Kilburn Building
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2015}}
{{Infobox building
| name = The Kilburn Building
| former_names = Computer Building
| image = Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester - geograph.org.uk - 2820719.jpg
| caption = The Kilburn Building seen from the Oxford Road in 2011
| location = {{Coord|53.4639|-2.2308|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
| start_date = 1969{{cite book|title=A History of the University of Manchester 1951-73|publisher=Manchester University Press|first1=Brian|last1=Pullan|last2=Abendstern|first2=Michele|year=2000|ISBN=9780719056703
|oclc=59581673|url=http://man.ac.uk/esc1QM}}
| completion_date = 1972
| size = 76 by 76 metres square
| owner = University of Manchester
| architect = Building Design Partnership
| website = {{URL|https://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/about/maps-and-travel/}}
}}
The Kilburn Building is a building on the Oxford Road in Manchester which is home to the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester. The building was designed by the Building Design Partnership and completed in 1972,{{cite web|url=https://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/tours/tour10/area10page44.html|website=manchesterhistory.net|author=Anon|year=2002|title=The Kilburn Building}} with three storeys{{cite web|url=https://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/resources/floorplans/|title=Kilburn building floorplans|author=Anon|year=2010|website=manchester.ac.uk|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008022622/https://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/resources/floorplans/|archivedate=2018-10-08}} in a square shape, measuring 76 by 76 metres.{{cite web|url=https://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/about/maps-and-travel/|title=How to find us|website=cs.manchester.ac.uk|author=Anon|year=2023}} The building was formerly known as the Computer Building changing its name in 2001 in honour of Tom Kilburn who died in the same year.{{Cite journal |last1=Wilkes |first1=Maurice |last2=Kahn |first2=Hilary J. |date=2003 |title=Tom Kilburn CBE FREng. 11 August 1921 – 17 January 2001 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |volume=49 |pages=283–297 |doi=10.1098/rsbm.2003.0016|s2cid=71234844 |doi-access=free }}
Architecture and history
The Pevsner Architectural Guide describes the Kilburn building as a "big aggressive box of brick pier and vertical window strips" which has also been likened in appearance to a giant brick central processing unit (CPU) heat sink. The second floor features an Auguste Perret style paved piazza which initially featured a fibreglass structure known as the floating point zero.{{cite web|author=Anon|year=2010|url=https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/manchester-university-kilburn-building.html|website=alamy.com|publisher=Alamy|title=Kilburn Building Stock Photos and Images}}
Up until 2015, the building was connected to Manchester Business School, via the Precinct Centre and Bridge on the North Side of the building over the Oxford Road (demolished in 2015).Anon (2015) {{YouTube|id=Rkp8k-qnptk|title=Precinct Bridge Demolition: University of Manchester}} To the South, the building was connected by another pedestrian walkway (referred to as a dismal corridor in Pevsner){{cite book|year=2001|first1=Clare|last1=Hartwell|title=Manchester: Pevsner Architectural Guides|location=London|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780140711318|oclc=47232929}} to the Mathematics Tower, Manchester which was demolished in 2005.
The pedestrian walkways initially formed part of a futuristic but ultimately unsuccessful vision of streets in the sky to link Manchester Oxford Road railway station and out to the Hulme Crescents in Hulme and also to Ardwick.{{cite web|title=Revealed: The utopian 1960s vision for Manchester that never took off|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409192630/http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-university-oxford-road-walkways-9881591|archivedate=2016-04-09|url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-university-oxford-road-walkways-9881591|website=manchestereveningnews.co.uk|publisher=Manchester Evening News|location=Manchester|first=Jennifer|last= Williams|year=2015}}
The building was extended on the east side by the information technology (IT) building which was officially opened by Anne, Princess Royal in 1988.
Some of the first computers housed in the building were the CDC 7600 and the 1906AICT 1900 series from International Computers Limited (ICL).{{cite book|first1=Simon|last1=Lavington|title=A History of Manchester Computers|publisher=British Computer Society
|year=1998|edition=2nd|oclc=156380308|isbn=9781902505015}}
The cornbrook, a culverted river which drains the urban area South of the River Medlock, flows under the Kilburn building on its way from Gorton to the Manchester Ship Canal at the Pomona Docks.{{cite web|url=https://hidden-manchester.org.uk/waterways/corn-brook.html|title=The culverted Cornbrook river|website=hidden-manchester.org.uk|author=Anon|year=2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723185048/https://hidden-manchester.org.uk/waterways/corn-brook.html|archivedate=2021-07-23}}{{cite web|url=https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/cornbrook-manchester-rebooted-may-2019.118091/|website=28dayslater.co.uk|author=Anon|year=2019|title=Cornbrook Manchester - Rebooted|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221214629/https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/cornbrook-manchester-rebooted-may-2019.118091/|archivedate=2020-02-21}}{{cite web|url=https://substormflow.com/drain/cornbrook/|website=substormflow.com|author=Anon|year=2008|title=Cornbrook Drain|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150531023944/https://substormflow.com/drain/cornbrook/|archivedate=2015-05-31}}
Gallery
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Images of the Kilburn building can be seen in the gallery below:
{{Gallery
|title=Depictions of the Kilburn Building
|width=160 | height=170
|align=center
|File:Looking_North_over_the_Kilburn_Building,_Manchester_from_the_sixth_floor_of_University_Place_(27920561194).jpg
|Looking North over the Kilburn Building towards the City from University Place, with Manchester One and
|File:Kilburn Building.jpg
|Picture showing "big aggressive box of brick pier and vertical window strips"
|File:Outside the Kilburn Building, Manchester University - 50140689851.jpg
| Looking South down the Oxford Road past University place and the Kilburn building sign
|File:Manchester Kilburn Building.jpg
|The Kilburn Building in 2009
|File:The Kilburn building piazza.jpg
|The Auguste Perret style paved piazza at the centre of the building, pictured in 2016 with white floating point sculpture features
|File:Rainbow-over-the-kilburn-building-manchester-by-toby-howard.jpg
|A rainbow over the Kilburn Building in 2014, picture by Toby Howard
|File:Kilburn building window art.jpg
| Kilburn building window art depicting Ada Lovelace, the Manchester Baby and Alan Turing
|
| A mural of letters from Alan Turing's name in the Turing Lounge
}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{University of Manchester}}
Category:Buildings and structures in Manchester