The Manchester School of Music was founded in 1892 by John Albert Cross, a dealer in musical instruments. It was a private, fee-paying school and offered tuition in music, elocution and foreign languages, boasting 40 professors in its press advertisements. It also regularly put on public concerts and recitals in local venues, such as the Houldsworth Hall in Deansgate and the Memorial Hall in Albert Square.
Initially, the premises were part of the building on the corner of Peter Street and Mount Street, at that time occupied by the YMCA but originally constructed in 1835 as the Manchester Natural History Museum. The address was 18 Mount Street. In the early 1900s, the YMCA decided to replace the building with a much larger one, and the School of Music moved to new premises at 18 Albert Square.
John Albert Cross died in 1926, but his son Leopold Harold Cross took over the School and ran it until 1955. It was then sold to a former pupil, William Hindley Taylor, a well-known tenor on the concert circuit. After his death in 1971, a colleague, John Grierson, became principal and it was he who finally closed the school in 1994. The premises are now a Tampopo restaurant.
Perhaps the most famous of the tutors was the soprano Dame Isobel Baillie, who after spending her childhood in Manchester moved to London to pursue a professional career. She returned to live in Manchester after the death of her husband in 1957 and joined the teaching staff at the School. John Grierson, an accomplished pianist, became her accompanist on many lecture recital tours.
Please email info@mdmarchive.co.uk with more info about the school.
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