Blink … and you could miss Soap Street

You could easily miss Soap Street.

Soap Street, 2026

It is one those narrow thoroughfares off Thomas Street which loops round to come out on High Street and should have a dark past full of stories as befits a chapter in a novel from Dickens where poverty and hopelessness vie with sinister tales of the underworld.

It should but I don’t think it does, in fact it’s a bit of a cheat, given that the stretch that runs into High Street wasn’t even called Soap Street but until recently was just Back Thomas Street.

Added to which for most of its length it runs past the back of buildings whose only claim is the low quality of the graffiti that adorns the walls.  That said the mural of the woman and the cat is worth a glance.

And there is that wonderful curry house that is This and That, which is unpretentious and in its own words is a “Longstanding family run Indian dining room serving a classic menu of Indian curries”.*

I fell across it by accident a few years ago and was not disappointed, and judging by the number of customers yesterday I wasn’t alone in thinking so.

Soap Street, circa 1900

But back to Soap Street, which was cut sometime after 1819 when Greenwood’s map of Manchester shows it as an open space.  

Thirty years later it seems to be home to some  anonymous unremarkable buildings which didn’t even warrant a mention in a street directory until the late 19th century when four businesses are listed at number 1 Soap Street in 1895, which falls to two listings eight years later.

That said in 1911 one of the businesses was “Marsden, Harcombe and Co bed and bedding manufacturer”.  

Now for any one with an interest in our iconic buildings that name will instantly bring forth  the comment “ah that magnificent green tiled entrance at 56 Marshall Street”.

Marsden, Harcombe & Co, Marshall Street, 2015

It dates from 1934, was the home of the Greater Manchester Archive and was a place I visited regularly.  

It was still there in the May of 2025 when I passed it, but the area is ripe for redevelopment so as they say watch this space.

And by extension I wonder the fate of the surviving old buildings on Soap Street which along with This and That is home to the restaurant Trop, The Kebab Lab and out on Shudehill the Lower Turks Head.

Well, we shall see

Location; Soap Street, and Marshall Street

Pictures; Soap Street, 2026,  from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Soap Street, 1900, from Goad’s Fire Insurance maps, courtesy of Digital Archive Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Marsden Harcombe & Company, Marshall Street, 2015, courtesy of  Phil Portus

Soap Street, 2026

*This & That Indian Cafe, Manchester, https://www.thisandthatcafe.co.uk/menu