Post Industrial Ancoats

This is a story of streets which almost existed in 1836, an area enclosed by Gould Street, Bromley Street and Rochdale Road.

Further developing my Collyhurst Cheetham Circular.

By 1870 there are a number of streets which now no longer exist, along with the homes and industry, they have been subsumed by car parks.

In 1960 the Rochdale Road Gas Works built in 1824, is then still extant.

The expansive site spanned over nine acres, including four retort houses, with a capacity of producing 8,500,000 cubic feet of gas daily. Since the end of the 18th century, the site was home to a locomotive/goods shed outside of the main works tramline infrastructure which was used for coal transportation for off-site refining. In the early 1940s, reorganisation and reconstruction ledto alterations and clearance of existing above-ground structures.

Image – Britain from the Air

Image 1907 J Jackson Manchester Local Image Collection.

Image 1958 Lawrence Kaye Manchester Local Image Collection.

Bromley Street.

Image 1964 Lawrence Kaye Manchester Local Image Collection.

Image 1966 Thomas Brooks Manchester Local Image Collection.

It’s 2026 and almost everything has been erased.

This is the only remnant of the former gasworks, preserved on Gould Street car park.

The raggle-taggle gaggle of businesses cling on to the Bromley Street arches beneath the railway.

The other side of the tracks.

Bilbrook Street just about hanging in there.

Burstock Street.

Here we are at the former home of Isomax Construction Company Ltd.

Manufacturing and execution of liquid waterproofing systems since 1990. All products are unique development, protected by patents and trademarks. All products are water-based and thus are 100% ecological. More than 1,200,000 sqm of executed projects with ten years warranty, since 1990.

Export to Serbia, Poland, Spain, Montenegro, France,

Latterly the former industrial premises have become temporary home to a Warehouse House Party – under the banner of We Are Nowhere.

In 2024 the are was becoming Victoria North – with the incipient intrusion of gargantuan residential blocks.

A far cry from the workers’ homes of Sudell Street.

The redevelopment project will create better-connected public spaces, new and improved transport links, and more homes, parks and retail spaces for the city’s growing population. Victoria Riverside is at the forefront of the new, distinct residential neighbourhood at Red Bank and New Town, benefitting from its location within Manchester City Centre, but offering something new to its community.

Victoria Riverside