Roby Street – Manchester’s Other Infirmary …. a story from Anthony Hewitt

Recently as part of my genealogy research, I had received a copy of the Death Certificate* from the GRO# for a family member who had died at Roby Street Infirmary, Manchester. 

My immediate reaction was to question the location as Roby Street Infirmary was a place that I had never known. My quest to discover more had started.

William Hughes, 68, had been crossing City Road, Hulme, near his home, on the evening of Monday, 8th March 1943 when he was run down by a motor vehicle. 

He had been taken to Roby Street Infirmary, where he had died from his injuries.

Extract from Death Certificate for William Hughes, Columns 1, 6 & 7

Roby Street runs parallel to and between Piccadilly and Aytoun Street and the Infirmary had occupied an entire block between those two roads.

The photograph shows the rear elevation of Roby Street Infirmary in 1940, which faced onto Aytoun Street, which at the time of construction was not the major artery that it is today and had ended at the Rochdale Canal.

1922 OS 25” Map of Piccadilly Area of Manchester [NLS]

Roby Street Infirmary, Rear Entrances, Aytoun Street, 1940

The site of the infirmary had previously been occupied by the Grosvenor Street Chapel on Roby Street, and from 1901 by Roby Sunday School on Aytoun Street, named after William Roby, a former minister. The Sunday School only needed and had occupied only two upper floors of the building. 

Not only was the ground floor unnecessary but behind those intriguing, trellised window openings lay a dark secret.

An extract from Godfrey’s 1849 Map, clearly shows Roby Sunday School located on Aytoun Street and Grosvenor Street Chapel on Roby Street, separated by Chapel Yard, occupied the site that became Roby Street Infirmary. 

Roby Sunday School, Aytoun Street, 1901

Chapel Yard was a burial ground that reached as far as Aytoun Street**. 

It is reasonable to assume that the presence of those graves had prevented a ground floor in Roby Sunday School, except for that part needed by the stairs.

This raises the question of when those buildings had been demolished and the infirmary was built, and by whom. 

The question of what had happened to the remains of the unfortunates who had been laid to rest therein is not known to the author. 

Extract from Godfrey’s 1849 Map of Piccadilly, Manchester

A temporary workhouse for 200 inmates had been located on Minshull Street, 1847-8*** with a fever hospital on Millgate but a clue or red herring, only time and research will tell.

For several weeks after writing this story I kept asking myself how it was possible that, as a schoolboy I had ridden top deck on a No. 94 bus along London Road and Piccadilly, but I could not remember Roby Street Infirmary. 

A fleeting glimpse of memory recalled a heart on a building at the far end of Gore Street and brought the National Blood Transfusion Service out from the mists of time.

It is not possible for me to be certain but in all probability Roby Street Infirmary had closed as a hospital and been repurposed as the Central Blood Bank for Manchester many years earlier than my memories had 

Today, the site is occupied by apartments in what looks like a repurposed building.

National Blood Transfusion Centre, Roby Street, 1963

…And quite possibly by a few restless souls too.

Photographs: courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, 

Roby Street Infirmary, Rear Entrances, Aytoun Street, 1940, Manchester Libraries, m75488 https://images.manchester.gov.uk/web/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=82579&reftable=ecatalogue&refirn=2149

Roby Sunday School, Aytoun Street, 1901, Manchester Libraries, m69114 https://images.manchester.gov.uk/web/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=54277&reftable=ecatalogue&refirn=23890

National Blood Transfusion Centre, Roby Street from Gore Street, 1963, W. Higham, Manchester Libraries, m01891 https://images.manchester.gov.uk/web/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=10004&reftable=ecatalogue&refirn=66785 

Maps:

1922 OS 25” Map of Aytoun Street Area of Manchester; National Library of Scotland

1849 Map of Piccadilly, Manchester, Sheet 29; Alan Godfrey; John Anthony Hewitt Collection.

References:

# GRO: HM Passport Office, General Register Office

* Death Certificate for William Hughes, GRO Ref. 1943-Q1, Manchester, Vol. 8d, Page 10; John Anthony Hewitt Collection.

** https://manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk/buildings/roby-day-and-sunday-schools-aytoun-street-manchester 

*** http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Manchester/