Always make a record ……. Shudehill before a tram or the bus

How easy it is to forget the more recent changes to our city.

The tram stop, 2023

I don’t mean that time before the rise of the giant towers which now dominate the skyline in almost every direction and are very striking scene as you travel in by tram from Cornbrook into Deansgate Castlefield.

Or for that matter the journey in to the city centre along the Oxford Road corridor or Rochdale Road from the north.

I am thinking instead of the bits in between like the entrance to Victoria Station, and the tall development at Nicholas Croft.

Into the bus station, 2023

All of which is an introduction to the Shudehill Interchange, which happened while I wasn’t looking.

My Wikipedia tells me that is a “is a transport hub between Manchester Victoria station and the Northern Quarter in Manchester city centre, which comprises a Metrolink stop and a bus station.

The tracks through the site were opened in 1992; however, the tram stop did not open until 31 March 2003. 

The bus part of the interchange opened on 29 January 2006.

Construction had initially started on the bus station in 1998 and it was planned to have been completed and fully operational by 2000, but several disputes over the ownership of the site along with two public inquiries over the course of five years resulted in the construction work on the station being halted until 2003”.*

The lonely wait, 2023

Now given the date 1992 there will be those that matter I must have had “my eyes closed for a long time”.

Which is of course possible but in reality had more to do with the simple fact that during the 1990s I rarely went to Victoria Railway Station or Shudehill.

When two trams meet, 2023

But perhaps I just wasn’t that observant to the point that when our Ben talked about getting a bus from Shudehill bus station I was a tad puzzled.

All of which has now been rectified, and as an alternative to the Second City Crossing, I will take the tram from St Peter’s Square via Market Street through Shudehill and onto Victoria.

Earlier in the week Shudehill was my go to destination, which I used as the staring point for a wander up to the Rochdale Road across to Swan Street, Eagle Street and round to High Street into the heart of the Northern Quarter.

So that is it, leaving me just to post some of the “interchange" pictures and one courtesy of John Casey when the tram tracks were in the making on their way to Victoria.

That said I have to confess that there were buses on Shudehill before the Interchange and even a horse drawn mail coach service to Ashton Under Lyne at the start of the 19th century from the Hare and Hounds.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Location; Shudehill

Tram rails in the making, 1990s

Pictures; Shudehill Interchange, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and tram rails in the making, 1990s courtesy of John Casey

*Shudehill Interchange, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shudehill_Interchange

Entrances ..... gates .... and doors .... I have passed ...

The story which is pretty much nothing more than pictures.

All were taken at the beginning of the week in and around Shudehill.

Your starter for 10, should you choose to accept the challenge is to identify each, and offer up a comment, a personal memory or a picture.*

Mine for what it’s worth is wandering into the fish market with my old school chum John Coward.

It must have been early in 1970 and I was still new to Manchester having washed up from Eltham in the September of the previous year.

All of the city was still new and exciting, and on an aimless walk through the city we encountered the fish market and there I saw a full cod, from head to tail, not the boil in the bag cod covered in sauce cod, nor the battered and crispy coated fish with accompanying chips but the real thing.

It was big, and I was impressed.

Later, long after that adventure, and after I done with studying and working I spent many happy hours in the old Greater Manchester County Records Office on Marshall Street.

You can still explore these dusty but magic bits of our history in the Archives Library at Central Ref

So that is it. 

Other than to say one building is so good I included it twice.

No prizes if you take part, just the satisfaction of adding something to the story.

Location; Shudehill and round about

Pictures; Entrances, .....gates ... and doors .... I have passed, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*And if you want the answers but don’t know who to ask, the first is the entrance to the former Co-op Building on Balloon Street, the second is from inside the old Wholesale Fish Market looking towards Salmon Street, the third is looking at the fish market from Shudehill, and the last is the former Greater Manchester County Records Office and formerly Marsden Harcombe & Company Ltd, Marshall Street

Clinging on ………. walking the Northern Quarter

Despite the ever-vigilant eyes of developers and investors, bits of that older edgy and interesting Manchester survive amongst the high-rise blocks of apartments, swish hotels and cosmopolitan restaurants.

Exotic Mr. Banksy, 2023

And no where more so than the Northern Quarter.

Like me there are many who have fond memories of the area when it was still a place of bustling wholesale markets, small warehouses and shops selling “odd things and services" which were hard to find elsewhere.

Thomas Street, 1850

Not that this is a swipe at the new businesses, and flats which have reinvigorated a part of the city which had lost much of its population and trade and was really a place waiting for something to happen.

Queue for that pedant to point out that this wasn’t always called the Northern Quarter and for another to demand to see a map with the new name recorded for all to see.

And yes, they have ventured to express themselves before on the blog and have been roundly answered.

But I suppose similar comments were expressed when the area was being developed in the late 18th century, as speculative builders saw an opportunity to “knock up” rows of terraced houses and closed courts to meet the demand for homes for the countless thousands of people seeking work in the new factories.

All of which brings me back to the corner of Thomas Street and Shudehill where, amongst the new can still be found those fascinating businesses which vie with The Lower Turks Head and the Hare and Hounds.  They include the trophy shop and w the CD and Vinyl shop at 13 Shudehill.

And what a perfect platform for Mr. Banksy and his friend the happy Tiger.

Instead, I shall reflect on how Thomas Street had changed by 1851 when it was a mix of traders and small manufacturers with a few shops, and pubs suppling the inhabitants of the nearby streets.

In time some of their homes and workshops were replaced by the grander offices and warehouses of Imperial Buildings and Market Buildings which are still there today. 

Salmon Street, once known as Little Stable Street, 2023

I will go looking for the stories behind the door of number 1 Thomas Street where the surgeon John Greenwood lived, long with Edward Hardman, hairdresser, George Blackwall, leather cutter and James Humphrey, last maker.

And I may try to explore the history of William Taskers’ eating house at number 11 and a bit about the White Lion, two doors down at number 15 Thomas Street.

But for now, I am intrigued by the name Brooks on the doorstep of that vinyl shop and the change of name for what was once Little Stable Street but became Salmon Street.  

It is the first little street off Thomas Street on the northern side and had been renamed by 1894 and I guess may actually have become Salmon Street sometime on or after the Wholesale Fish Market was opened in 1873.

Banksy, the Tiger and a magazine, 2023

A little mystery someone will have the answer for.

Well we shall see.

Location; Shudehill, Thomas Street

Pictures; Banksy, the Tiger and a magazine, changing Salmon Street, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Thomas Street, 1850, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1850, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Walking out in Shudehill ........

Now the area around the bottom of Rochdale Road has undergone many changes over the last two and bit centuries.

And, after a pretty quiet time there is plenty going on again, which range from new residential projects to the return of some much loved pubs, albeit with new names.

So with this in mind, Andy Robertson took himself down to Rochdale Road and wandered across from Wellington Road and Gould Street down to Angel Street towards Angel Meadows and took a series of fascinating pictures recording the old and new buildings all of which will feature over the next few weeks

But I am starting with my favourite, for which there is no need for further explanation.

Location; Shudehill

Picture; shop front, Shudehill, 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson