[4] De la Warre gave the site of his manor house for the construction of a college,[5] where eight priests, four clerks and six lay choristers lived in the care of a warden.

[10] The college buildings remained the property of the Stanleys, and wardens (including the Elizabethan astronomer and mathematician John Dee) lived on the premises with their families and servants.

[11] During the English Civil War, the college was used as a gunpowder factory and a prison and was left damaged by powder, disused and overrun by pigs.

[13][14] In his will, Chetham left over £8,000 from his estate (which was worth about £14,000 in total) to establish a hospital school for 40 poor local boys, between the ages of six and ten and from "honest" families, who should be taught and cared for until they were 14.

In 1926 a scheme was set up which allowed boys to apply for scholarships to join a grammar school,[24] which meant that while they lived at Chetham's, they were educated elsewhere during the day.

[25] During World War II, the boys were evacuated to the seaside town of Cleveleys, Lancashire, where they shared accommodation with a primary school.

[28] The Education Act 1944,[29] which stipulated that schools should be classified as primary or secondary, complicated matters, since Chetham's went across the middle.

[32] After the change in organisation, Chetham's could no longer afford to provide education based on scholarships and other allowances, and began charging fees.

[33] By 1960 the numbers of boys admitted had increased significantly, particularly among day pupils; 230 non-boarding students attended that year, alongside 64 boarders.

[38] In 1978 the Long Millgate building, the original home of Manchester Grammar School, was purchased to provide additional space to the campus.

Fire crews reportedly arrived immediately on the scene and contained the blaze, however the incident caused substantial damage to The Whiteley Hall itself, including the main stage and a pipe organ originally installed in 2002.

[41] In February 2013, Michael Brewer, Director of Music from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, and his ex-wife, were convicted of indecently assaulting a pupil, Frances Andrade, between 1978 and 1982.

[46][47] On 12 February, Malcolm Layfield, Head of Strings at the Royal Northern College of Music resigned from the RNCM Board after claims of his previous sexual misconduct were brought up during the Brewer hearing.

[52] The case was dropped in 2016 before coming to trial, and Wen Zhou Li was told that he left court "without a stain on his character".

[53] Allegations of sexual abuse were also made against the pianist Ryszard Bakst, who died in 1999,[54] and former violin teacher Christopher Ling.

Ling, who had moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s, shot himself at his home when US marshals arrived in September 2015 with a provisional arrest warrant.

[57] Thirty-nine individuals were named and 10 of these proactively investigated; the school stated that it was assisting the police with their inquiries, and had instigated an action plan to review their safeguarding processes and procedures.

They also discovered that no formal, minuted meetings had taken place at the school to discuss the recent allegations and consider changes to its child protection policy.

As Principal of Chetham’s I have a duty of care to our current and future students to make sure we also do everything possible to learn from victims and survivors’ experiences.”[59] In March 2022, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse delivered its preliminary findings, which included damning statements about the conduct of senior staff at Chetham's School of Music, criticising a cultural reluctance to report serious safeguarding concerns, also seen across other participating schools within the inquiry.

[61] In a statement, Chetham's School of Music said, "To the victims and survivors of abuse including their families and loved ones, we are truly sorry [...] [This] report confirms above all else that there is no room for complacency.

[...] “None of this work can undo past failures, and our apologies will never be enough, but we will do everything in our power to ensure that young people across the UK today are safe and protected.”[62] Students are admitted to the school on musical ability and talent.

[72] The award-winning Big Band played an integral part in the creation of a Jazz Studies programme, and has won many prizes, including The Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Competition, and the junior section of the BBC Radio 2 Big Band of the Year Competition three times.

[73] The Chamber Choir has performed on Songs of Praise and the BBC Proms[74] and the Symphonic Wind Band and Orchestra have won prizes at the Boosey and Hawkes National Concert Festival.

[82] The west part of the building surrounding the cloister courtyard contained accommodation known as sets, for people who lived in college.

The Carole Nash Hall is used regularly for recitals and masterclasses, including free Lunchtime Concerts which take place five times each week during the school term.

Its primary concert space, The Stoller Hall, was opened by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex in 2017 and houses larger scale performances for audiences of up to 500.

Originally purposed as sixth form accommodation, the Nicholls Building now only contains Victoria House for junior boarders.

Waterhouse is Grade II listed and styled as a medieval chapel, it contains both upper and lower floor spaces often used as overflow classrooms and large ensemble rooms.

[88] A small section of the former Palatine Building (demolished in 2016) also remains at the disused entrance gates adjacent to Manchester Cathedral and The Glade of Light Memorial.