Daily Express Building Manchester | Art Print

Description

Streamline Elegance: The Daily Express Building Manchester

Rising like a dark, polished monolith on the corner of Great Ancoats Street, The Daily Express Building Manchester – remains one of Manchester’s most radical pieces of Art Deco architecture. Completed in 1939, it is a masterclass in Streamline Moderne design—a style that stripped away the heavy masonry of the Victorian era in favor of aerodynamic curves and industrial transparency.

A Symphony of Glass and Vitrolite
Designed by Sir Owen Williams, the building was a sister project to the Express buildings in London and Glasgow. It was built to house the high-speed printing presses of a media empire, and its architecture reflects that mechanical soul.

The structure is defined by:

• The Facade: A seamless skin of jet-black Vitrolite (pigmented structural glass) and clear glass panels.

• The Curves: Rounded corners that eliminate the “harshness” of the traditional 90-degree street corner, mimicking the fluid movement of a printing press.

• The Transparency: Large windows originally designed to allow the public to look in from the street and witness the “miracle” of the daily news being printed in real-time.

Architectural Subtraction

While Manchester is a city of red brick and terracotta, The Daily Express Building Manchester – stands apart by what it doesn’t have. There are no carvings, no statues, and no decorative cornices. Its beauty is derived entirely from its form, rhythm, and material. It represents a moment in history where architecture moved toward the “subtractive”—removing the unnecessary to reveal the efficiency of the machine age.

Key facts about The Daily Express Building

• Year Completed: 1939
• Architect: Sir Owen Williams
• Style: Streamline Moderne / Art Deco
• Status: Grade II* Listed
• Primary Material: Black Vitrolite and Birmabright (aluminum alloy)

Sir Owen Williams (1890–1969)
The Engineer of the Machine Age

Sir Owen Williams was not a classically trained architect, and that was his greatest strength. A civil engineer by trade, he viewed buildings as functional organisms. His philosophy was rooted in the “engineer’s aesthetic”—the belief that structural logic, when executed with precision, requires no further ornament. (Information from Wikipedia)

Williams pioneered the use of reinforced concrete in Britain, treating it as a fluid medium that allowed for the sweeping, subtractive curves seen in the Daily Express Building. His work is characterized by:

• Structural Transparency: Using “curtain walling” (glass skins) to reveal the skeletal frame of the building.
• Geometric Purity: Replacing decorative carvings with the clean, aerodynamic lines of Streamline Moderne.
• Industrial Honesty: A refusal to hide a building’s purpose behind a traditional brick “mask.”