A BUILDING that has been at the heart of education in Huddersfield for more than a century faces a bright future, literally.

Thanks to an ambitious programme of restoration and refurbishment, the Ramsden Building is gleaming like a new pin.

But although the building – now part of the University of Huddersfield – has been newly-equipped to meet the needs of modern students and teachers, it retains its past glories.

Members of the public will discover this when the University throws open the doors of the Ramsden Building during a week of celebrations.

The events mark both the 125th anniversary of the building first being used by students and the completion of the first and biggest phase of improvement work.

On Thursday there will be an opening ceremony for the upgraded building, which will be open to the public between 9am and 11am.

Later, between 2.15 and 4pm, there will be a public lecture by Martyn Walker and Brian Haigh, historians who have researched the fascinating origins of the Ramsden Building, its architect Edward Hughes and the story of technical education in Huddersfield.

As part of the celebrations the University will welcome guests including The 9th Baronet of Ramsden, Sir John Ramsden and the Duke of Somerset.

Over the past year, approximately £1.5m has been spent on a scheme to upgrade many of the facilities, including teaching rooms, in the Ramsden Building.

Because it is a listed building, contractors and conservationists held talks to ensure that important external details were preserved.

And designers for the company that carried out the work – the Huddersfield office of giant global architectural practice Aedas – devised interior colour schemes that reflected the building’s original Victorian styling.

The Ramsden Building has remained in full use during the refurbishment work, and this has been one of the main challenges facing contractors. Still to be completed is a final phase – costing approximately £180,000 _ which will include the upgrading of the podiatry clinic, the physiotherapy area and more of the teaching rooms.

This will be concluded by the end of the year.

With its towers, turrets and distinctive Victorian Gothic styling, the Ramsden Building is the historic heart of the University of Huddersfield.

It was opened in 1883 as Huddersfield Technical School and Mechanics’ Institute, the amalgamation of Huddersfield Mechanics’ Institution and Huddersfield Female Educational Institute.

Huddersfield Mechanics’ Institution has its roots in the Young Men’s Mental Improvement Society, founded in 1841 by five employees of German merchant Frederic Schwann.

Classes were held in a succession of rooms around the town until it acquired its first purpose-built premises, on Northumberland Street, in 1861.

But by the 1870s, larger premises were needed, and the Mechanics’ Institution President, Sir Thomas Brooke of Armitage Bridge, who was also Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce whose family of industrialists had long supported the institution, encouraged plans to construct an ambitious new building on Queen Street South.

Land was leased from the Ramsden Estate and money was raised for the construction of the new Technical School and Mechanics’ Institution.

The architect of the building was Edward Hughes, a protégé of the famous Sir Gilbert Scott, who specialised in the fashionable, medievally-influenced Gothic style. Hughes was also the designer of Huddersfield Market Hall, Huddersfield Bank and Spring Grove School.

The Technical School cost £20,000 to build and its ornate facade is adorned by lions holding shields which bear the coats of arms of Sir Thomas Brooke, Huddersfield Corporation, Sir John William Ramsden and the Clothworkers’ Company – which donated £2,000 to the building fund.