School of Architecture and Applied Art (Art Sheds), Liverpool

Other names: Liverpool University College
Foundation date: 5 November 1894
Dissolution date: 1905

Function: Art school

History or description: Established as a department of University College, Liverpool in 1894. It was founded after a change to the Roscoe Chair of Fine Art, previously held by Martin Conway and R A M Stevenson, making it a more practical chair of Architecture and Applied Art. At first there was a plan to merge with the Municipal School of Art in Mount Street but this did not mature. The new school at University College was funded by a grant of £1,000 per year from Liverpool Corporation Technical Instruction Committee and £300 pa from University College.

The original board of management comprised included Alderman Philip H Rathbone and F M Simpson (holder of the Roscoe Chair from 1893) as well as a number of local dignitaries and politicians.

The accommodation was rather makeshift, resulting in the School becoming widely known as the 'Art Sheds'. There was an old brick building for modelling classes, a wooden shed with a metal roof that was very noisy during rain storms, a design shed and copper shed. All the buildings were located near a railway cutting so smuts often blew onto the students' work. In 1903 new studios were opened in Myrtle Street for drawing, painting, design, metal work, wood carving, enamelling and jewellery.

Activities: art classes

Citing this record

'School of Architecture and Applied Art (Art Sheds), Liverpool', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib5_1208292244, accessed 10 Jun 2023]