Listing Review 2021.Grade II Listed early C20 decorative cast-iron electricity junction box.South bank of Castlefield canal basin, adjacent to South East face of Bridgewater Viaduct, Manchester, M3 4LB.View from South.

Located within 100m of each other in Castlefield, three early 20th century decorative cast-iron electricity junction boxes have been listed at Grade II by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England.

Manufactured by Hardy and Padmore of Worcester for Manchester City Council, the junction boxes are increasingly rare survivors from the first age of electricity. The decorative design by a world-renowned company illustrates the development of electricity into a utility for mass consumption, and the romance and respect which were given to its infrastructure in the early years of the last century.

The boxes’ cast-iron design features a low pyramidal cap, castellated edges and a moulded cornice, supported at each corner by an inward-scrolled corbel. Each box includes a plaque featuring the crest of the City of Manchester.

Consumer electricity arrived in Manchester in 1893 and by 1920 the number of consumers was around 20,000. Distribution and supply infrastructure were needed to transfer current from where it was generated to its point of use.

The junction box, or feeder pillar, was designed to control the electrical supply to a number of buildings in the surrounding area. On an Ordnance Survey map of 1948, 50 such feeder pillars are shown, mostly on major streets.

The cabinets date from the period of the battle of the currents, when in the United States of America, giants of the early days of electricity including Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse fought for the supremacy of their respective ideas on how best to deliver electricity from power stations to customers.

The clash between the proponents of direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC), which escalated to the extent of the competitors making wild claims of the dangers of each other’s systems, was eventually won by the AC camp which proved to be more efficient at delivering power over longer distances from larger power stations.

The UK’s own battle of the currents was fought keenly in Manchester, with Sebastian Ferranti, who backed AC, vying with Manchester’s Dr John Hopkinson, who backed DC.

Hopkinson persuaded the Manchester Corporation to develop a DC electricity supply for the city, generated in early power stations such as the Grade II listed former Bloom Street station which was built by the Corporation in 1901.

Ferranti’s company was a significant employer in Manchester, with sites in Hollinwood, near Oldham, Wythenshawe, Moston and Poynton. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Manchester in 1912.

Lighting was the main early innovation of the electricity revolution, and the Grade I listed John Rylands Library on Deansgate was one of the very first buildings to use electric light in the city when it opened in 1900. The Science and Industry Museum’s collection includes early light bulbs used in the library.

Crispin Edwards, Listing Adviser at Historic England said:

“We’re delighted that the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has listed these remarkable survivors from Manchester’s leading role in the development of electricity as a mass utility. The craft and civic pride evident in the design of the junction boxes is something you just don’t see anymore in everyday infrastructure. You really get echoes of the wonder that was felt by people when the city was first lit up by electricity.”

Sarah Baines, Curator of Engineering at Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum, said: “It’s difficult to put an exact date on the junction boxes, but we understand that the presence of the Manchester Corporation coat of arms on the boxes means that these were from before the switchover to alternating current in the 1930s. Manchester played a leading role in the introduction of electricity which has totally transformed the way we live and work over the last 100 years, so it’s great that these boxes are now going to be conserved for future generations.”

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