This carefully crafted building was built in 1870-71, and is "...one of the largest surviving provincial clubhouses in the country." The archietect for the building was Edward Salomons, who possessed a great love of "surface decoration." The decor present on the Reform Club is unique. While most clubs chose to go for a classical style, Salomon sculpted the club in a more gothic manner. The outside of the building depicts three sculpted female figures, all representative of the science, art, and agriculture. The most important figure, perhaps, for Manchester itself was the agriculture figure, who is shown "with her loom, shuttle and bolts of beautifully figured textiles." Textiles, were, of course, the cornerstone of the economy in Manchester. However, historians make a point that each figure bears important weight in the history of Manchester, since it is believed the figures were sculpted to represent "the whole spectrum of progress." All in all, the Reform Club is reprsentative of the "...measure of the strength of Liberalism in Mid-Victorian Manchester." I chose to add this Map element becaue Gaskell's Milton, the fictionalized verson of Manchester, does not focus much on the clubs and social aspect of Milton/Manchester. I feel like this is a good reminder that we are reading this book from a female perspective, and so we don't get to know every thing going on at this time. There is so much that women missed out on during this period, and this, in turn, leads to readers missing out on it too. I find it very indictivive that Gaskell left out a lot about Milton/Manchester in her story, and while I orginally intended to focus on what she did include in the story, I felt it even more interesting to research what she chose not to include, and clubs such as the Reform Club is one of those things. 

Source: http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/salomons/2.html