Towering testament to city’s lost history...
A ruined police station is all that remains of what was once Manchester’s most notorious slum district
IT TOWERS above the backstreets between Oldham Road and Rochdale Road, a blackened relic of a vanished Manchester. The big chimney, on the north eastern tip of the city centre, is a landmark of an almost forgotten area, a remnant of a building that once throbbed with activity.
Goulden Street police station was built like a fortress – it had to be.
In 1870 when it was completed, patrolling the slum streets of New Cross – a once notorious central district – was the toughest beat in Manchester.
Describing a typical Saturday night at the station in 1885, the Manchester City News said the busiest hours were between 11pm and 2am when ‘most of the cases are of the ordinary drunk-and-rowdy class, sometimes aided by women and sometimes not.’
The report details the case of a man who had been ‘arguing too excitedly with his mother-in-law, not a very unusual occurrence; but he has supplemented his arguments with a poker and the woman has had to be taken to the Infirmary in a seriously injured condition.’
A more difficult proposition were ‘scuttlers’ – gangs of young lads who roamed Manchester’s neighbourhoods looking for a fight.
They would often be armed with knives and adhered to a distinctive fashion; tilted caps, fringed hair and bell-bottom trousers.
Police were the enemy in the slums of Victorian Manchester and arresting one for a minor offence could often spark a mass assault of officers.
Andrew Davies’ book ‘The Gangs Of Manchester’ describes an infamous occasion in the 1840s when the arrest of two off-duty soldiers at a beerhouse on Bengal Street sparked an angry riot.
A crowd broke into the police station and severely beat a number of constables.
A hundred and fifty years later, not much of the Goulden Street station remains standing and you could be forgiven for knowing nothing of its fascinating history.
The building – designed by James Henry Lynde – was granted Grade II listed status in 1992, but ten years later much of its imposing structure was destroyed in a fire when it was used as a fireworks warehouse.
What’s left is the shell of the brick and stone perimeter wall, a number of odd-looking doors and a chimney that protrudes way above the surrounding car parks.
As the area lost its population and purpose, the name New Cross is unfamiliar to most Mancunians.
But plans are now starting to come forward to bring this lost district back to life.
Developer Mulbury has submitted plans to create three new apartment schemes, including one that will incorporate the remains of the Goulden Street station.
According to planning documents, an eight-storey building providing 73 flats and ground floor commercial space can be built around the chimney stack.
The intriguing proposal from architects Tim Groom involves demolishing elements of the six-metre hight ‘defensive’ perimeter wall, but retaining the cast iron columns.
And the chimney will be retained ‘at the heart of the new proposal ensuring it remains a ‘beacon’ for the New Cross area.’
A ‘lantern’ would be added to it at the top to ‘reinforce the site’s heritage but bring the structure in line with the area regeneration.’
The unique doorway within the perimeter wall on Goulden Street was installed around 1900 when horse-drawn ambulances moved into the station.
The new scheme suggests keeping this doorway as the main residential entrance to the flats.
The original sandstone lintels are intended to be kept and integrated into the building’s facade, as is the ashlar wall. Heritage Architecture said in the planning documents: “The building was purposely designed to be ‘impenetrable,’ robust and forbidding in its windowless ground floor design; as such, any new openings need to be carefully considered, and principal high-significance elevations, such as Goulden Street, should be avoided.”
Tim Groom architects say they believe their main entrance proposal blends into the scheme, ‘dichotomising the old with the new.’
The Goulden Street scheme is envisioned as an ‘anchor’ to future New Cross developments centred around a new public square.
The two other schemes proposed by Mulbury are a 13-storey building of 161 apartments on Bendix Street, and a 12-storey building of 144 apartments on Oldham Road.
Several other building projects have been completed or are near completion as part of the wider regeneration of New Cross including the Marriott AC Hotel, Staycity aparthotel and a residential scheme on Oldham Road.
Sam Wheeler, Labour councillor for the Piccadilly ward, welcomed the revival of the neighbourhood.
He said: “A hundred years ago New Cross was a real community with proper civic infrastructure: schools, pubs and a decent public transport network.
“Bringing this back is a return to normality after a period of industrial decline.
“The fight now isn’t to get people to live in the centre of Manchester, but how to ensure working class Mancunians get access to the opportunities being created.”
Nick Leggett, senior development manager for Mulbury, said: “We’re proud to be playing our part in the regeneration of New Cross and the wider Northern Gateway project, supporting Manchester City Council’s strategic growth development aspirations.’’
The plans are expected to be considered by Manchester City Council in July 2020.
The fight now... is how to ensure working class Mancunians get access to the opportunities
Councillor Sam Wheeler