The Infirmary in 1756

Summary

A view of the Manchester Infirmary, founded at Piccadilly in 1752. This image is of the infirmary in its early years, before the 1792-3 enlargement. The large Georgian building is shown from the front, and portrayed in a simple, decorative style, with almost absolute symmetry its rows of rectangular windows, low projecting wings, and flanking avenues of trees. Below the building is the infirmary pool, upon which float a similarly-sized swan and punter. A cartouche beneath contains the legend 'MANCHESTER INFIRMARY'. This is a later version of what may originally have been a woodcut. It appears to have been reproduced as an illustration to a late nineteenth-century book.