the New Mechanics' Institution in Poole Street, a move that had a serious effect on the recruitment and finances of the original institute. Subscriptions and memberships in 1830 and 1831 were an all-time low and only the gradual opening of the board up to election by the members rectified the situation. Detrosier's break away ultimately rejoined the institute. By 1840, the institute was established with 1,000 subscribers and a library of some 5,500 books. However, the increased popularity had been somewhat at the cost of science education as more and more lectures on non-scientific subjects were occupying its programmes. The institute occupied a building on Cooper Street (near the present St Peter's Square) and later moved to its present site on David Street (later renamed Princess Street). This still stands and is a Grade II* listed building. The Tech (1883–1917) In 1883 secretary of the institution John Henry Reynolds reorganised the institution as a technical school using the schemes and examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute. A new building was begun in 1895 and opened by the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour in October 1902. On the site previously had been cheap crowded inner-city housing occupied by Irish immigrants. This is the western end of the Sackville Street Building, until 2005 known as the UMIST Main Building, pictured above, a Grade II listed building by Spalding and Cross with Renaissance motifs of Burmantofts terracotta. By this time the institution was called the Manchester Municipal School of Technology or fondly known as the Tech. As a project of the Manchester City Council it includes in the decoration many portrayals of the city's coat of arms. As befits its roots in the early chemical industry of the region the Tech had pioneered chemical engineering as an academic subject in Britain, indeed the lectures by George E. Davis in 1888 were highly influential in defining the discipline. Similarly in the 1920s it pioneered academic training in management, with the formation of a Department of Industrial Administration funded by an endowment from asbestos magnate Sir Samuel Turner. In 1905, the Tech become the Faculty of Technology of the Victoria University of Manchester, allowing the award of BSc and MSc degrees. The principal of the School of Technology was now also dean of the faculty and an ex officio member of the university's senate. After the recent merger with Victoria University of Manchester