Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 95 Royton Street ...

 You won’t find Royton Street.

Spinningfields, 2020

It vanished long ago under the Spinneyfields development but for a century and more it lay between Hardman Street and Cumberland Street.

Not that you would have found it that easily, because it was one of those closed streets shut off by two narrow passages which gave off to more closed courts.  The curious or those in the know could access it by one of two streets which ran between Hardman and Cumberland Streets of which only one had been given a name.

Royton Street, 1849

To add to its obscurity, it failed to get into any of the street directories during the 19th century, but it did boast the St Mary’s Roman Catholic Chapel School.

But in 1851 it was home to 399 people who lived in 39 houses, nine of which were one roomed back-to-back properties, and the remainder, consisted of four rooms with weekly rents ranging from 1 shilling [5p] to 5s [25p].

Their occupations included textile workers, laboures, retired soldiers, a sailor, a French polisher and an architect’s assistant.  Added to these there were a number of skilled artisans including a group of “shoe makers” a tailor, a “Gold Beater” and “Cabinet maker”.

The east side of Royton Street, circa 1880-1900

During the course of the 19th century some of houses were replaced by industrial units, including two steam printers and a paper warehouse, so that by 1951, the western side of the street had been swallowed up by another printing press and all the houses along the entire length of the street had gone.

I can’t be sure when Royton Street was cut, but the first reference to it in the Rate Books is 1828, although there is a suggestion that it might have already been there by 1819.

It has yet to pass out of living memory and I am sure I will have known it, but with the passage of over 53 years these narrow streets off the beaten track were places you found by accident and didn’t always return to.

Today the closest I think the inquisitive will get to walking its length will be along the Avenue which runs down from Deansgate, past Spinningfields Square finishing in front of Manchester Crown Court.

The Avenue, 2020

On a pleasant day the shops, bars and restaurants which flank the Avenue on both sides attract plenty of passersby but perhaps not as many as the developers expected.  

Still the swish retail outlets and the swanky eating places are a long way from the Royton Street of the 1850s.

But I am drawn to that earlier place, partly because of the wealth of information about its inhabitants which shed light on how we lived 170 years ago in this part of the city, but also because there is a personal link.  

It is not me, but a Facebook friend whose family were on Royton Street from at least 1851 for two decades, and continued to live in the area up into the middle of the last century.

Royton Street, 1951

Alan Jennings who introduced me to his ancestors has written a vivid account of their lives, and in particular those who served during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars through to the Great War, and Alan’s own service with the Colours.

Now that is the story of personal history I like.

Location; Manchester

Pictures;  Hardman Street, and the Avenue, 2020, from  the collection of Andrew Simpson and Royton Street in 1849, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1844-49, and Royton Street circa 1880-1900 from Goad's Fire Insurance maps, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/and Royton Street 1951, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 19 ........... Back College Land and the vanished Press House Steps

Back College Land, 2016

Now Back College Land looks like it should have some dark and unseemly past with more than a few dreadful tales.

Sadly if they exist I haven’t found them.  Instead there is just this very narrow street connecting Parsonage with College Land.

I think I can date it to sometime between 1793, and the following year when what looks like our street ran back from College Land towards some open land bordering Parsonage.

Just a half century on from that and it is a clearly defined place with even narrower thoroughfares leading off into closed courts on its southern side and a stables on the northern corner beside Parsonage.

I had hoped that it might have a listing on the street directories but it doesn’t which means its residents are pretty much lost to us.  Although Parsonage has offered up names which were on the 1851 census, Back College Land has as yet to offer up its people.

Back College Land and Press House Steps, 1851

Having said that the return for Parsonage did reveal the details of those who lived directly opposite our narrow street.

These were the residents of Press House Steps.  The census records that 122 people lived in just 33 properties bordering the river.*

They worked at a mix of jobs including a porter, some textile workers, and as milliner along with some hat makers and even a poultry dealer.

In the absence of our people from Back College Land I rather think those of Press House Steps will prove most interesting.

We shall see.

And if they prove to yield up some stories it will be a fitting reminder of the people and the place given that it had been swept away by 1900 when the the showrooms and work place of Orme and Sons, makers of Billiard Tables stood on the site.

Location; Manchester

*Press House Steps, Enu 1bb, 20-24, Market Street, Manchester, 1851

Pictures; Back College Land, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Press House Steps, 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 36 Newgate ..... less a street and more a court

Now I didn’t expect to find Newgate on the directories, even when this picture was taken in the 1890s the inhabitants of this closed court were part of that unseen Manchester.

Newgate, 1890

To get to Newgate you had to turn off Long Millgate and go through an entry in a building which then led off to other smaller courts.

But even here it ranked as an insignificant address for while Pearsons Court which was the neighbouring court got a listing as a direction point in the directories for Long Millage, Newgate didn’t even warrant that.

So to all intents and purposes it might as well not have existed.

But the maps show it there and show at least eleven properties and in time with a bit of digging I will find it on the census and that in turn will offer up the names of the residents, their ages occupations and families.

Newgate, 1849

For now the best that I can offer the curious is to direct them along Corporation Street heading north and just beyond Hanover Street under that very big white building will be Newgate and Pearson’s Court.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Newgates, 1908, m8316, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Manchester City Council, Newgate in 1849, from the OS for Manchester & Salford, 1843-49 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 34 ............... the one most people forget

Today Back South Parade is the access and exit route for the big NCP car park and even before the scaffolding went up most people would agree it was a drab and uninviting street.

Back in 1903 it could at least boast a series of business ranging a shipping warehouse and print works to the Turkish Baths which traded under the name of “Herriott’s Turkish Baths Limited for ladies and gentlemen at 10 South Parade, St Mary’s Deansgate” and extended back on to Back South Parade.

This of course being a story from 2016, will acknowledge by now that the scaffolding will have come down. 

I hope.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Back South Parade 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Revisiting County Street ...... Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 96

 This is County Street which is so unremarkable that it’s another of those narrow side streets not even worth a glance.

County Street, 2026

It is situated off Mount Street between Central Street and Lloyd Street, and goes nowhere.

It has none of the mysterious promise of other small side streets which might entice you in.

True it is narrow enough but it is also very short, ends in a dead end and has no twisty bits which make you wonder what is round the corner.

By 1900 it was just what you see now, although then it was called Chapel Street and ran into the back of the Memorial Hall and which is now a restaurant.

Go back just another fifty years and the street was indeed a more twisty stretch continuing all the way down to Coach Makers Entry which ran from Jackson’s Row to Lloyd Street.

And had you turned into it from Mount Street in 1851  it would have led to Brignall’s Dye Works and a Tannery before going off north and  east taking in any properties and passing the backs of another six buildings before exiting out on Coach Makers Entry, where for good measure there was the Coach Makers Arms.

The street in 1851

I can’t be sure when it was cut but it will date from after 1819, and indeed just fifteen years earlier this was just open land with a pond where the Albert Square Chop House now stands.

So it may not be much now but go back long enough and there was a lot more to that dead end, with plenty of stories just waiting to be uncovered.

Location, Manchester

Pictures; County Street, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the street in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ................ nu 53 Silver Street, a bus station and some nasty history

Now this is Chorlton Street Bus Station in the 1960s and the image presents a bit of mystery, but more of that later.

Chorlton Street Bus Station, 1964

For now it is that gap between the office block and the ramp to the right of the picture and Chorlton Street which gave its name to the bus station which interests me.

That gap was the continuation of Silver Street.

You can still walk down Silver Street from Aytoun Street which ran on to David Street but my bit has vanished.

Back in the 1850s Silver Street and its neighbours were a warren of small closed courts leading off narrow alleys and filled with small back to back houses.

They were not perhaps the worst the city had to offer but they were neither the best.  In his case notes during the cholera outbreak of 1832, Dr Gaultier offers up a a vivid picture of the area. Chorlton Street he wrote “was tolerably clean and open but the vicinity crowded and populous.”*

Silver Street, 1849

But the home of the Bullock family was dire.

Mr and Mrs Bullock lived in one room with their two children and Mr Bullock’s mother.

The room was on the upper storey of a “filthy and crowded house” and was equally as “filthy.”

Even before they contracted cholera none were seen to be in good health and baby Martha aged eight months was “ricketty, and emaciated.”

In the course of just one week all of them died of cholera.

A month later our doctor was back in Silver Street attending Jane White who lived in a cellar and who died just days after contracting the disease.

Today Chorlton Street and Silver Street look far removed from the mass of courts, alleys and crowded houses of 1832 and that stretch of Silver Street occupied by Jane White is now underneath Chorlton Street Bus Station.

And here is the puzzle with that first picture, because read the histories of the bus station and they all agree that it was opened in 1950, redesigned in 1967 with the addition of the multi story car park and went through a major rebuild in 2002.

Major Street and the lost Silver Street, 1963

Now all of that is fine, but the caption on the picture offers up a date of 1964 which means that somebody is wrong.

I am confident someone will offer an explanation for the date of the rebuilt bus station and while I wait I suggest that those wishing to walk the past can just step back into the past can get a stab at it, because that vanished bit of Silver Street is now the entrance to a small car park between the back of Yates’ and the car park ramp, while the small road that runs along the bus station is the continuation of Major Street, but that is for another time.

Silver Street, 2016

But that is not quite all, because soon after I posted the story Andy Roberston sent me this picture of the corner of Silver Street where it joins Princess Street.

In may haste to complete the story I had failed to go looking for any more of Silver Street.  So the intrepid seeker after lost streets of Manchester can walk along another bit of my street, although it does end in a car park.

Location; Manchester

*The Origin and Progress of the Malignant Cholera in Manchester, Henry Gaulter M.D., 1833case notes no 5-8, page 162 and nu 71, page 178

Pictures; Chorlton Street Bus Station,  W. Higham, 1964, m56893, the ramp under construction 1963, W. Higham, m56982, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  Silver Street from Andy Robertson  2016, and detail of Silver Street 1849 from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1849, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 34 Mallard Street

It’s one of those little streets which run off Charles Street and which are cut short by the river and the railway viaduct.

For most people Charles Street will be the one that leads to the Lass a Gowrie pub and until its demolition was fronted by the side of the BBC Building which lasted just over 30 years.

Andy Roberston was there in 2012 just after the building which was the The Okasional Cafe had also been demolished.

The spot like so many is now a car park waiting redevelopment, leaving me also to wonder what will become of the old HSBC Bank on the corner of Charles Street and Oxford Road, which closed one day without me even knowing.

Location; Manchester

Picture, Mallard Street, 2012, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Discovering the forgotten

I don’t suppose Charles Taylor or his wife Ann would have been much surprised that their home has not survived.

Taylor's Court, 1849

In 1851 they were living in Taylor’s Court which was one of those tiny places sandwiched between other streets.   All our towns and cities had their share of these courts which were often a byproduct of in filling where a builder or speculator fell on an open space and built a few houses for rent.

In the case of Taylor’s Court there were just five such houses which were accessed through two narrow passages.  The properties commanded rents of 2/3d which were not the cheapest rents in the area but not far off.  I can’t be sure of the size of the five houses, but they show up on maps of the period as back to backs, so it is most likely that they were one up one downs.

And like other streets in the immediate vicinity there was a degree of overcrowding.  So, while in four of the houses the number of inhabitants ranged from 2 to four people, at number 1 the Taylor’s squeezed a total of six family members and a lodger their home.

The occupations of the residents were typical of the area, and included those who worked in textiles, shoe and dress making, and others engaged as labourers and launderesses.

Taylor's Court and surrounding streets, 1849

Their origins were equally mixed, with 5 of the 20 having been born in Ireland and the rest from Manchester, Cheshire, Cumberland, and Scotland.

But at least they could give an address, which was more than could be said of the Holland and Horan families who lived in the narrow passage which gave access to Taylor’s Court.  The census records their address as Stock’s Court but on maps of the period it appears as No. 1 Passage, and in the Rate Books, as just a Court attached to the list of properties on Royton Street and are not recorded in any of the street directories.

Taylor's Court moves, circa 1900

I have no idea when Taylor’s Court vanished but Goad’s Insurance maps, which cover the last two decades of the 19th century show them still in place, but the passageway has been renamed Taylor’s Court, and the original location has lost its houses and its length is described as “Wood Hoardings 40’ high. 

The remnants my have lingered on, but by 1951 it and the eastern side of Royton Street had been subsumed by industrial units. 

And just as the properties have faded so have the residents of the two courts, and despite a trawl of the census returns I have only been able to trace two.  In 1841 Charles Taylor was living in the Deansgate area, but after 1851 has so far disappeared from the official records.

The search for Thomas Holland has proved a tad more successful.  I know he was from Cheshire and that his younger brother farmed over 200 acres.

In 1841 he was still living with his family but ten years later he was in Stocks Court where he was renting the house and a workshop.  In both the census for that year and the street directories he gave his occupation as Whitesmith which my Wikipedia describes as “a metalworker who does finishing work on iron and steel such as filing, lathing, burnishing or polishing. The term also refers to a person who works with "white" or light-coloured metals, and is sometimes used as a synonym for tinsmith”*

All gone, 1951

A decade later he and his wife were on Shaw Street in Salford, still working as a Whitesmith, on a street which appears to be only a marginal step up from that Court off Deansgate.

All of which is a little confusing, given that on the 1871 census while visiting his brother he describes himself as “gentleman”, which only adds to the mystery of his birthplace, which on all the official documents is different.

Of course we maybe dealing with different men, but the other details of occupation, wife and age all would suggest we are dealing with the same man, and I doubt I will resolve the confusion.

Location; Manchester, Salford and Cheshire

Pictures; Royton Street in 1849, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford, 1844-49, and Royton Street circa 1880-1900 from Goad's Fire Insurance maps, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/and Royton Street 1951, from the OS map of Manchester and Salford

*Whitesmith, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitesmith

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 11 Dalton Entry

Now this is a bit of a cheat, because I have already written about this little alleyway which leads in a twisty way to Tasle Alley and Mulberry Street and the Hidden Gem.

But that won't stop me.

Location; Manchester

Picture; 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 9 Town Hall Lane

Now this is Town Hall Lane and looking at it you half expect that it would once have gone somewhere but was long ago doomed to become a dead end by the grand plan of a developer.

But not so as early as the 1790s it led off from Cross Street and finished at the back of a building.

That said in 1793 you could have walked along its length stepping off into a side alley on the northern side and by degree squeezing down a very narrow alley onto Tib Lane.

But by the 19th century our lane just ran beside Town Hall buildings and so hence the name.

Not that any of the maps bothered to record a name, although Goad's Fire Insurance map did refer to it as Town Hall Buildings.

But by then the Town Hall had gone, replaced by the more majestic one in Albert Square.

I have Antony to thank for alerting me to this one.  I have to confess that in all of my 40 odd years in the city I had not once given it a thought.

Location; Manchester

Pictures;Town Hall Lane, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 46 ........ Cavell Street, Late Nightingale Street

Now on the day I wandered down Cavell Street the sun was shining and even this bleak and empty side street seemed inviting.

It connects Newton Street with Little Lever Street

Back in 1851 it was Nightingale Street and had you plunged down it  from Newton Street on a sunny day back then you would have passed a collection of properties, an entry into a courtyard and at the other end the Haunch of Venison public house which stood in direct competition with its near neighbour the Wellington which is now Mother Mac’s.

That said even in 1851 it was not deemed important enough an entry in the street directory

Location; Manchester

Pictures, looking into Piccadilly Gardens, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ........ nu 81 Roman Entry

This is Roman Entry.

Roman Entry, 2017

It connects Church Street to what has variously been known as Roman Street and Back Alley and long ago lost even its name.

Now I must have passed Roman Entry many times over the years and not even given it a glance and even less ventured down what is a very narrow thoroughfare.

Roman Entry, 1910

But then why should I?

On any busy day taking time off to explore a dark and dismal alley might well seem a waste of time.

These days however I have the time and have also rediscovered my sense of curiosity for back alleys, narrow passages and forgotten streets which offer the promise of all sorts of history.

In the case of Roman Entry, it is there by 1793 and will in all probability be much older.  From the 1840's if not earlier part of the alley was enclosed and formed part of a building.

Looking at the records, subsequent buildings were built on the site incorporating the entry.

In 1910 the building was home to the hosiery business of F.C. Lowcock ad earlier still was listed as a Boot and Shoe warehouse and before that as various types of “manufactury” back into the 1850’s, and even was shared a linen manufacturer and an artificial flower maker.

And with a bit more research using the rate books we might be able to discover the uses for that building back into the late eighteenth century.

We shall see.

Location; Roman Entry

Pictures; Roman Entry, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1910, by J. Jackson, m01696, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 39 ............. the mystery of the moving street

Now this entrance looks as if it should go somewhere and back in 1851 it did.

What should be Back Spear Street, 2016

This is Back Spear Street which is off Spear Street.

Spear Street  is one of those streets that connects Hilton Street to Great Ancoats Street.

It is narrower than Oldham and Lever Streets which run parallel but it still offers up some interesting sights including a few of those new wall painting which are everywhere in the Northern Quarter.

And it has a mystery in that Back South Street seems to have moved.

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.

In time I will go looking for its residents, and that search might also reveal why what is now called Back Spear Street starts a little further north and still has an echo of that dog leg set up.

Back Spear Street, 2016

I must admit that at first this did confound me but Goads Fire Insurance map and the current street plan place it closer to Warwick Street than it was.

I don’t have an answer and I suspect the search might not prove doing.

So instead having featured the entrance to the old Back Spear Street and its rival I shall close with the building that stands beside our earlier one.

In 1851 this spot was listed as livery stables, from where a Mr William White ran a coach business.

Almost thirty years later it was the site of a glass manufacturer and by 1903 was specializing in the manufacture of millinery products.

The building beside the old street entrance, 2016

I can’t date our building and so it will have to be a trawl of the rate books but it does post date 1851 and having been at the mercy of the fly poster it does now have one of those Northern Quarter paintings.

And that just leaves me with the mystery because if you follow the directories over the years Back Spear Street seems to where I first found it but that conflicts with our maps.

All very strange.

Which just leaves someone to come up with the answer.

Location; Manchester

Pictures, Spear Street up and down its length, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 18 Marriot's Court

This is Marriot’s Court which for some people will just be a cut through from Spring Gardens to Brown Street and for others that narrow little street beside the Post Office.

Marriot's Court, 2016

But for me it is one of my favourite little streets, more so because back in the 1970s the building opposite the Post Office was home to a Curry House and a little jewellery shop which always caught my eye.

If I am honest I never clocked its name or for that matter the history behind the street.

Had I paused to think about the origins of Marriot’s Court I might have wondered who Marriot was and where the court was situated.

The court was easy enough to find it was on the north side of the street under what is now the Post Office and was there by 1793.*

But as to who Marriot was that has proved more difficult.  In 1775 a Thomas Marriot was the Borough Reeve for Manchester which was the most important municipal post and just twenty years later there are four Marriot’s listed in the street directory for 1774.

So you can take your pick from Mrs Marriot who lived at nu 6 Princess Street, Richard Marriot, a “fustian manufacturer" listed at the Bridgewater Arms yard, Christopher Marriot manufacturer who lived on Alport Street and William Marriot, yarn merchant residing at 41 Cannon Street.

Any one of these might have gone in for some speculative building leaving their name as testimony to their enterprise but I just don’t know.

Marriot's Court, 1851

The Rate Books are no help for while there is a William Marriot listed in 1768 and a Richard Marriot in 1798 neither has properties on Marriot Court and there are no others listed for the period from 1768 until 1802.

As for the occupants of the court which provided part of the streets name there no records although we do know that in 1850, at nu 9 there was Spencer John & Son  who were manufacturers, along with Samuel Sedgewick Goodwin, solicitors and John Prince, share broker.

Marriot's Court, 1900

Later in the century all the properties on the northern side were swept away to be replaced by the Post Office.  Work began on the new building in 1881 and was finished six years later which in turn was demolished in the 1960s.

I just missed visiting the old Post Office by a few years which is a shame particularly because I would have been able to see the large memorial to the men of the Manchester Post Office who died in the Great War.

It consists of a Winged Victory at the centre, holding a flaming torch flanked by a young boy and girl and at their feet are the symbols of war including a helmet and a sword.

After the closure of the Post Office the memorial went on its travels and currently resides the entrance to the Royal Mail Sorting Depot on Oldham Road.

Now I could have just left it there but in trawling the Annals of Manchester I came across this entry for 1775 when Mr Thomas Marriot took up his office of Borough Reeve, “the Theatre Royal, in Spring Gardens was built and opened on June 5.  The first stone was laid of the Gentleman’s Concert Room in Fountain Street.  

Marriot's Court, 1793

Mr Richard Arkwright took out another patent for carding, drawing and moving frames.

The ducking-stool was still in use.  

It was an open bottomed chair of wood, placed upon a long pole, balanced on a pivot, and suspended over a sheet of water at Pool Fold***  I

t was afterwards suspended over the Daub-holes- the Infirmary Pond – and was used for the purpose of punishing scolds and disorderly women.”****

Now I have no idea what Mr or Mrs Marriot would have made of all that or whether they frequented the Theatre Royal or even if they took a stroll down to Pool Fold but two centuries and a bit on I suspect they would have been a little miffed that their court had disappeared.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Marriot's Court, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Marriot's Court, 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, in 1900 from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps,  and in 1793, from Laurent's map, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Laurent’s Map

**Scholes Directory, 1794

***Pool Fold ran from Chapel Walks to St Market Street and is part of Cross Street

****Axon, W.E. The Annals of Manchester, 1885, p103

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 37 ........ Market Place again

This is another of those streets which has not only been forgotten but was lost forever in the redevelopment of the area on the northern side of Market Street in the late 1960s and 70s.

Market Place, circa 1886

For the curious wanting to try and locate where it once began on Market Street stand with your back to the Royal Exchange, just a little up from Exchange Street facing Marks and Spencer and you are pretty much looking at it.

Today  there is an echo in the still relatively recently cut  New Cathedral Street heads off in the same direction as our old street.

Mr Kenyon's pub

Now I can’t be sure of the date of the picture, but in 1886 Samuel Kenyon was running the Wellington Inn and opposite him Mr S Hanson was dealing in all manner of “hosiery” shirts and a lot more.

Nine years later and the Wellington was being run by Mrs Elizabeth Kenyon and a Mr James S Hanson is trading from the property opposite.

Of course our picture postcard has been retouched and was sent in 1905, long after Mr Samuel Kenyon had passed on.

All of which is a lesson in what you do with a picture postcard of a historic part of the city.

And that is about it.

There will be people who remember the old Market Place and the shed load of little streets courts and alleys that led off.

Market Place circa 1880s

Which just leads me to make an appeal for any stories, pictures or memories of the place that Derek the Developer did for it

I am sure that these may well include some of those fascinating places with names like Blue Boar Court, Bull Heads Yard, Sun Entry and Angel Yard.

Well we shall see.

And for the very observant, yes Market Place did feature in an early story in the series, but back then I had forgotten I had this fine image of the place, and so what goes round comes round.

Or something like that.

Now for those wanting to recreate the walk, you can't.

New Cathedral Street, 2016

The best I can offer is the map, some pictures which can be found on Manchester's Local Image Collection and New Cathedral Street, which as I said almost follows the same route.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Market Place, circa 1886, from the collection of Mrs Bishop, New Cathedral Street, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson,  and and the area in the circa 1880s from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 10 Four Yards

Now I was never much good at maths or for that matter being able to make judgments about distance.

So I can’t say whether the distance between John Dalton Street and King Street is Four Yards.

To be fair the Laurent’s map  of 1793 suggests that it might have only run from John Dalton Street to South Kings Street and our little stretch might have not actually been part of the original.

Look closely at its alignment now and back 223 years ago and it doesn’t quite match up.

All of which just leaves someone to go and measure the distance or better still unearth some dusty document which gives a definitive answer.

So for now I will continue to use it as a alternative to a very busy Cross Street.

Location; Manchester



Picture; Four Yards, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 8 the one with the umbrellas

It's that short cut through that takes you from King Street to South King Street and of course it is the one with the umbrella's half way along and some delightful stone motifs.

I can't remember when the umbrella's appeared but they are one of the fun things I liked to show visitors.

I have to confess I didn't know it had a name, but according to Goad's Fire Insurance maps of the late 19th and early 20th centuries it is listed as St Ann's Passage.

In time I will track its history but it was there by 1849 as a covered passageway and back in 1793 was an open lane connecting King Street to what was then Back King Street.

So who would have thought that this cut through had a history?

All of which just leaves me to ask if anyone remembers the umbrella's being installed.

I rather think it was the mid 1970s but I can't remember.

I am guessing some of the motifs were made at the same time.

And that is it other than to say the umbrellas have now gone, which l think diminishes it's charm.



Location; Manchester









Pictures; between King Street and South King Street, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 7 County Street

This is County Street which is so unremarkable that it’s another of those narrow side streets not even worth a glance.

County Street, 2016

It is situated off Mount Street between Central Street and Lloyd Street, and goes nowhere.

It has none of the mysterious promise of other small side streets which might entice you in.

True it is narrow enough but it is also very short, ends in a dead end and has no twisty bits which make you wonder what is round the corner.

By 1900 it was just what you see now, although then it was called Chapel Street and ran into the back of the Memorial Hall and which is now a restaurant.

Go back just another fifty years and the street was indeed a more twisty stretch continuing all the way down to Coach Makers Entry which ran from Jackson’s Row to Lloyd Street.

And had you turned into it from Mount Street in 1851  it would have led to Brignall’s Dye Works and a Tannery before going off north and  east taking in any properties and passing the backs of another six buildings before exiting out on Coach Makers Entry, where for good measure there was the Coach Makers Arms.

The street in 1851

I can’t be sure when it was cut but it will date from after 1819, and indeed just fifteen years earlier this was just open land with a pond where the Albert Square Chop House now stands.

So it may not be much now but go back long enough and there was a lot more to that dead end, with plenty of stories just waiting to be uncovered.

Location, Manchester

Pictures; County Street, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the street in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 5 Bow Lane

Now I am not surprised that Bow Lane rarely features in the street directories.

These were the books which were issued annually from the 1780s up to 1969 and listed the streets, the residents and the businesses in the city.

Bow Lane which runs from Cross Street over Clarence Street and then twist on to Princess Street seems unworthy of much of a mention; although to be fair there were two listings for 1911.

And twists it does widening as it travels up from Cross Street but now just a cut through for anyone wanting to avoid the main streets. That said it does offer an opportunity to look into the Town Hall Tavern.

Location; Manchester



Pictures; Bow Lane, 2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 78 Gaythorn Street and a pub

I like the way that a demolition site can reveal a rare glance of a building which has pretty much been hidden for a very long time.

The City Road Inn, 2016

In the case of the City Road Inn it is more that it dispels the idea that this is a very big pub.

Seen from the corner of Whitworth Street West and Albion Street the pub looks to be a big place but looks can be deceptive and as Andy’s photograph shows the building is much smaller.

It was built in the late 19th century but stands on the site of an earlier pub which carried the same name back to 1849 when it was the Hawthorn Tavern.

And for those wanting more on the lost streets of Manchester,  Whitworth Street West was originally Gaythorn Street and predates the Rochdale Canal which runs along its northern side.

Gaythorn Street, 1794

As early as the 1790s part of the southern side beside Knott Mill was already developed and within half a century the area was a densely packed mix of small back to backs, some bigger properties and a few closed courts.

And no sooner had the story gone out when P J Thompson added the comment, "When did the nearby Gaythorn Tavern disappear? 

It was still there around 1980-ish."

The Gaythorn Inn, 1971

Now I had assumed that the Gaythorn had gone a long time ago and had become part of the City Road Inn.
But not so and again I have P J to thank who came up with a picture and the comment,

"Definitely not, it was on the junction of Albion Street. and Hewitt Street."

All of which will send me back off into the wonderful realms of research, and of course offer up a thank you to PJ.

Hewitt Street, 1954

And in turn let me wander back across the Local Image collection , where I found this one of the same pub in 1954.

Now I do like it but then I have always been a sucker for pictures through arches.

But as we have strayed someone what from the original post I shall stop three.

Location; Manchester






Picture; the City Road Inn, 2016, from the collection of Andy Robertson, the Gaythorn Inn, 1971, A Dawson, m49641, Hewitt Street 1954 H Mulligan, m26104, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the map of the area from Green's map of Manchester, 1794, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/