Marshall Street ….. that place of derelict buildings …. open spaces ….. and car parks

Now, you know something is going to happen to Marshall Street.

It is after all in the middle of the new developments which are seeing this part of Ancoats buzz in a way it hasn’t since the industrialists and speculative builders of the late 18th and early 19th century started transforming the fields on the edge of the city into that complex of factories, ironworks, terraced houses, and canals.

The signs are all there from the derelict buildings, the already open spaces, and the carpark which was the Hat and Feathers.  It closed sometime around 2005 and was swept away four years later.

I was a regular visitor to the street from the 1970s when I was aimlessly wandering the city, and more recently when the County Records Office was situated in the Marsden Marcombe building with its stunning green tiled entrance.

And this week Andy on an essential trip out was also drawn to walk the street.

As his pictures show there is every sign that something is a foot.  

That said the last planning application for this building was in 2005, when the developers wanted to erect a mixed residential and commercial complex with 182 apartments, office space and space to accommodate 225 cars.

But the planning application only extended for 5 years, and as far as I can see there have been no fresh plans put forward.

So for now at least Marshall Street remains a bit of a ghost place, despite the presence of one block of flats, it sits and waits, and mirrors the ghost site for the Hat and Feathers which is still there on the internet which registers its presence, but does at least record that it is closed.

Location; Marshall Street

Pictures; Marshall Street, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson