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/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 2 Pool Fold

Back Pool Fold is one of those twisty little thoroughfares which you think must have a rich and varied history and at sometime have offered up more than a few dark stories.  

Back Pool Fold, 2015

But for now it’s the name that provides a clue to how this bit of the city has changed and it all hangs on the word Back which suggests there must once have been a Pool Fold and sure enough in the late 18th century there was.

It was the continuation of Cross Street which in 1793 terminated at the corner with Chapel Walks leaving Pool Fold to creep up to Market Street past what was then the New Shambles.

And as such would have been familiar to those Dissenters who attended the Cross Street Chapel which dates from 1694 and which is the origin of the name Chapel Walks.

There will be many who remember walking down Chapel Walks past the grassed area at the rear of the chapel and clocking that this was the site of the graveyard.

It vanished under the last rebuild of the chapel in 1997, which is the fourth place of worship to occupy the site.

The first was opened in 1694, and destroyed by a mob in 1715, its successor succumbed to an air raid in December 1940 and the replacement built in 1959 survived for four decades.

Pool Fold, from Market Street to Cross Street, 1793

Now I bet there will be someone out there who can offer up an exact date for the moment that Pool Fold became the continuation of Cross Street.

For now I know that in 1794 it was still going under its old name, and by 1849 had been lost to history.

All of which just leaves me to mention Sam’s Chops House.

It cannot claim to have stood on its present site for that long, having opened at Back Fold Place in the 1950s although it does date back to 1872 when Mr Samuel Studd opened his restaurant under the grander name of Sam’s London Chop House.

It was situated in Manchester Chambers on the corner of Market Street and Pall Mall.

The building has long gone but once and not that long ago this corner was home to the UCP shop which for those who don’t know was the United Cattle Products Company which had a chain of 146 restaurants.

You entered from that corner, went up a large staircase into the restaurant and there amongst many cattle products on offer was tripe.

Once Pool Fold, now just part of Cross Street, 2016

We only went in once and never bothered with the pub next door on Pall Mall.  It was called the Tavern and

I can’t say it looked inviting.  There was one entrance, and the windows ran in a long strip high up on the wall.

All of which may seem a long way from Pool Fold but perhaps not given the connection between the UCP, the Shambles clearly shown on the map and the many meat dishes offered up by Sam’s, but then as a veggie I think that is where I shall close.

Other than to say with all the work on Cross Street in connection with the Second City Crossing it will be interesting to see if anything new comes out of the ground.

After all earlier in the year work was slowed by the discovery of burials along the route which may have been from the Cross Street Chapel.

Next; Tasel Alley

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Back Pool Fold, 2015 courtesy of Andy Robertson, Pool Fold 1793 from Laurent’s map of Manchester 1793, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ Cross Street 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 

Looking for the lost 32 cottages and 15 cellars, home to 208 people

Looking down Commercial Street, 2015

Now I first wandered down Commercial Street sometime in the 1980s looking for Omega Street, and its neighbours Alpha Street and Fogg’s Place.

And I must have missed them by just a few years.

That said I don’t think they would have featured in any glossy guide to comfortable inner city living.

In 1853 they had formed a complex of back to back housing consisting of 32 cottages and fifteen cellars inhabited by 208 people.*

Commercial  Omega Street, 1849

Directly opposite was the Egerton Mill, while behind them there were two more and the surrounding area was dominated by more textile mills, a handful of iron works and the Hulme Brewery.

And I doubt even the most optimistic estate agent could gloss over the noise from the nearby railway or the smell from the river Medlock which flowed in a curve close by.

Back in the 1980s you could still see the outline of the house walls in what at the time was a temporary car park but when I returned some 20 years later these had vanished under new tarmac and there was nothing left to show what had once been there.

Looking across to Omega Street from Commercial Street, 2002

Now another eighteen years on and the surrounding buildings had either been demolished or made genteel and the worst I suspect in the form of pollution comes from the noise of loud music in the flats opposite or the conversation of the office workers making their way home.

And even that car park is now boarded up which may soon mean even space inhabited by those three streets and 32 cottages will be lost for ever.

Location, Manchester

Pictures; Commercial Street, 2014 courtesy of Andy Robertson, Omega Street, 2003 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and area in 1849 from the OS for Manchester & Salford, 1842-49, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

* Report of the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association 1853

What we have lost ....... inside the Corn Exchange

I really liked this metal and glass structure.

It was in the Corn Exchange beside Exchange Square, and I always thought it was an innovative way to fill a space.

Added to that I rather enjoyed sitting in there sipping an espresso and waiting for the shopping expedition to finish.

But it has gone since then the space around it was transformed from a retail centre to a series of themed restaurants from Italian, to Thai, and many more.

The Corn Exchange is a listed grade II building and was originally the Corn and Produce Exchange built in 1897 and opened in 1903.

Its role as an important centre for business suffered during the 1920 and 30s and and by the time I arrived in Manchester in 1969 its role as a trading floor were over.

But I remember it as a place full of independent traders ranging from second records and comics to clothes and jewellery.

You could spend hours wandering the stalls on the trading floor and in the surrounding rooms, but that IRA bomb did for all this.

The building was severely damaged and many of the traders relocated to what has become the Northern Quarter, and the building was redeveloped as the Triangle specialising in swish retailing, but it never seemed as busy in later years, and despite a re branding in 2012 seemed to miss a trick.

And then it closed reopening as an interesting place to eat.


Location; Manchester









Pictures; interior of the Triangle, July 2013

*Corn Exchange, Manchester, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_Exchange,_Manchester

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 20 ............. Market Place

New Cathedral Street, 2016

Now I like the way that history has a habit of repeating itself.

So here is New Cathedral Street which runs from Market Street to Exchange Square.

Like me there will be many who remember it being cut in the 1990s following the IRA bomb.

But I had totally forgotten that less than a century ago there was a similar thoroughfare that pretty much followed the same route from Market Street towards the Cathedral.

Market Place, 1900

Back then it was called Market Place and continued as Old Millgate before joining Cateaton Street at Cathedral Gates.

In the 1850s a stroll down the two streets would have taken you past the Wellington Inn, the Black Boy and the Falstaff Taverns, as well as offering up the Fish Market, Fruit Market and the Poultry and Meat Market.

A full fifty years later and while some of the buildings and their usage might have changed the route was still as narrow and twisty leading to the Old Shambles.

And for those of a more adventurous or careless approach  running parallel was a short stretch of Corporation Street which gave access to a string of tiny streets and courts with names like Bull’s Head Yard, Blue Boar Court Sun Entry and Paradise Court.

Market Place, 1851

Now none of those have been recreated, they sit under the new Marks and Spencer and Selfridge stores.

But armed with a few old maps and with a bit of imagination you can at least walk along New Cathedral Street and the ghost of Market Place.

And of course at certain times of the year when the outdoor Markets have come to town there is that added bit of interest from the stalls which might just give up a flavour of the area as it was in the past.

Location; Manchester

Picture, New Cathedral Street, 2016, & Market Place, 1900, from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, and in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 16 down along Scotland by the Irk

Now I wonder how many people who live in the high rise blocks of flats on Scotland have much knowledge of its past.

Scotland, 2016

It is one of those odd streets in Manchester which run down from Red Bank following the bend in the river Irk.

I first came across it in the late 1970s when the old slums that had once dominated Red Bank had vanished leaving just a vast expanse of empty space waiting for something to happen.

Once the area had been a dense warren of streets home to part of the Jewish Community who had settled here and across in Strangeways.

To the west just over Ducie Street was the Workhouse and to the south the river and the railway lines of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

Scotland, 1851

In the 1890s looking out from the row of back to back houses that ran along Scotland its residents were just a short walk from a tannery, the Red Bank Spring and Axel Works and a shed load of small workshops.

Go back just fifty years and you could have added a piggery, lime pits, timber yard and a rope works to the industrial scene.

In time I shall go looking for the inhabitants of Scotland, trawling the census returns for the details of their lives, although I doubt that any will appear in the directories.   In 1911 Salter’s Directory never bothered to include it in the list of streets which says a lot of the level of poverty of the area.

All of which will be in direct contrast today.

Pictures; Scotland, 2016 from the collection of Antony Mills, and Scotland, 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 3 Tasle Alley

Now Tasle Alley is one of those places most people will pass without a second glance.

It is the gap almost on the corner of John Dalton Street and Albert Square which with its double yellow lines which often looks dark and gloomy can’t be much of an attraction.

On the other hand for the curious that little ginnel beside New Church House on John Dalton Street suggests an adventure and if you plunge in the tunnel leads on to Tasle Alley and through a second tunnel to Mulberry Street and St Mary’s Chapel which is more popularly known as the Hidden Gem.

As late as 1849 Tasle Alley lay open on its northern side but within two years that open land had been built on and it became the narrow alley we know today and as these things go it didn’t even warrant a listing in the street directory.

I had thought that just perhaps because the buildings seem to date from 1851 they had missed being incorporated in the street directory for 1850, but no, Mr Slater's fine Directory for 1863 stubbornly refused to list  anything for the alley.

Tasel Alley, 1849

By 1900 the alley had a set of warehouses which were mainly furniture and printing with a wine merchants and a set of offices.

So that is about it.




Location; Manchester





Picture; Tasle Alley, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1849 from the OS of Manchester & Salford, 1842-49, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

Sun … that pervading smell of burning …. and a worsening air quality

Today, on another hot day across the city and beyond we are still experiencing the fall out from the moors fire above Oldham. 

The Manchester Evening News tells me that “The huge moor fires near Dovestone Reservoir in Oldham and on Tintwistle Moor near Glossop are continuing to send huge plumes of smoke across our region and beyond”*.

And inevitably the air quality has taken a nose dive, with  Stockport, udged as unhealthy.

While other areas in Greater Manchester, including  Withington, Hulme and Chorlton have been classified as 'moderate', and yet other areas being good according to the Air Quality Index.**

Over the last few days, the degree of intrusion has varied and this morning at six the air was fresh but by midday it was poor and there was a distinct haze across the Rec.

Happily, by midafternoon the effects of the fire were less visible here in Chorlton but on a day when it would be pleasant to have the windows slightly open they have remained closed.

Location; Greater Manchester

Picture; The Rec, Beech Road, Chorlton, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*New Greater Manchester air quality map shows devastating moors fires impact with one borough hardest hit by smoke, Charlotte Fisher, Reporter, Manchester Evening News, July 14th, 2026, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/new-greater-manchester-air-quality-34286797

**Air quality in Manchester, https://www.iqair.com/gb/air-quality/uk/england/manchester

Taking the curve into Shudehill ………….

Now I am a fan of our tram network, and I never tire of watching them move across the city at a stately pace, taking the curves and twists bequeathed by our old road network.

Taking the curve into Shudehill, 2022

All of which says much for the skill of the Metro engineers who managed to plot routes using those roads some of which date back into the late 18th century.

And one of my favourite spots is Balloon Street where trams effortlessly take the bendy way up from Corporation Street crossing Dantzic Street before sliding into the Shudehill stop.

Before the tram Balloon Street was just a cut through up from Victoria Station which I sometimes also used to visit the Co-op archives.

But now the route is closed to traffic and is exclusively given over to the trams which emerge from the canyon like street flanked by tall buildings with a bit of grace.

Location; Manchester

Picture; taking the curve into Shudehill, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Fires over Oldham .... July 2026

I woke to the distinctive smell of smoke this morning.   

"Fires in the distance", 2018

It had been there last night and at the time I put it down to someone close by burning unseasoned wood as part of a BBQ.

After all England were two hours away from playing Norway in the World Cup and across the country families were preparing for the event with a pre match get together over warm beer, singed sausages and sad looking salad.

But no, this was another of those Moorland fires which may have been caused by a spark from a careless BBQ, discarded cigarette or just the action of the sun on a piece of broken glass.

The Manchester Evening News tells me  that "last night Emergency services are on the scene following reports of a huge moor fire near Dovestone Reservoir, in Oldham, this evening.

Burning hills, 2018

Smoke can be seen billowing into the sky close to the beauty spot. According to reports, the clouds can be seen for several miles.

Members of the public have been advised to avoid the area. And those living nearby should keep all doors and windows closed.

The cause and extent of the blaze are not yet known".*

We are in that season of such events, and I was reminded of that devastating fire above Stalybridge eight years ago which lasted for days. 

At first, it was just a hint of smoke but as that first day continued it became noticeable, and there was just a slight haziness, like looking out through a dirty window.

We were a full 16 miles away from Stalybridge and yet for days it was an ever-present reminder of the inferno which had taken over the moors.

There were many images of that fire, but Peter Armistead’s taken from Spinneyfields, a full ten miles away of the hills on fire to the east is a powerful reminder of those few days.

Dig, cut and burn, 1958

And as the smell from the recent Oldham fire lingers, I am reflecting on how wood smoke would have been an everyday part of how we lived.  

In the autumn into the winter back in the 1950s, every garden would have its share of regualr bonfires, when the dead branches and finished flowers would be burnt with piles of leaves.

And long before the use of coal, logs and branches and twigs  burnt in the castles and halls of the great and the good down to the mean dwellings of the poor were essential for cooking and keeping warm.

Wood, peat and the smell, Middle Ages

On a good day using dry and seasoned wood it must have been a dream, but on dank and wet days when the smoke from the open fire refused to disappear up the chimney or out of the vent in the roof the experience will have been very unpleasant.

It will have lingered across the open living space giving off that pungent smell which stuck in your throat, stung the eyes and made it difficult to breathe.

Added to which it worked its way onto and into your clothes and followed you around.

Coming in to Manchester, 2019

The consolation is that the fire will eventually be brought under control through the work of the Greater Manchester Fire Service, and in the meantime leave you with a happier picture taken by Peter a year later, as he flew in from western Canada, 

Enough said.

Location; Spinneyfields, Manchester, 2018

Pictures; fire on the hills, Stalybridge, June 29th, 2018, “Coming into Manchester”, August 19th, 2019, from the collection of Peter Armistead, Dig, cut and burn, 1958, Looking at Other Children, Jean and David Gadsby, from the series Looking at Geography, 1957 and Norman houses, from A History of Houses, R.J.Unstead, 1958

*Emergency services are on the scene in Saddleworth, Rachel Vickers-Price UK and World News Reporter and Ian Hughes, Manchester Evening News, July 11th, updated July, 12th, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/dovestone-moor-fire-live-huge-34277110

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 92 ...... Cannon Court

Cannon Court has tidied its act up  a lot since I first stumbled across it in 1969, soon after I arrived in Manchester.

1967

I remember it as one of those places which  was a bit shabby, rather neglected, and not much of an advert for the city.

Of course now I rather wish it was still like that given than many of the other interesting alleys, courts and narrow streets have been swept away.

The last time I was down there it was clean, tidy and less interesting than I remembered it.

But perhaps I am being a little picky and unreasonable given that visitors to the Cathedral, might just not want to pick their way past old boxes, overflowing dustbins and crates of empty bottles.

So I shall leave it you to judge, using an image of Cannon Court, pretty much as I left it in the 1960s, and today, all bright and pristine.

2017

Circa 1900

So far so good ........... and now for the correction, because I never clocked the name of the alley back in 1969, and when I revisited it this week one map called it Hanging Ditch, so I followed suit.

Only to be corrected by two people who pointed out that historically this was Cannon Court, and there on my own copy of Goads Fire Insurance was indeed the name Cannon Court.
So thank you for the two who were more vigilant than I.


Location; Cannon Court

Pictures;  Cannon Court, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk and in 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Hanging Ditch and Cannon Court, circa 1900, from Goads Fire Insurance map, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Two pictures….. one canal …. and 47 years …. walking the Rochdale Canal

It was sometime back in 1979 when armed with just a couple of cameras and heaps of curiosity I wandered down the Rochdale Canal from Princess Street to the Castlefield Basin.

That journey and the eighteen or so pictures I took became a series of stories chronicling that day and subsequent trips.*

In the course of those 47 years the canal has undergone a transformation from a run down, slightly edgy place, littered with sunken boats covered in tall grass and invasive undergrowth which had all but taken over the towpath.

1979

But nothing daunted I returned with family and even groups of students when risk assessment hardy existed.

All of which was a sad lament on what had once been a busy waterway which cut through the centre of the city.

Back then there were plenty of reminders of its former glory fallen on hard times,  from the decaying warehouses lining the route to a complex set of pipes which carried steam from the nearby power stations to surrounding buildings.

Now the overgrown vegetation has been tamed, the warehouses converted into swish apartments or demolished for swish new apartments and those pipes which leached steam have gone to the scrap yard.

And as I was standing on Oxford Road this morning, I was drawn back to snap a few new pictures.

I checked the back catalogue but couldn’t replicate the scene from 1979 and instead fell back on an image looking towards Oxford Road.

At this point I could go into detail on the history of the canal and that space which was once the hospital, but I won’t.

They are all in the blog.**

Still its close enough. 

Location; The Rochdale Canal

Pictures; The Rochdale Canal from Oxford Road, 2026, and looking back towards Oxford Road, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One Canal 18 pictures …….. https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20canal%2018%20pictures

**The Rochdale Canal, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Rochdale%20Canal

Lost Manchester Streets …. Nu 98 …… the one that never was

This is Sally’s Yard and it sounds like it should have been here for ever.

Or at least from when Hulme Street was cut sometime in the early 19^th century.

Near by there was Frank Street, Mary Street and James Leigh Street, and plenty more, all reminders of a time when speculative builders and developers threw up small properties to house a local population who worked in the surrounding mills, timber yards and metal works.

And with a sense of their own importance named them after themselves or close family members.

So having passed Sally’s Yard a few days ago I pondered on its origins and whether I could find Sally in her alley.

I had hoped for one of those narrow dismal streets occupied by small residential dwellings in the shadow of dark and grimy textile mills, but which courtesy of the census returns would offer up a heap of life stories and maybe even our Sally.

It was a forlorn hope, for moving back through the 20^th century into the middle decades of the century before our alley was just a passageway into an enclosed area which served as a storage spot for a tin works, and later a glass bottle merchants and “fancy box manufacturer”.

Of course, a Sally might have worked there but I don’t think we will ever find her.

And equally frustrating it appears the name Sally’s Yard may only date from 1995 when “Urban Splash completed their first ever transformation of an old Victorian Mill in Manchester, renovating Sally’s Yard on Hulme Street, just off Oxford Road”.*

Ah well history doesn’t always turn out the way you expect or want.

Location; Hulme Street

Picture; Sally’s Yard, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Manchester's newest New York style loft apartments - 25 years in the making...By Ben Brown, November 2020, 30th Manchester's Finest, https://www.manchestersfinest.com/news/manchesters-newest-new-york-style-loft-apartments-25-years-in-the-making/

When they stole the name of Little Stable Street

History has not been kind to Little Stable Street.

Looking down Salmon Street, 2023

First it stole its name some time in the 1870s and then relegated it to just a street which goes nowhere, and has had the added indignity heaped upon it of being left with only the backs of properties.

It was cut sometime between 1772 and 1793 and by the 1850s its eastern side was entirely taken up with commercial and industrial properties as was most of its western side.

Little Stables Street, 1850

Just one small stretch of the western side was occupied by some back-to-back houses and a passage way which gave access to a series of closed courts.

All of these were swept away in the 1870s to make way for the new Wholesale Fish Market, and it will have been around then that Little Stable Street became Salmon Street an act of rebranding which ranks as one of the least imaginative examples of town planning.

But long before then it had pretty much been ignored by the street directories who saw no merit in listing any of its occupants.

More recently Google Maps have invested time and a camera in recording the street.  The first visit was back in September 2012 which captured the name of George Makin and Sons Ltd at the far end of the street.

Spice Lounge, 2023

Two years later this had become the rear of Spice Lounge whose front faces out on to Shudehill at no.60. 

I can’t be sure just exactly when the restaurant opened but in the August of 2012 a sign announced its imminent opening replacing a branch of Costcutter.

In time I will go looking for George Makin and Sons Ltd and try to locate the residents of Little Stable Street in the middle decades of the 19th century, leaving me just with the red door and the mystery of what is behind it.

Back in 2012  it was the “New Union DVD and Video Shop” specializing amongst other things in  “Fantasy Adult Gifts”

Behind the red door, 2023

And now it is a red door and a mystery.

Location, Salmon Street, off Thomas Street

Pictures; Salmon Street, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Little Stable Street, 1850, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 22 .............. Milk Street

Milk Street is one of those streets I never really noticed.  

Milk Street, 2016

It runs from Marble Street to York Street but once started at Phoenix Street.

Today there is little you can say about it.  Its only notable feature is that concrete lattice wall which hides the entrance to an underground car park, otherwise you are faced with the backs of several buildings.

Now if I dig deep enough I might be able to discover the origins of its name which might have something to do with dairies and the practice of keeping cattle in the city centre.

But if so It will predate 1793 when Milk Street was already there.

By 1850 its residents consisted of six businesses ranging from manufacturers, to a paper.

Milk Street, 1849

There were plenty of other properties including two closed courts and at the junction with York Street the Concert Tavern and the Queen’s Theatre.  The latter was swept away in 1901 for the Parr’s Bank.

And that is it.

Location; Manchester



Picture; Milk Street, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
and in 1849 from the OS for Manchester & Salford, 1842-49 courtesy of Digital Archives Association,  http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 95 Chadwick Street ...and Mrs. Matilda Lovitt

This was Chadwick Street in 2021.

It is off Fairfield Street and faces out on to Piccadilly Railway Station.

Wyre Street, 2021

Despite being a popular place to park up and wait for someone arriving off a train, you won’t find it on any maps, and it ends pretty much soon after it starts.

Today it is called Wyre Street and dribbles out as a footpath before connecting with Travis Street.

To the casual visitor it has nothing much to commend itself, lacking any buildings bar a brick wall, the railway viaduct that cuts across it and heaps of grass.

Nor was it ever thought worthy of an entry into the directories, although back in 1850 the Stag and Pheasant was recorded in the trades section of Slater’s Directory.  The pub served the 22 houses, and surrounding streets and some closed courts, which will have provided a lot of potential customers.

Despite there being no reference to the street in the directories, I know that some of the 22 homes were back to back properties, and Chadwick Street gave access to a number of closed courts with even more small and mean houses.

Chadwick Street, 1851

We also have the names of the residents who lived there in 1851, and equally important the occupations they were engaged in.  These ranged from skilled and unskilled jobs to a clerk, the inevitable charwoman, as well as those making a living from the streets including a milk seller.

The largest group were connected to the textile trade, covering all the main areas of work and interestingly one who described himself as a handloom weaver.  This was Elias Johnson from Stretford which had been a centre for handloom weaving. 

But as he was 62 I suspect he was describing the occupation of his youth given that by 1851 machines had all but squeezed out most handloom weaving.

Just how many of these visited the Stag and Pheasant is lost, but its landlady a Mrs. Matilda Lovitt ran the place from at least 1848 and into the early years of the next decade.  The Rate Books record it separately as a Public House and also a Beer House, with the pub rated at £40 a year and the beer house at £12.

By contrast the neighbouring houses were rated at between £12 a year down to £2 suggesting that her business was indeed profitable.

We know that she was born in 1808, married her first husband in 1829, and her second in 1856, and was widowed twice.  By the age of 30 in 1841 she had three children and that two of them were still living with her at Chadwick Street in 1851.

Her second husband was also a publican who was the landlord of the Railway Inn at 221 Deansgate.  

He is listed there from at least 1850 through to 1856, but by 1863 has gone.  By which time the Stag and Peasant also does not appear on the records. 

Wyre Street, 2021

And a full thirty years later  Chadwick Street has become Worsley Street, and the Directories record only a clutch of industrial units with one beer shop, leaving yet another name change from Worsley Street to Wyre Street  sometime by 1915.

I doubt we have finished with the street, and in the fullness of time it would be fun to return to track the residents in 1851, leaving me just to add that in 1881 the former Mrs. Levitt recorded as living with one of her children in Preston at the grand old age of 71.

Location; Manchester, 

Pictures; Chadwick Street, 1851, from Adshead's map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Chadwick Street, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 24 Barton Square .......... all in a name change or two

Barton Square, 2016

Barton Square is that narrow little street that runs from Exchange Street round to St Ann Street and is dominated by Barton Arcade that 19th century shopping mall more glass than wall.

I use it quite a lot and I always let my imagination wander as I follow its twisty route but until recently I had never given much thought to its name.

Barton is obvious given the arcade, but square seemed a little odd, after all this is a street. 

I supposed there might be a connection with St Ann's Square but that seemed remote and the more I thought about it even Barton threw up a puzzle given that the arcade was built in 1870 and the street is there a century before.

So as you do I went looking at the old maps of the area and the story is as complicated as you could expect.

In the 1840s and 50s that first stretch leading to the arcade was Red Lion Street which extended  under what is now the arcade just stopping short of Deansgate with four little side streets around a small square called Barton’s Buildings.  These were accessed via an entry.

Red Lion Street & Back Square, 1851

And that almost offered up the answer, but not quite, because the rest of what we now know as Barton Square had undergone a number of name changes, from Back Square in the first half of the 19th century to Back St Ann’s Square in 1793.

So mystery solved, and with a bit more digging it should be possible using the directories to pinpoint the date it all became Barton Square which it was by 1900.

Leaving me only to record that in 1851 Red Lion was occupied by mix of professional occupation including an accountant, commission agent, stockbroker and consulting engineer while Back Square was full of small manufacturing businesses.

As for Barton's buildings these belonged to a Mr Barton and consisted of four warehouses and an office with a joint annual rental income of £305 which were occupied by George and Edward Wood who dealt in cotton and cotton waste and and Tobler Anschelf & Co listed as merchants.

Location; Manchester

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

The invitation from the Northern Quarter ....... and a mystery

There are still a few of those odd little passages and open doors in the Northern Quarter which beckon you in with the promise of something different and a bit edgy.

Tib Street, 2023

And so, it is with the passage which leads off from Tib Street, down a narrow way opening out onto a small court.

With a degree of imagination and with the light fading fast you could conjure up one of those places beloved of Dickens where few ventured who were not local.

Once there were plenty of them and anyone who was a stranger might well regret letting their curiosity get to them and walk through.

In the 1870s the Manchester Guardian reported on heaps of these places, many of which were off Deansgate and whose reputation for criminality and low life was such that the Police seldom ventured there alone.*

I doubt that our passageway is that dangerous flanked as it is by a florist and a café .

Today it it leads to  the rear of the Freemount pub which fronts Oldham Street.

But what is interesting is that it shows up on Adshead’s map of Manchester dated 1851.

Tib Street, and The King Inn, 1850

And then as now it led to a pub which back then was the King Inn whose landlord was George Todman.

Now I have become interested in Mr. Todman, because he like me was from Eltham in what was then Kent.  

He was 69, married to Mary who was 55 and  was born in Nottingham.  

They shared the property with eight others, three of whom were their children along with a grandchild, a servant, a lodger and on the night of the census a visitor and a “child”

The visitor was Rebecca Stevens from Derby who gave her age as 22, while the child, George Smith was just 8 years old and was from Manchester.

Just how young George got to be living with the Todman’s is unclear but intrigues me, and of course provides that bit of mystery which deserves more research.

As for the pub it commanded an annual estimated rental value of £120 which marks it off as a going concern and was owned by a “Hobson”.

Thomas Street, 2023

And that just leaves that other “invitation to the Norther Quarter which is on Thomas Street and amounts to an entrance to a gym in the cellar of the building.

Location; the Northern Quarter

Pictures; that mysterious passageway, 58 Tib Street, 2023 and total sports, Thomas Street, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

*Walking the streets of Manchester in 1870, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Walking%20Manchester%20in%201870

** 75 Oldham Street, 1851 census, Enu 1r 19 Market Street and 75, Oldham Street Manchester Rate Books, 1852

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 21 .......... Parsonage Lane

Now Parsonage Lane really is one of those little side streets which grows wider as you follow it down from Deansgate to Parsonasge.

It was there by 1793 and was already fronted by a selection of properties.

Fast forward half a century and these included a textile factory, the Admiral Hatchlock which also went under the name of Parsonage House, five other properties and the entrance to a closed court.

A search for Admiral Hatchlock drew a blank although I do know that our textile factory had by 1851 become Charlton & Sons Calendar Works which by 1900 had expanded across the road.

Today the original site of the textile factory is a big red office and retail block which is home to the Liquor Store.

And that is the close you will get a to buying a drink on Parsonage Lane because our pub which was still there in 1900 has long gone.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Parsonage Lane, 2016 from Deansgate from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 12 Chancellery Lane

Now I had wandered over to Spring Gardens to find Concert Lane and instead rediscovered this last bit of Chancellery Place most of which is broad enough but then narrows as it does a slight twist and opens up on Pall Mall.

Both of them are streets I have known for forty years and just rather took them for granted, but now I am wandering them all over again

Location; Manchester








Picture; Chancellery Place, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson