In the early 18th century, Oldham Street was apparently:
“An ill-kept muddy lane, held in place on one of its sides by wild hedgerows”.
In 1772, a privately owned track which is now known as Oldham Street was given to the public. The road took its name from Adam Oldham rather than from the place name. He was an acquaintance of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, which could account for the Oldham street location of the Methodist Chapel, opened by Wesley in 1781. Central Hall replaced the Chapel in 1885.
The area around Oldham Street became more affluent, with warehouses and shops, many of whose merchants lived within their shop premises. This is described by Isabella Varley, Mrs. Linnaeus Banks, a resident of Oldham Street, in her book The Manchester Man.
One Oldham Street shopowner mentioned by a number of writers is Abel Heywood, who spearheaded the mass distribution of books, supplying the whole country not only with penny novels, but also with educational books and political pamphlets. Heywood went on to become Mayor of Manchester.
The general well to do, mix of hustle and bustle, pubs, warehousing, grand stores, smaller specialist shops and services continued into the 1970’s. Woolworths, C&A, Affleck and Browns, Cantors, Dobbins attracted a steady flow of happy shoppers, I loved the mongrel nature of the mixed use architecture.
The focus if the city centre then slipped away to the newly built Arndale and pedestrianised Market Street.
Oldham Street awaited a new sense of place and purpose.
With thanks to http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_history/326/historical_photographs_of_manchester
A very interesting insight to the whole of oldham st mcr.
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Love your blogs. Do you know what sort of shop CANTOR’s on Oldham Street was?
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Thanks ever so – love putting them together, as I remember cantor’s was a furniture store.
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Cantors was a Furniture shop, for about 50 years. not there now,
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Great insight into the history of Oldham St. Do you know much more about Cantors? The current building seemed to replace a number of buildings in the 1960’s all the way through to Tib st.
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Cantor’s was a big furniture store Matt.
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CANTORS TURN YOUR HOUSE INTO A HOME!!(or at least i think thats how the advert went back in the day)
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A great collection of photos, took me back down memory lane. I was born in 1957 in a house under the big Gasometer at the end of Bradford Rd, Miles Platting, which was walking distance from Oldham St. I remember it well. Thanks for the memory.
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The gasometer is still here but have been given notice of it’s demolition soon, I live opposite it .
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