Mrs McMinn’s beer shop ... the Fustian man.... and the music printer ….. lost and forgotten streets of Manchester no. 98 ….. Short Street

 Short Street is very short.

Short Street, 2024

And you might be excused if you failed to notice it, which is what I guess happens with most people walking up Tib Street on their way to Afleck’s Palace.

If I am honest, I am one of them.  But on Friday on another of those wet drizzly days I stopped to take a picture, and as you do wondered about its history.

Today it is sandwiched between the side of two tall buildings and finishes at the rear of the 33 Club.

Short Street, 1850

And in the last few years it has had its moments, so in the July of 2022, part of it was occupied by a tent for Crazy Pedro’s, while a little further back in time it was home to a big green container and in 2012 the door with its steps led down a narrow dark passage directly out on Oldham Street.

Look back at the old maps of the area and it’s the same street .... short by nature and short by name.

Although at one time it was joined by a slightly longer street called Garden Street, which ran  parallel to Tib and Oldham Streets.

It’s gone now and so have the tiny houses which in the 1850s were home to Sarah McMinn a widow who ran a beer shop, George Heap a fustian manufacturer, and Mr. Woodward who described himself as a “reed manufacturer employing “two men and a woman”.

Along with these there was a waste dealer, an agent, a music printer, and a waiter.

They lived with their families in the seven houses fronting Short Street and in total amounted to twenty-five souls.

Within a few decades the houses had been demolished, and the site occupied by industrial properties.

Now in time I will work back to see when Short Street was cut and explore the stories of 1850 residence but for now that is it.

Being young and silly, 2024

Leaving me just to thank the two young people who caught my attention in the bar of the corner of Tib and Short Street.  They asked me to take their picture and as a result I lingered a little longer than planned on Short Street

Location; Short Street

Pictures; Short Street, 2024 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1850 from Adshead’s Map of Manchester, 1850, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/