It’s been a long time coming, but the rumours are getting stronger that Manchester University is going to sell off the former UMIST (now known as the Northern) campus. Some of the buildings on the campus are, it has to be admitted, awful. I remember, back in my student politics days, saying that the perk of my job on the Union executive was that my office was in the Barnes Wallis building- no matter what else happened, at least I didn’t have to suffer the pain of looking at the Barnes Wallis building.

Points raised in the comments below the MEN report are interesting. I’ve heard there’s a covenant restricting the uses the main (Sackville Street) building can be put to as well, so maybe the suggestion that Manchester Metropolitan University (I remember when it was the Poly) should take it over rather than building on a planned site in Hulme has merit. I also find myself agreeing that the Renolds (spelling? it’s been a while since I walked past and checked) Building has some historic/architectural merit and may be worth saving.

It’s been a long time since I was last inside the UMIST main building. Any “Northern Campus” based students want to sneak me in for a nostalgic/photographic wander?

And, of course, there is one big final question- if the campus is sold off and the Barnes Wallis building is finally put out of our misery, where are they going to hold BeerFests in the future?

Here are a load of photos of UMIST on Flickr. Some of them are mine.