From the swish to the seedy …..

For nearly sixty years I have wandered the city seeking out the narrow back streets along with the fine new public places which sparkle and shine.

Crown Square, Spinneyfields, 2025

And I delight in the contrasts between places like the new Spinneyfields with its mix of glass and optimism with the grubbier and almost edgy streets which long ago have almost been forgotten.

So, a few days ago I took myself off into Spinnyfields  which seems to be constantly on the cusp of change and as you do ended up a little to the north around Bridge Street, Southgate and King Street West.

Wagon and Horses and New Shambles Street, 1851

In the 1970s we would often dip off the main roads and end up in one of those back street pubs known only to a select band of locals and those who chanced on upon them.

And one we did frequent was the Wagon and Horses on Southgate, because it was close to the old cinema on Deansgate and was perfect for an early drink.

Often, we would be there just after it reopened in that waiting time after the shops and offices had closed and before the clubs and restaurants came into their own.

Which meant that on most nights there would be a mix of office workers and shop assistants finishing the day with a drink and the night people meeting up before they “did” the evening.

It was a time which I liked when this bit of the city went quiet after a busy day but was filled with the expectation of the fun which was just around the corner.

What I didn’t know when we sat in the Waggon and Horses in the mid 1970s was that it was doing the business of serving up beer as far back as 1851 when it was surrounded on two sides by the Pig and Carcase Market and the Bridge Street Market.

Southgate, 2025

Back then this bit of Southgate was called New Shambles Street which given the markets made perfect sense.

The road is quite narrow  and gives off onto Back Bridge Street, which is even narrower, becoming more an alley than a street.

It’s a bit neglected and long ago most of the properties along its track turned their backs on the street. Only halfway along where Butter Lane joins Back Bridge Street are there premises that you can walk into and buy something.

But if you carry on down our narrow street there is nothing much to see, except more recently this drum which stands in an open doorway.

I suspect it is used as a sort of table by the staff who work at the restraint which looks out on to Trinty Square.

It struck me as looking a little forlorn and matched the entire length of our street.

And not content I went looking for the story of the place over the century after it was surrounded by the markets.  In 1951 much of the area had suffered from the aerial bombardments of the Second World War and the OS map of that year shows areas marked “Ruins” along with heaps of open spaces and an air raid shelter on King Street West.

At the bottom of Back Bridge Street, 2025

Even here you sense chabge is on th eplanning table to which l have to say the Waggon and Horses is now Mulligans.

Southgate and surrounding streets, 1951

All a little different from Spinneyfields.

Location; Spinningfields and Back Bridge Street

Pictures; Crown Square, Southgate and Back Bridge Street, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Wagon and Horses and New Shambles Street, 1851,  from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Southgate and surrounding streets, 1951 from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1951