I can’t say I ever really noticed no. 88 Tib Street, but I wish I had.
It stands almost on the corner with Whittle Street and already its neighbour has vanished, leaving it shrouded in scaffolding next to Gullivers.
It has been empty and boarded up from 2008, and probably much earlier, and despite passing it many times, I only clocked its existence last week when the Manchester Evening News ran a story on its uncertain future.*
And that article, reminded Andy Robertson that he had taken a picture of the place last February, all of which prompted me to go looking for its story.
The MEN, referred to it as “one of the last remaining weaver's cottages in the city centre, dating back to the 18th Century”, and a quick look at the maps of the period show that it was there by 1794, and is clearly marked as a workshop of some description on Adshead’s map of 1851.
Just when it stopped being a workshop and indeed a weaver’s cottage is unclear.
In 1849 the Rate Books show that it was occupied by a Thomas Higgins, and the annual estimated rent for the property was £18.
Now I can follow Thomas Higgins around the city, in the years before and after 1849.
He appears on Whittle Street, Long Millgate, Sutton Street, Hanover Street, Reather Street and Portugal Street, with guest appearances also in Hulme , and Chorlton-on Medlock, which clearly suggests we are dealing with more than one man.
So, the historian in me advises caution in linking number 88 to any one man, but the romantic makes me lean towards the Thomas Higgins who described himself as a handloom weaver in the 1851 census and who was living with his family on Portugal Street.
A year later a Thomas Higgins is listed in Whellan and Co’s Directory of Manchester, as a tailor in the firm of Waite and Higgins at 10 Reather Street, which was off Oldham Road.
It is possible that a handloom weaver in a shrinking and dying industry might have branched out into a tailoring business, or we might just have the wrong Mr. Higgins.
Either way, our house appears to sever its links with the textile trade, and for the rest of the nineteenth and 20th centuries becomes a shop.
In 1861 it was home to a Benjamin Leigh who was a beer seller, a decade later it was occupied by a printer, and more recently was a florist in 1959, and ten years on, a toy dealer.**
All of which would appear to be almost the end of the story.
We shall see.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; number 88 in 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson, in 1959, L. Kaye, m05812, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
and Tib Street in 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*'The city I love is crumbling around me'...anger as 200-year-old Northern Quarter building looks set to be demolished, Steve Robson, December 1st, 2019, Manchester Evening News, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/the-city-love-crumbling-around-17328242
**Sources, Manchester Rates Books, 1849-1900, census returns 1851-1871, Whellan and Co’s Directory of Manchester, 1852, Slater’s Directories of Manchester and Salford, 1850-1911
 |
| February 2018 |
It has been empty and boarded up from 2008, and probably much earlier, and despite passing it many times, I only clocked its existence last week when the Manchester Evening News ran a story on its uncertain future.*
And that article, reminded Andy Robertson that he had taken a picture of the place last February, all of which prompted me to go looking for its story.
The MEN, referred to it as “one of the last remaining weaver's cottages in the city centre, dating back to the 18th Century”, and a quick look at the maps of the period show that it was there by 1794, and is clearly marked as a workshop of some description on Adshead’s map of 1851.
 |
| January 1851 |
In 1849 the Rate Books show that it was occupied by a Thomas Higgins, and the annual estimated rent for the property was £18.
Now I can follow Thomas Higgins around the city, in the years before and after 1849.
He appears on Whittle Street, Long Millgate, Sutton Street, Hanover Street, Reather Street and Portugal Street, with guest appearances also in Hulme , and Chorlton-on Medlock, which clearly suggests we are dealing with more than one man.
So, the historian in me advises caution in linking number 88 to any one man, but the romantic makes me lean towards the Thomas Higgins who described himself as a handloom weaver in the 1851 census and who was living with his family on Portugal Street.
 |
| May 1959 |
It is possible that a handloom weaver in a shrinking and dying industry might have branched out into a tailoring business, or we might just have the wrong Mr. Higgins.
Either way, our house appears to sever its links with the textile trade, and for the rest of the nineteenth and 20th centuries becomes a shop.
In 1861 it was home to a Benjamin Leigh who was a beer seller, a decade later it was occupied by a printer, and more recently was a florist in 1959, and ten years on, a toy dealer.**
All of which would appear to be almost the end of the story.
We shall see.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; number 88 in 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson, in 1959, L. Kaye, m05812, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
and Tib Street in 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*'The city I love is crumbling around me'...anger as 200-year-old Northern Quarter building looks set to be demolished, Steve Robson, December 1st, 2019, Manchester Evening News, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/the-city-love-crumbling-around-17328242
**Sources, Manchester Rates Books, 1849-1900, census returns 1851-1871, Whellan and Co’s Directory of Manchester, 1852, Slater’s Directories of Manchester and Salford, 1850-1911
Being on Tib St its funny it was never a pet shop my pub the kings had a back door on Tib St which came in handy when a copper came in off Oldham Road.
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