Now there is nothing new in converting old industrial and civic buildings into residential properties.
And that is how the old Police Station on Silk Street became flats via a spell as a remand centre for young juvenile offenders.
The police had been opened in 1867 on the east side of Silk Street between North Charles Street and North Thomas Street. Both of these vanished long ago for anyone wanting to find the spot on a modern map the best I can offer is to look for North Hill Street which once ran all the way up to Silk Street, and from that junction moved a little north towards Blackfriars Road and that’s the spot.
It continued as a police station until 1918 when it became “a place of detention for juvenile offenders” and was run by the Watch Committee.
But 1932 the new Children and Young Persons Act transferred the responsibility for young offenders from the Watch Committee “to the City Council who delegated their duties to the Education Committee who closed the detention Centre.”*
The Council then sold the police station to Salford Housing Ltd who had deemed that the property could be converted in residential use.
The plan was to “turn the building into working-class self contained flats [with] two on the ground floor, one with one bedroom and other with two. The upper storey will be made into a flat with three bedrooms. Each flat will have an electric installation and be provided with a bath and separate convenience.”*
This followed the conversion of “twelve back to back one –room-up-and-down cottages also on Silk Street into six houses, each with Kitchen, and scullery, two bedrooms and a bath."*
Pictures; extract from the Manchester Guardian, 1934 and part of Silk Street, 1894, from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1894 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
* Working Class Flats in Salford Converting an Old Police Station, Manchester Guardian April 7, 1934
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| From the Manchester Guardian, 1932 |
The police had been opened in 1867 on the east side of Silk Street between North Charles Street and North Thomas Street. Both of these vanished long ago for anyone wanting to find the spot on a modern map the best I can offer is to look for North Hill Street which once ran all the way up to Silk Street, and from that junction moved a little north towards Blackfriars Road and that’s the spot.
It continued as a police station until 1918 when it became “a place of detention for juvenile offenders” and was run by the Watch Committee.
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| Silk Street Police Station, 1894 |
The Council then sold the police station to Salford Housing Ltd who had deemed that the property could be converted in residential use.
The plan was to “turn the building into working-class self contained flats [with] two on the ground floor, one with one bedroom and other with two. The upper storey will be made into a flat with three bedrooms. Each flat will have an electric installation and be provided with a bath and separate convenience.”*
This followed the conversion of “twelve back to back one –room-up-and-down cottages also on Silk Street into six houses, each with Kitchen, and scullery, two bedrooms and a bath."*
Pictures; extract from the Manchester Guardian, 1934 and part of Silk Street, 1894, from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1894 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
* Working Class Flats in Salford Converting an Old Police Station, Manchester Guardian April 7, 1934
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