Chester Road – Modern Mooch

In 1870 the street pattern has yet to be established, between the South Junction railway and Chester Road. The area is occupied by a Nursery. Pomona Gardens sits beside the river, and the Corn Brook is clearly visible. To the right are the Hulme Barracks, closed and demolished in 1914.

Corn Brook Textile Street 1947

In 1884 there is new housing to the right of Chester Road.

In 1904 the Pomona Docks have been established and the are around Hadfield Street fully developed.

Pomona Docks 1923

This is an aerial view from 1930, there area is now a dense network of streets to the north of Chester Road, transport infrastructure, housing and industry sit side by side.

2025 the street pattern is still extant – but what has survived?

The Empress Brewery as seen on the previous Chester Road post.

The Empress Brewing Company was established by Charles Dawes in c. 1880, the brewery closed in 1955.

The building was converted into offices in 1992 as part of the development of the Empress Business Centre, which saw new office and business units built to form a courtyard.

24 Design Ltd Hadfield Street – an exhibition design and build practice, working extensively within the museum and heritage sector.

Glancy Fawcett Lund Street, A project-based, luxury lifestyle supplier delivering exquisite homeware for superyachts, residences and private jets.

Concept Life Sciences Hadfield Street, your trusted partner from concept to clinic. We are your integrated drug discovery and development partner for complex challenges, renowned scientific knowledge, and strategic execution across all modalities from small molecule and biologics to cell and gene therapies.

They seem to have left the building.

J Parker‘s Ltd Hadfield Street, Dutch bulb importers – competitive prices across all our garden plant and bulb ranges, huge range, unbeatable prices, established 1933.

Empress Mill latterly Orchid Point Empress Street.

Built between 1903 and 1909, it echoes the industrial character of the larger industrial buildings on Chester Road and Empress Street. The property is listed as a smallware factory in the occupation of Woolf & Higham manufacturers of small wares, upholsterers’ trimmings, worsted bindings, woven venetian ladder tapes, cotton and linen venetian blind webs, spindle bandings, window blind cords, carpet bindings, bed laces. The works is shown on the Ordnance Survey of 1955 as an Engineering Works – Printing Machinery.

Local Heritage List

In 2011, FreshStart Living purchased the building, alongside others nearby, as part of a £9 million development ‘breathing new life’ into this corner of Old Trafford with 116 one and two-bedroom apartments. But, on the inside, leaking roofs, mould, exposed electrical wires and a dodgy gas connection paint a completely different picture.

Not long after purchasing it, we discovered the entire building was being powered by a generator.

MEN

Three bedroom apartment to rent Orchid Point – when buy to let goes wrong.

Empress Mill was turned into an apartment block as part of a development called Orchid Point. It is understood some residents were allowed to move in twelve years ago, but these residents were asked to move out after a number of years due to safety issues.

On February 20th 2023, the Empress Mill was one of a number of buildings described as unsafe and unsecure by Trafford Council.

The emergency services were called to Empress Mill at 5.15am on Friday. Ten appliances from across the region, including specialist appliances called a stinger and a scorpion, attended the abandoned mill turned apartment block off Chester Road and firefighters battled the blaze into the afternoon.

Messenger Newspapers

Officers from Trafford Council have taken firm action to put a stop to anti-social behaviour at a vacant block of flats in the Old Trafford area.

Drug addicts and thieves have descended on Aura Court since much of it was closed in August 2020 by Greater Manchester Fire Service due to a decaying non-compliant fire escape.

About Manchester

The site along with Venos and Progress House is up for sale.

A rare development opportunity in Central Manchester with excellent access to Manchester City Centre
Close to Salford Quays, Old Trafford Football and Cricket Grounds along with White City Retail Park
The total site covers an area of approximately 2.10 Acres, historic planning consents granted on the site for in excess of 200 flats plus additional commercial accommodation.

Rear of the Venos site.

Magenta Property has acquired Trafford Press and Empress Mill off Chester Road, the site of a 200 home residential scheme that stalled in 2016.

Headed up by Rohit and Parminder Lakhanpaul, Magenta bought the Old Trafford buildings for £1.5m, according to Land Registry.

Place North West

Duckworths Essence Distillery built in 1896 to a design by the architectural practice of Briggs and Wolstenholme, it is Grade II Listed in June 2018.

Duckworth’s specialised in the manufacture of concentrated soluble essences, essential oils and colours supplied to the aerated water trade – local ‘pop’ men. They were leaders in the field, supplying flavours and essences around the world and developing products tailored to specific markets.

Duckworth & Co was acquired by Cargill Flavor Systems Ltd in 2003, the company vacated the Chester Road premises in 2006.

After buying the building in 2007 for a reported £3.6m, the Church of Scientology planned to re-open the building by either 2010 or 2011.

Leaders of the religious group have submitted a new application to carry out external and internal works. A design and access statement written on behalf of the church by NJSR Chartered Architects proposes a comprehensive revamp of the building.

The overall aim of the project is the refurbishment and conversion of the Duckworth Essences Building into a place of religious study and worship.

Messenger 2024

The building is currently enclosed in scaffolding.

Next door is the National Works originally home to H, G & O Lewtas, lamp manufacturers, in Slater’s trade directory for 191 and later Crimpy Crisps.

Currently home to homes.

Ford more facts and snaps please see Chester Road and Tram Trip to Altrincham.

All archive photographs Local Image Collection.

Walking from Cornbrook toward Stretford along Chester Road – which is one half of my Tram Trip to Altrincham

There is a cluster of former industrial buildings around Empress Street.

First up is the Empress Brewery.

The Empress Brewing Company was established by Charles Dawes in c. 1880, although the company was sold to William Henry Fulford in 1884, who had recently sold the Monarch Brewery in Salford. Fulford was based at the Empress Brewery on Clarence Street in Manchester, but had relocated to new premises on 383 Chester Road. These had been built in 1889 and operated initially as the Old Trafford Brewing Company, but the name had changed to the Empress Brewery Company by 1895. The company acquired a number of breweries and associated licenced house during the early 20th century, however, in 1929 it was taken over by Peter Walker and Son. The brewery closed in 1955.

Local Heritage List

The building was converted into offices in 1992 as part of the development of the Empress Business Centre, which saw new office and business units built to form a courtyard.

Empress had 236 public houses.

Including the Queens Arms on Honey Street Red Bank, one of the first independent real boozers back in the 1980’s, subsequently it has seen various uses last seen on my Collyhurst Circular walk.

1967 Local Image Collection

This is the brewery building over time.

Here it is in July 2025

Across the way is the National Works.

The development of the site can be traced from the sequence of Ordnance Survey 1:2500 maps. The First Edition of 1893 shows the site as undeveloped. The First Revision map of 1908 shows 384 Chester Road to have been developed, and the site of the National Works to have been occupied by an open-fronted L-shaped range along the western and southern sides, with a detached rectangular building in a central courtyard. It is possible that these buildings all formed part of 384 Chester Road, listed as being occupied by H, G & O Lewtas, lamp manufacturers, in Slater’s trade directory for 1911. The Second Revision map of 1922 shows the early building to have been subsumed by the current building.

1961 Local Image Collection

Later the home of Lion Foodpackers Ltd and Crimpy Crisps.

1947 Local Image Collection

The building has been converted into apartments.

Situated on the lower ground floor of a gorgeous, red brick, landmark building, this 2 double bedroom apartment merits further inspection. A good size living room opens on to a good fitted kitchen. It also has a great, spacious shower room. It also benefits from a parking space, although a great attraction is the location, being just 1 mile from Deansgate and the City along with being 10 minutes walk to a Metro station.

Then we have the Veno’s Building, which was once a pharmaceutical company founded by William Henry Veno. He established a company in the US before returning to Britain and founded the Veno drug Company in Manchester in 1898.

In 1925 the company was sold to Beecham Estate and Pills Ltd. In the 60s the building was under the name Progress House and was home to the Co-Operative Press Limited, later to become Trafford Press.

Derelict Places

Rare sighting of a Profil aka Stymie Bold Italic hyphen.

The front elevation was originally in red brick, with a later faience facade applied.

Veno’s a stalled and cursed development. In 1925 William Henry Veno sold his company for £500,000, a decision he later rued. He sought to enhance his million pound fortune but lost everything through speculative investments and the 1929 Depression. He shot himself at his home during a fit of impulsive insanity.

It was also the home of Germolene, a thick antiseptic ointment with a distinctive pink colour and scented with oil of wintergreen