Castlefield is at the southern end of Deansgate and was the site of our own Roman fort and town. During the Middle ages it was a deer park but started to develop into an industrial centre during the 18th century.
As early as 1769 there must have been urban development because St John’s Church was consecrated. The church no longer exists but the site is now the park between John Street and Lower Byrom Street close to Deansgate. The first houses were built on Liverpool Road in the 1790s and at that time the area was planned as an area for wealthy residents. By 1822 St Matthews Church on Liverpool Road was built followed by the Day and Sunday school, which still stands today. The money for the school was part of a grant made by the Government to celebrate the victory at Waterloo.
The street directories for the early 19th century suggest that the population was a mixture of lower middle class and self-employed people.
By the middle of the 19th century the same street directories and the census material all suggest the area was becoming more working class.
Southern Street in 1851 shows the same pattern of housing occupation as other working class parts of the city. In many of the houses there is evidence of overcrowding and cellar occupation. So at 3 Southern Street, 15 people are recorded there in 1851, with 5 living in the cellar, 2 in one room, 4 in another and 4 in the garret. Number 5 has 11 people. Across the street number 12 &14 are now a garage. In 1851, 7 people are listed as living in number 14. It is easy to appreciate the degree of squeeze when you measure the size of these properties. Put more simply when you look down Southern Street, remember that the 1851 census recorded 81 people living in this small street, which was a drop from the 200 living there a decade before.
The remaining houses in the area are typical of the type of homes built for middle class and working people at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. Along Liverpool Road there is a row of houses with longer windows on the top floor which were to allow maximum light to these attic workshops. According to Clare Hartwell these are now the best preserved examples in the whole of the city. Similar windows are just visible at numbers 3&5 Southern Street, and the back of 12&14 Southern Street. In John Street. At John Street it is possible to see what the homes of richer residents were like.
Across the city on Lever Street there is a row of 18th houses which have behind them in Bradley Street the last remaining one up one down cottages in Manchester.
Numbers 3 & 5 Southern Street is worth looking at in detail, as they may not be there for much longer. The block has been bought recently and while there is some doubt about the future plans I can’t see them staying in their present state. They were surveyed in 1993. The houses consisted of three floors and a cellar. The second floor dimensions of number 3 are 22 feet 6 inches back from the front and 16 feet 4 inches from side to side. Number 5 varies slightly at 22 feet 2 inches by 17 feet. Evidence for the cellar windows can still be seen but much else has undergone changes. Ground and first floor windows are not original and the door to number 5 has been enlarged.
All the evidence suggests that they were built sometime around 1794. Houses on Southern Street, Barton Street and Worsley Street are shown on a map of that year, when Liverpool Road was still called Priestner Street and terminated at Collier Street. Street Directories record people living in them from 1795. This fits in with what we know of the surrounding streets. Evidence from the title deeds of the White Lion Inn and the Oxnoble Inn show that that six plots of land were sold in 1782. In 1804 the Oxnoble plot was sold again on condition that it was built upon within two years.
Location; Castlefield
Pictures; Liverpool Road showing some of the late 18th century houses,& 3 & 5 Southern Street, now demolished, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
Pictures; Liverpool Road showing some of the late 18th century houses,& 3 & 5 Southern Street, now demolished, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
I remember the area being called Campfield as named on the old market hall which is now the air and space museum and is clearly signed as such
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