Bits of paintings no one wants .... Mr. Wrigley, beer sellar ..... and a stroll down Spear Street in 1851

Spear Street is one of those long thin streets which you either know intimately or stumble across by accident.

That bit of Spear Street in 2023

In my case it was almost by accident on one of those aimless strolls across the back streets of the city over 40 years ago.

And I keep going back.  

Too many it may seem very unremarkable, and not worth even the few minutes it takes to venture along it from Back Piccadilly Street up to Great Ancoats Street.

After all for most of its narrow length, even the buildings have turned their back on it, and the few which do open out on to the street are little more than shuttered entrances which long ago became the playground for graffiti artists with a spray can and little imagination.

Which brings me to my pictures of the wall almost opposite Faraday Street.

Back in 2016

This bit of Spear Street has long fascinated me not least because of the mystery of the moving street, which is Back Spear Street.*

On the 1849 and 51 maps it is directly opposite Faraday Street and contained seventeen properties along its length which ran off Spear Street and then took a right to run parallel with its name sake.

The street line is still there a century later, but now most of it has vanished under buildings and a tiny bit now comes out beside my wall with its few bits of paintings no one wants.

They were added sometime in 2017 and post date the image of a reclining naked woman which had been painted the year before.  Sadly the spray can brigade have obliterated her with  giant bubble writing in shades of green.

And that could pretty much be the end of the story but as if ever there is the inevitable twist which in this case focuses on the building which was the resting place of our young woman.  

And back in 1849

Google maps list it as 51 Spear Street and in 1851 the site was home to William Wrigley who listed his occupation as beer seller.  He had been selling beer and cheer since at least 1841, and a decade later had been joined by Matilda Wood at 55, and Richard Fox at 57 who made ginger beer.

And they had competition from two more beer sellers as well as the White Lion Tavern the Crown and Mitre and the Royal Olympic Tavern.

Mr. Wrigley’s business had an annual estimated rental value of £18 which was a tad higher than the stables located next door which is now a vacant plot.

But while the building looks the part, with that cellar window which the maps show had steps down to it I can't be sure.

So sadly perhaps no ghost of Mr. Wrigley to stir at the use of his wall as a venue for paintings and Bubble writing.

Location; Spear Street, Manchester

Pictures; Spear Street in 2023, and 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1849, 1844, from the OS of Manchester & Salford, 1844, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 39 ............. the mystery of the moving street, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2016/09/lost-and-forgotten-streets-of_13.html