The Manchester Municipal School of Art was built in Cavendish Street in 1880–81 to the designs of G. T. Redmayne.

Its symmetrical facade, built in the Neo-Gothic style, has large gabled wings with pinnacles at either side of its buttressed and blind arcaded main range.

In the centre is a chamfered doorway with a moulded arched head and carved spandrels above which is a canted oriel window with a steep roof against a gable with pinnacles and a finial at the top.

[2][6] In 2014 the 1960s Chatham Tower (named after the adjacent street) was refurbished and the Benzie Building was built,[3] to provide additional studio and exhibition space for the art school.

Lowry, Eugene Halliday, Liam Spencer, Ossie Clark, Martin Parr, Malcolm Garrett, Peter Saville, Thomas Heatherwick, T. Mewburn Crook, Roger Hampson and Audrey Albert.

[citation needed] Other notable musicians to attend the school include Mick Hucknall, who studied Fine Art in the 1980s and formed Simply Red.

[18][19] When founded, the school promoted the Arts and Crafts movement's philosophy and its collection includes metalwork, jewellery, wallpapers, a tapestry made by Morris & Co. designed by Edward Burne-Jones, Whitefriars glass by James Powell and Sons and George Henry Walton, silverware by Charles Robert Ashbee and ceramics from Pilkington's Art Pottery.