EOM’s ‘secret’ route out of Manchester city centre behind Piccadilly Station

When you follow the map or satnav, you are taken along the main roads. But when you know all the back streets, as I do, you can find more interesting ways through the streets of Manchester. Read about my alternative way out of Manchester heading south, and why I always take it.

If you’re coming from the Northern Quarter, my favourite district of Manchester, and want to head south along the A6, the obvious route is to go via Newton Street, left onto Piccadilly and on via London Road, the A6.

But I have another route that takes you down the back streets and forgotten corners behind Piccadilly Station.

We’ll start at Tib Street car park, where I often park. First we turn left onto Dale Street and continue straight on, across Oldham Street, past the site of the building demolished after fire – at the time of writing there is a protective fence extending across two lanes of Dale St.

Just after that fence is where my ‘secret’ route begins. Keep to the left hand lane and at the junction with Newton St, continue onto the southern section of Dale Street.

This street has lots of local associations: On the right is the now empty Foo Foo’s Palace, empty and abandoned since the sad death of the celebrated transvestite entertainer Foo Foo Lamaar a few years ago.

On the left are the magnificent turn-of-the-20th-century commercial buildings, featured in ‘Life On Mars’.

At this point you could turn right onto Piccadilly viat Paton St, but we will continue south, past the castelleted gate of the former Ashton canal basin. A sympathetically designed modern building has just been completed next to it. This area is now being transformed into an upmarket residential district.

Now we are at Ducie Street. Again here you could turn right, and join London Road at the bottom of Piccadilly Station approach, but I prefer to turn left along Ducie Street. On the right is The Place, a development of rental apartments housed in the former London Warehouse.

Now we are reaching the most exciting part of our journey, and we turn onto Jutland St (former Junction Street).

Jutland St is Manchester city centre’s steepest street. Tarmac has turned into to cobbles, and as we drive forward over the uneven surface – we cross a bridge over the Ashton Canal, then there is suddenly a precipitous drop. The street leads down at an incline of… it must be one in three. There are no warning signs. If you drove at 30mph you would shoot into the air, like in an American cops movie and come crashing back onto the cobbles.

As you head down Jutland St, you need to get into a low gear – second or first .

At the bottom of the hill you are at the junction with Store Street, behind Piccadilly Station. Store Street is said to run above one of Manchester’s lost rivers.

Turn right here, and then second left into Boad Street, past Piccadilly Station multi-storey car park on the left, under the access bridge, and on past the station undercroft, on the right, with is the shadowy pillars. What secrets of the old Manchester are concealed in that undercroft?

We continue along Sheffield Street, running directly behind the station. Commercial premises are housed under the arches.

After dark you may see ‘ladies of the night’ standing on the left next to the parking spaces, on Sheffield St, though not always, perhaps depending on police activity.

At the end of Sheffield Street we turn right onto Travis Street, and under the ‘tunnel’ beneath the tracks leading into Piccadilly Station.

This ‘tunnel’ is a fascinating record of Manchester’s railway development. You can see the original narrow brick viaduct, with additions on either side added in later decades of the 19th century.

We then reach the traffic lights with Fairfield Street. Just ahead is the former Mayfield Station, at the time of writing still standing derelict. It was a overspill station opened in 1911 to cope with extra traffic into London Rd. It was closed in 1960 and used as a parcel depot till the 1980s. It may yet re-open as a passenger station.

Normally we would be able to continue straight ahead and under the former BT building, but due to its conversion into the MacDonald Manchester hotel, that road is closed.

So we must turn right onto Fairfield Street, passing under the railway bridge built in the late 50s which supports platforms 13 and 14 of Piccadilly Station. Now we arrive at the traffic lights next to the new entrance to Piccadilly Station, and turn left onto London Road.

We are now on the A6 and heading south east. That’s it, my ‘secret’ route out of Manchester city centre, a route takes us through a forgotten but fascinating part of the city that’s steeped in the memories of the ‘old’ Manchester.

To see some fascinating images and a superb piece of music inspired by this part of Manchester, go to www.digi-doc.co.uk/Chapeltown.mpg