The confusing story of New Wakefield Street

It was the railway wot did for New Wakefield Street.

New Wakefield Street, 2002

It’s that twisty thoroughfare that runs from Oxford Road alongside the railway viaduct and ends at Great Marlborough Street.

It might have been something more than it is, but that viaduct determined that only the south side would be developed, and the development would be a collection of mucky businesses.  

So, in 1911 these included a printers, a shirt maker, as well as an engineering works, a rubber tyre maker, a packing case firm and an art metal workshop alongside a company specializing in refining oil and a drysalters’ store.

All of which meant that it was a place you went for work, or to deliver or collect stuff, or as a cut through to Great Marlborough Street. 

But I don’t want to give the impression that it was ever destined for great things because even before the viaduct arrived the area was a collection of mean houses and smelly, noisy factories some of which occupied the appalling slum known as Little Ireland, which Dr. Kay and Frederick Engels described in detail.

And the maps can’t quite agree on our dismal thoroughfare.

Wakefield Street and Railway Street, 1851

The 1841 OS map shows it as a continuous street running west to east, crossing Great Marlborough Street before ending in what was then Oxford Street.  

The western half up to Great Marlborough Street was dominated on the south side by 17 terraced houses of which 15 were back-to-back properties, facing a Whipstring Manufacturer, beyond which there were what might have been more houses on the northern side.

It was these “northern” properties which the viaduct did for, cutting a swathe from London Road Railway Station out across Chorlton-on-Medlock and on towards Cornbrook and open country. 

And oddly it would appear this stretch is not recorded on the OS Map for 1849 which shows an engineering works straddling what should have been the bit of Wakefield Street which joined Oxford Street.

New Wakefield Street, 2017, looking west

All of which becomes even more confusing just two years later when Adshead’s map of Manchester shows the road reinstated but going under the name of Railway Street, a name it has lost by 1863 when it shows up in the directories as New Wakefield Street.

In the fullness of time, I will set about trawling the Rate Books in a laborious search for just when the name changes occurred.

Leaving me just to reflect that the workshop in my picture and the open space that was opposite have undergone their own changes, but that is another story or perhaps for a walk.

Location; Manchester

Picture; New Wakefield Street, 2002, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, in 1851, from Adshead map of Manchester 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ and in 2017 courtesy of Andy Robertson

New Wakefield Street ...... the one with history .... but catch it while you can

New Wakefield Street is one of those little streets which most of us will never go down unless you have business there.

New Wakefield Street, 2017

It runs down from Oxford Road, to Great Marlborough Street and is dominated by the tall and sweeping brick viaduct that carries the line from Oxford Road Railway Station to Piccadilly.

A sniffy visitor might comment that there is nothing of note amongst the buildings, save the tiled entrance to what was once J & J Shaw.*

But that is to ignore the fascinating mix of different properties, some newer than others and pretty much all of them have a chequred history of different owners and different uses.

New Wakefield Street, 2019

I have always liked walking down the street, which I first discovered when visiting the site of Little Ireland, that notorious slum, which Dr. Kay and Mr. Frederick Engels described in their accounts of housing conditions in the 1830s and 1840s.**

And Andy Robertson shares my interest in the place, having also wandered down it over the decades, recording the changes.

Back in 2017 his pictures show that the developers had yet to become interested in New Wakefield Street, but within just two years the red brick building and the one next to it have gone.

The lost buildings, New Wakefield Street, 2017

The red brick one was Sound Control and the one next had been H & J Quick, motor agents and dealers in 1969.

And at one end of the street and surrounding it new buildings have gone up which are in direct contrast to the old ones in both style and height.

So, while the existing ones had pretty much conformed to the century’s old height, the new ones reach up to the sky.

Bakehouse Street, 1844

All of which was a perfect opportunity to delve back into the history of the street.

It is there in 1851 but was known as Railway Street, and petered out before reaching Great Marlborough Street, while its near neighbour on the other side of the viaduct didn’t exist, and access to the three streets beside what is now the Salisbury was just a patch of open ground.

That said judging by the OS map of Manchester and Salford dated 1844, nor did Railway Street.  It too was open ground with a road which is now lost running parallel to Oxford Road and Great Marlborough Street.

This was Bakehouse Street, which was home to Oxford Road Rectifying Distillery on one side and a Machine and Tool Manufactory on the other.

Whitworth Street West, 2020

And that is about it.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; New Wakefield Street, 2017 & 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and detail from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1844, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/



*Doors I have known .............. now that’s a zippy title, 
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2017/08/doors-i-have-known-now-thats-zippy-title.html

**New Wakefield Street, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=wakefield+street