What was lost is found .... the forgotten Manchester Baths in Mayfield

 Now like a lot of people I was fascinated at the news that “A large Victorian washhouse that served Manchester textile workers more than 150 years ago has been uncovered during work to create the city’s first public park in a century”.*

Leaf Street, 2016

It appeared on an online Guardian report on Sunday and promises to be very exciting, given that "The ornate tiles of the Mayfield baths, whose pools measured nearly 20 metres, were found in ‘stunning’ condition beneath a car park 164 years after it opened”.

Since then, Graham Mottershead, the project manager at Salford Archaeology, has been on radio 4 to explain the significance of the find, which  he said “is a fascinating example of the social and public health advancements that came about during the Industrial Revolution”.

The baths were opened in 1857 by the Manchester & Salford Baths and Laundries Company which had been formed two years earlier and had  built baths in Salford, as well as Mayfield, Victoria Park and Leaf Street in Hulme.**  Its assets were bought by Manchester Corporation in 1877. 

At the company’s first shareholder’s meeting on January 7th 1857, the company proudly announced the details of their first bathhouse in Greengate on a plot of land bounded by Rolla-street and Collier-street which was owned by the Salford Union.

Leaf Street, 2016

And having commissioned six architects to submit plans  of which three did, and while the successful plan was more expensive it was decided that it was affordable given that the demolition of the old workhouse would provide materials which could be used in the construction of the new building.

The Directors pointed out that “This establishment is placed  in the centre of a large and dense population with convenient thoroughfares and approaches leading thereto from every direction and is situated only eight minute’s walk from the Exchange”.***

And having opened the "Greengate establishment to public bathing on August 27th [1856] and the laundry on September 1st the receipts during the limited period have exceeded the most sanguine expectations …”

Leaf Street, 2016

So with the promise of even greater returns, the Directors announced that their second bathhouse was to be built at Mayfield in Ardwick.  

The company had already secured an “arrangement with the corporations of Manchester and Salford for a supply of water at the rate of 3d. per 1, 000 gallons of water" and having bought the plot expected the Mayfield Baths to be open on March 31st 1857.

They explained that “This establishment will be placed in the midst of a large and dense population .  The vendors of the land will construct a bridge over the Medlock by means of which , through Boardman-street, a ready and convient access from the districts of Ancoats as well as from all parts of Ardwick, will be secured”.

Mayfield 1924

The rest as they say is history, with the Baths being enlarged in 1925 only to be destroyed during the last world war.  The OS map for 1950 marks the site as “ruins” and the decision to just fill it in and use the site as a car park saved it.

But it isn’t the first of the company’s establishments to reappear into the daylight, because back in 2016 the Leaf Street comples was also redisvovered and excavated.  It had closed it 1977 and like Mayfield had just been filled in.

And it is from the Leaf Street baths that I have taken the pictures, which were taken by Andy Robertson.

Mayfield Baths, 1894

The Leaf Street remains show a striking similarity to those from Mayfield which is not unsurprising.  Sadly copyright considerations have precluded the use of those from the Guardian article, but I bet there will be more Mayfield pictures to see soon.

Location; Mayfield and Hulme.

Pictures; remains of Leaf Street Baths, 2016, from  the collection of Andy Robertson, the opening of the Public Washhouse Mayfield Baths, 1924, City Engineers, m57352, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and Mayfield Baths, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association,  http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Victorian bathhouse uncovered beneath Manchester car park, Josh Halliday, January 10th, 2021, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jan/10/victorian-mayfield-bathhouse-uncovered-archaeologist-beneath-manchester-car-park?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR1mK29vk49WyMlFafXQ2vSnx9ZXETrIUBtSxRHCJN1yjhEXiPBeIxxjAGM

**Leaf Street Baths, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Leaf+Street

***Manchester and Salford Baths and Laundries Company, the Manchester Guardian, January 8th, 1857