Port Street ...... waiting for something to happen

Now it is a while since I have been down on Port Street.

Nu 64 Port Street, and a car park, which was once a canal, 2018

The last time I was there,  there was that feel that this was a place waiting for something to happen.

Most of the buildings had gone, replaced by car parks, which as everyone knows must be a prelude to a big building boom.

I think I counted 4 buildings on the stretch from Faraday Street up to Great Ancoats Street.

A few years before there had been more, and while there is now a nearly completed  development on the corner with Great Ancoats Street, the rest looks empty and forlorn.

That development at the end of Port Street, 2018

And I don’t suppose I would have given Port Street much more of a thought, had it not been for Andy’s picture which he took last week of what I think is no 64.

Not that long ago it was part of a block from where Goldfayre Trading were located, but now part of the building has gone and what is left won’t be long for the demolisher’s ball.

So as you do, I wandered back in time.  In 1851 this row of properties was home to an iron merchants, a druggist, two spindle makers, and assorted shops.

Nu 75 Port Street, opposite 

While directly behind, were two arms of the Rochdale Canal, one of which finished at the back of number 64 while the other ran parallel to Port Street down to Brewer Street.  Between them they served two timber yards, a stone and lime yard and Burn’s Cotton Mill.

They were still there in 1894 and number 64 was still an iron merchants run by the firm of Hall and Pickles who are listed at the address a full 40 years earlier.

The building is now empty but as Andy’s picture shows it is still there.

Although, I wouldn’t put money on it being so for much longer.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Port Street from the collection of Andy Robertson