This building contains galleries, education rooms, art stores, administration and a cafe. It is one part of a proposed 4 phase development, intended to establish a new ‘cultural quarter’ in Oldham. The building is a three-storey structure which links in with an existing collection of public buildings to make a new square. The architects relate the scale and form of the new building to older mill buildings, now demolished, visible in an antique panoramic photograph of the site in the 19th century.

The architects put the galleries on the top floor, linking into a library building next door. You enter from a small square, into a high glazed atrium and take generous lifts up to the galleries with a lovely view over the town. On your way up, you bypass two lower floors of ancillary accommodation. The galleries are top-lit and they run the length of the building. They are flanked by an array of metal hoops enclosing external walkways which are only accessible with special permission.

The building is well made and it seems to work in a satisfactory fashion. The plain solidity of the detailing gives it a reassuring and a substantial civic quality. The long top-lit galleries are the main pleasure of the project. Accessibility is good.

The jury enjoyed the quiet dignity of the galleries. They were impressed by the client’s enthusiasm for her architects. They thought that the new square, invented out of nothing by the architects, was a delight on a cool, sunny April morning. This is a well made building, popular with the locals, which brings some coherence to a difficult site.