On Hilton Street …… with one of those buildings with a bit of style and some unexplored history

Numbers 36 and 38 Hilton Street is one of those buildings I have passed countless times, and only vaguely wondered about its history.

That building on Hilton Street, 2021

It’s situated on that bit of Hilton Street which runs out onto the carpark, and is sandwiched between China Lane and Back Chine Lane.

Both lanes are narrow and according to the Pevsner Guide, Back Chine Lane was “a private street for loading with original gates at Nos 56 Dale Street”.*

And the surrounding buildings on both Hilton Street and Dale Street were given over to warehouses, which made perfect sense given that the canal basin for the Rochdale Canal Company once occupied the area adjacent to the two streets.

Added to which, an arm of the canal ran into the warehouse next to 36 & 38 Hilton Street in the 1840s and 1850s, while the site of our building was a timber yard, behind which was a stables, six residential properties and another warehouse which fronted Dale Street.

The area in 1851 showing the arm of the canal 

By 1901 the timber yard had been replaced by an engineering workshop, the stables were described as empty and partly in ruins, while the houses were all vacant and the Dale Street Warehouse had been partly converted into domestic use.

All of which meant that the entire strip from Hilton Street down to Dale Street between the two lanes was ripe for development, which my Pevsner Guide tells me was filled in 1909 by a new substantial building. 

This  was the work of R. Argyle and the Dale Street side “makes the most of its narrow frontage with a lively terracotta façade, sporting a curved oriel window and giant pilasters supporting a segmental pediment”**

The rear of which faced on to Hilton Street which is the building I have passed so many times.

Comparing the two frontages, I have to say that the Hilton Street side is equally impressive and the demolition of the buildings directly opposite for a temporary car park, offers a good vantage point to see the building at its best. 

In 1911 the occupants wee listed as a lithographer, and a General Warehouseman, while the Dale Street side was occupied by the Dailey News Office (Northern Edition).

In time I will trawl the directories to see who subsequent occupiers were, and no doubt someone will tell me who is there today.

Location; Manchester

Pictures, Hilton Street, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the Hilton Street, Dale Street area, 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

*Manchester, Clare Hartwell, Pevsner Architectural Guide, 2001, page 220

**ibid, Manchester, page 220