The Chancellors Hotel & Conference Centre was built around The Firs, a house built in 1850 for Sir Joseph Whitworth by Edward Walters, who also designed Manchester's Free Trade Hall.
Whitworth used the house as a social, political and business base, entertaining radicals such as John Bright, Richard Cobden, William Forster and T.H. Huxley at the time of the Reform Bill of 1867.
Whitworth, credited with raising the art of machine-tool building to a previously unknown level, supported the Mechanics Institute  – the birthplace of UMIST – and was a founder the Manchester School of Design.
Whilst living there, Whitworth used land at the rear (now the site of the University's botanical glasshouses) for testing his "Whitworth rifle".
In 1882, The Firs was leased to C.P. Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian and after Scott's death became the property of Owens College.
It was the Vice-Chancellor's residence until 1991.

The house now forms the western wing of the Chancellors Hotel & Conference Centre.
The eastern wing houses the circular Flowers Theatre, six conference rooms and most of the hotel's bedrooms.
The Chancellors Hotel & Conference Centre was built around The Firs, a house built in 1850 for Sir Joseph Whitworth by Edward Walters, who also designed Manchester's Free Trade Hall. Whitworth used the house as a social, political and business base, entertaining radicals such as John Bright, Richard Cobden, William Forster and T.H. Huxley at the time of the Reform Bill of 1867. Whitworth, credited with raising the art of machine-tool building to a previously unknown level, supported the Mechanics Institute  – the birthplace of UMIST – and was a founder the Manchester School of Design. Whilst living there, Whitworth used land at the rear (now the site of the University's botanical glasshouses) for testing his "Whitworth rifle". In 1882, The Firs was leased to C.P. Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian and after Scott's death became the property of Owens College. It was the Vice-Chancellor's residence until 1991.
The house now forms the western wing of the Chancellors Hotel & Conference Centre. The eastern wing houses the circular Flowers Theatre, six conference rooms and most of the hotel's bedrooms.
University of Manchester