broken sky. Victorian civic ambition rendered in terracotta — every corbel and finial earning its place. An MIF banner at the entrance anchors it in the present; the building itself is perfectly indifferent to the moment, which is exactly the point.