Plans
Building Control Plans
We have a large collection of architectural plans collected by the Building Control department of Manchester City Council - they capture the city's buildings from 1890 to the 1980s.
Parts of the collection have been fully indexed (from 1890 to 1910 and from 1949 to 1958). To search for these plans use the online catalogue GMLives.org.uk. Enter M900 in the Identifier field and the street or architect's name in the any text field. You can then make an appointment to view the plans at Central Library.
You can check the paper finding aids for plans dating from 1910 to 1949 yourself in the Central Library Search Room - no appointment is necessary. First check the page numbers for the street you want in the street index. Then go to that page in the plan register to find out more information about the building, such as the architect, owner, type and crucially the plan number.
The finding aid for the period from 1959 to the 1980s is a card index arranged alphabetically by street. To access this, please contact us.
Once you have the plan number you can make an appointment to view the plan in the search room. Please note that not all plans survive and some are too fragile to produce.
To enquire about plans dating from 1866 to 1889 please email archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk.
City Engineers Plans
The City Engineers archive is a large collection of plans of streets, new development work, sewers and areas on microfiche. Part of the collection has been indexed and is available via the online catalogue catalogue GMLives.org.uk enter M723 in the Identifier field and the street or area you are interested in the any text field.
Manchester Local Plans
- Forty Years of Planning the Future of Manchester: The Key Plans from 1926-1967 is an online collection of eight public planning documents and maps relating to the city of Manchester and its regional context including the iconic City of Manchester Plan of 1945.
- The Manchester Rapid Transit study reports of September 1967-November 1968 are available online: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3
- The Manchester Education Precinct plan from 1964 shows the original plans for the Oxford Road Corridor.
- The Manchester Local Plan is a set of current plans which lay out the long term strategic policies for Manchester's future development. Many of them are available online and a hard copy is available in the Central Library search room. You can find planning applications, conservation areas and listed buildings online.