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

Twisty stories of the Albert Hotel ......... on Oldham Street

You won’t find the Albert Hotel or its predecessor, the Queens Stores Vaults, on Oldham Street, and their disappearance calls up some fascinating and twisty bits of history.

The Albert Hotel, Oldham Street, 1970

Today, 109 Oldham Street is home to Gullivers, which as well as being a bar is a centre for live music and is totally separate from an earlier pub by the same name which superseded one called the Grenadier which in turn replaced the Albert Hotel.

Nor is that quite all, because along with all these names we can add the King’s Arms and Coronation Vaults, where in 1850 a Mr. James Buxton dispensed beer and good cheer.

This pub appears to date back to 1803, but not necessarily at 109 Oldham Street, indeed the following year it has shifted along the road to no. 133 where at one time it had added “Top King” to its listing to distinguish it from The King at 73-75.  And for those not already overwhelmed with names the King’s Arms is now the City.

So, with that done and dusted it is back to the Albert Hotel which, was one of the few pubs in the city centre, where you could enter on one street and exit on another.

The other was 90 Tib Street, and the story of how it became part of the Albert has occupied me for most of the day.

The Queens Stores Vaults, Oldham Street, 1851

Up until 1868 the Tib Street property had been the home of a Maria Greenwood who was a cap maker, and for the purposes of the Rates Book is listed as a house and shop, with annual rent of £14.

And here comes the twisty bit, because just four years earlier, a Mr. James Ramwell had bought the Albert Hotel from Esther Rowbottom, paying £700 for the goodwill of the business and spent a further “£1000 in improving the house, by adding a beer shop and cottage”.*

I can’t quite fathom how Maria Greenwood fitted into the new development, but by 1871 she has moved on to Rochdale Road, and is again renting a house and shop for the much increased yearly rent of £22.

And by the mid-1870s the street directories list the Albert Hotel as at  “109 Oldham Street, Whittle Street and Tib Street”, which remains the case into the middle years of the last century.

But sometime after 1969, the Albert loses its Tib Street bit, and no. 90 reverts to a separate property.

Just what it morphed into I have yet to discover but in 2008 it was the CEBU Café, offering “FLIPONO FAST FOOD AND TAKEAWAY”, which by 2015 had again become part of the pub again, which is a nice bit of historical continuity.

The Albert Hotel, Tib Street, 1959

All of which leaves one last puzzle and a final twist to the story.

I had long wondered when the Queens Stores Vaults, became the Albert Hotel.  It was still listed as such in 1863 when it was run by Esther Rowbottom, and that was also the year James Ramwell applied for the license, so I guess that will be when it was renamed.

Either way, his entrepreneurial ambitions rather hit the buffers because in 1864 he fell foul of the licensing authorities, who took umbrage that he had extended the pub on to Tib Street using the old license, which didn’t cover such a move.

Once the authorities discovered what he had done they at first ordered him  not to use the Tib Street end, and later“refused to grant any license at all either to the premises, including the additional portion or to   the old house”.

Happily, all was eventually sorted out.

Except to say Mr. Ramwell saw a gold mine.  In the 1860s it commanded an estimated annual rent of £200, which was much higher than the surrounding properties,  and in 1911 the then landlord employed eight staff, to look after the twelve rooms of the property.

All of which just leaves me to mention the three pubs books which feature 78 city centre pubs, the 33 Chorlton pubs and bars and the 49 bars and pubs of Didsbury.

They are less a guide and more a history of all that is good, combining original paintings by Peter Topping, stories by me and lots of photographs.

You can order the books at www.pubbooks.co.uk email Peter at peter@pubbooks.co.uk or the old fashioned way on 07521 557888 or from Chorlton Bookshop

Location; Manchester

Pictures; The Albert Hotel, 1970, A Dawson, m49145, the Albert on Tib Street in 1959, H W Beaumont, m49149, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass 
and Tib Street in 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Sources, Manchester Rates Books, 1849-1900, census returns 1841-1871, Whellan and Co’s Directory of Manchester, 1852, Slater’s Directories of Manchester  and Salford, 1850-1911, Manchester Guardian 1860-1864, Manchester City Licensing Records, 1730-1964, courtesy of Bob Potts.

*The City Magistrates and the Licensing System, Manchester Guardian, November 25th, 1865.

In the Northern Quarter exploring the present

Pop Boutique, Oldham Stree

Now I had forgotten just how much I like wandering the Northern Quarter.

It is a little off our usual beat and as we walked around it on Saturday I realized just how much I miss by not going there more regularly.

All of which is an introduction to some pictures of the place.

Today’s images are just off Oldham Street, but there are plenty of interesting and quirky shops, bars and cafes in the side streets and over the next few months I think I shall explore these combining some photographs of now and then with  stories of the people and places from the last century.

Oldham Street continues to evolve with some businesses appearing and others vanishing but always there is a lot to see and enjoy.

The Fig & Sparrow, 20 Oldham Street

And along the small stretch from Dale Street there is Fig and Sparrow, Independent Lifestyle store & Coffee Bar, the clothes shop Thunder Egg, the bar Night and Day and he ever popular Pop Boutique.

There will be those who mutter this is just an outrageous ploy at advertising some of the businesses on Oldham Street, but not so.

Every city should have its quirky corner and the Northern Quarter is just that.

It is also an area rich with history dating back to the 18th century when the area was on the edge of the city but fast developing through the 19th century with the markets on western side and bounded by a collection of textile mills and cheap housing just beyond Great Ancoats Street.

Inside the Fig & Sparrow

But I shall conclude with Fig and Sparrow which has nicely positioned itself as somewhere to eat and relax and talk about the interesting objects on sale.

We found it by accident as we walked down the street and was drawn in by the interesting merchandise and the offer of food.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Castle Hotel selling beer since 1778 and still going strong on Oldham Street

Oldham Street, circa 1910

I was back in the Northern Quarter recently.*

We don’t go as often as we should and that is a pity because you can always be rewarded by a nice bit of history, some quirky shops and of course those pubs which have survived the commercial rationalization of brewery outlets, the planners determination to tidy place up and various periods of urban blight.

And so to Oldham Street, which I remember as a thriving shopping centre in the 60s, which degenerated after the Arndale and has now come alive again as a place to buy interesting things you won’t find in the chain stores.

Like many who grew up in the 1950s and set up home in the 70s I am always drawn to the Pop Boutique store which opened in 1994 and pretty much sells everything from vintage clothing to all manner of things your everyday vintage junkie might find interesting and even buy.

Junk, 32 Dale Street

I guess part of the attraction is just to speculate on what we did with the ghastly table mats from the 1972 or the equally awful plastic flowers given away by a soap company in the 50s.

And having tired with that place I never tire of the Castle.

It dates from the late 1770s has undergone changes of name and appearances but remains a fascinating little pub.

I first went there in 1971 and sat in one of the back rooms debating politics and drinking the bitter.

It is a remarkable survival of the sort of drinking place you could have found on almost any street corner in the city centre from the 18th century onwards.

Castle Hotel

Now at this point I shall hand over to the experts and the wonderful Pubs of Manchester Past and Present blog, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/ which tells the story of the pubs both in the city and the surrounding area.

And of course the individual stories provide a powerful collective history of Manchester and the people who have lived here.

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/if-it-wasnt-for-houses-in-between-you.html

**http://www.pop-boutique.com/

Window of Junk

Picture; courtesy of Pubs of Manchester Past and Present blog, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/ Oldham Street, circa 1910 from the collection of Rita Bishop and Junk, 32 Dale Street from the collection of Andrew Simpson