Now you won’t find Pump Street.
The best you can do is South Pump Street which was once called Back Pump Street and thereby hangs lots of stories.
And it starts of course with Back Pump Street because where there is a “Back” street there was once a similar street which contained the same name but omitting the “Back.”
In our case Pump Street became Whitworth Street sometime before 1895 made its way up from the now vanished Mason Street, passing an arm of the Rochdale canal and ending at London Road.
In the 1840s Mason Street ran parallel with Coburg Street and what is now part of Sackville Street but just to totally confuse things this was then Zara Street.
But enough of such confusion, more interesting than a name change is the building that stands on the northern corner of South Pump Street. This was 'The Manchester Coffee Tavern Company Limited' of which I knew nothing of despite having past the building pretty much every day in the early 1970s.
And I am indebted to that wonderful site Skyliner for the story of what was a temperance organization.*
“The Manchester Coffee Tavern Company Limited'. Coffee was cited by doctors at the time as a cure for alcoholism and was another step in the movement against alcohol.
Coffee Taverns distributed tokens to the poor, the tokens were only redeemable at their taverns, and this method hoped to keep business out of licensed premises.
Manchester Coffee Taverns opened in 1873 and eight premises in total were racking up to 65,000 visitors per week, eventually more were opened until around 15 branches stood throughout the city - even providing separate rooms for juveniles in order to restore public order on the streets.”*
And of course as so often happens there is that little ironic twist, for just further down Fairfield Street is the Bulls Head which was doing the business of selling pints by the time the Manchester Coffee Tavern opened up.
I can’t be exactly sure when this was but it will have been between 1895 and 1903 whn the headquarters of the company were based in our building at nu 8 Fairfield Street.
The general manager was a Mr Henry Pilcher and the secretary a George Payne from where they administered those 15 branches from Piccadilly down to Liverpool Road, and Gaythorn and up to Cannon Street and into Salford.
But by 1909 they had vacated the Fairfield Street premises which became a wholesale milliners.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; Back Pump Street, 2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson, the list of branches of The Manchester Coffee Tavern Company Limited, form Slater’s Directory, 1903, and the area in the circa 1880s from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*THE ONWARD BUILDING, Skyliner http://www.theskyliner.org/the-onward-building/
 |
| South Pump Street, 2016 |
And it starts of course with Back Pump Street because where there is a “Back” street there was once a similar street which contained the same name but omitting the “Back.”
In our case Pump Street became Whitworth Street sometime before 1895 made its way up from the now vanished Mason Street, passing an arm of the Rochdale canal and ending at London Road.
 |
| The Manchester Coffee Tavern Company, 2016 |
And I am indebted to that wonderful site Skyliner for the story of what was a temperance organization.*
“The Manchester Coffee Tavern Company Limited'. Coffee was cited by doctors at the time as a cure for alcoholism and was another step in the movement against alcohol.
Coffee Taverns distributed tokens to the poor, the tokens were only redeemable at their taverns, and this method hoped to keep business out of licensed premises.
 |
| Coffee Taverns branches, 1903 |
And of course as so often happens there is that little ironic twist, for just further down Fairfield Street is the Bulls Head which was doing the business of selling pints by the time the Manchester Coffee Tavern opened up.
 |
| South Pump Street circa 1895 |
The general manager was a Mr Henry Pilcher and the secretary a George Payne from where they administered those 15 branches from Piccadilly down to Liverpool Road, and Gaythorn and up to Cannon Street and into Salford.
But by 1909 they had vacated the Fairfield Street premises which became a wholesale milliners.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; Back Pump Street, 2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson, the list of branches of The Manchester Coffee Tavern Company Limited, form Slater’s Directory, 1903, and the area in the circa 1880s from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*THE ONWARD BUILDING, Skyliner http://www.theskyliner.org/the-onward-building/
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