In this video we take a look at the forgotten history of Piccadilly gardens in Manchester. First we go underground in Piccadilly gardens to look at a plant room that provided power and water to a fountain. Then we look at the history from the 18th century. There was old clay pits and since medieval tomes there was a ducking stool for unruly women situated at the flooded daub holes or clay pits. Later The Manchester Royal Infirmary was situated in Piccadilly. It was a hospital and a Victorian lunatic asylum. We take a look at maps and plans of historic Manchester. Later we take a look at old photographs of Manchester and look at how Piccadilly gardens evolved after the second world war WWII into a sunken garden.
38 Comments
Not allowed lol
Thanks for that .. you’re a great source of our local history.
How anyone on the council thought that an expensive 20ft high featureless concrete wall running most of the way across a large central square, in a city that has a rather dismal and grey climate, was a good idea is beyond me.
It's a 💩 hole now run down by a 💩 labour run council
What a waste of money.
I remember visiting UMIST in Sackville St, for an interview in 1976. It was great that Manchester had a consevation mentality for their historic buildings. Keeping the exteriors whilst modernising the interiors, while places like Birmingham couldn't wait to destroy theirs and create concrete monstrosities that are now literally falling down.
I worked in Lewis's Dept Store (what is now Primark) in the mid-90's. I was told there are tunnels in the area, and I seem to recall a big steel door in one of the sub-basements that looked like it hadn't been opened in decades. I've a recollection Lewis's had about three basement levels that went quite deep. Lewis's though did have a boating lake in it in the 19th century so would any tunnels be something to do with that?? The tunnel idea of course could come from the fact some of buildings (?Lewis's, Debanahms) I think had fire escapes from their basements that exited into Piccadilly Gardens.
That chair would be in constant use these days.
I remember when I was about 19 or 20, I went into those toilets (and they were well kept) but at night errr, a bloke approached me and was getting very chatty, I didn't really know about Gays, ah ah ah, I shot out of there
On the old map Shakespeare St side of Lewis's store great pub same name
Crackadilly use to be a lovely place decades ago. Now its fully of dingy divers.
I remember when it was a beautiful sunken gardens. I'm actual on one of the old photos online in 1981. Lying on the grass doing my college homework.
Sunken garden looks like St John’s garden in Liverpool now
I remember the underground toilets in Piccadilly in the 60s
Remember the Granada Ghia under the train station? If it was brown I think it might have belonged to my dad but it was stolen in the 80's from Kirby Sports Centre or so he said, if you think on about what else they found rolled up in a carpet just near there then you might be half way to what I'm getting at. I remember my mum went mad at him because my brother was in a judo competition, he went missing the whole day, then turned up at night saying the car had been nicked. If it belonged to a firm in Bolton called Impala power then it was him. I might be jumping to conclusions here but I wouldn't put it past him.
We used to come into Manchester in the 1950s, and Piccadilly Gardens in the spring and summer were just beautiful. As a small boy, I remember the flowers and the scent of the flower beds. Councils used to tend their parks and gardens in those days. Civic pride. You talk about the '90s, well that was all finished with by then.
Always interesting, thank you very much
I went around the gardens during covid, the city was completely empty, it was actually frightening to be honest, I might have seen maybe 10 people in total that whole day!
Think it was an air raid shelter in the war my mum went down there as a child when the sirens sounded
I remember where the fountain was there was a clock which had plants around it and the fingers of the clock had plants in them!
wow amazing
😲😲😲
If you think that they wouldn't have covered up entrances to other tunnels, then you're naive and gullible.
I remember them toilets being in use back in the 70s
Every City should have a Martin Zero ,what a cracking city, from Northern Ireland, it was and is probably one off the best in England,,loved the place in 1998 was there building the Jury's hotel near GMex 👍
Waste of money. Shame to take it down.
did i miss you say what is happening next
I remember a friend, a PO engineer, telling me about a network of tunnels under Piccadilly, partly as a nuclear deterrent, but this was back in the 1970's. Presumably these tunnels are still there somewhere !
Great watch. Gardens were nice but as you say, had it problems. Me and my mate got chased of a gang of muggers across there in 1990 in the early hrs after leaving the Hacienda. Always been a hotspot for bother there.
I remember having the odd 'Jimmy' in there as a kid. It used to stink of ammonia and dirty old men. I clung to my dad as close as I could. The place frightened me to death but at that young age I never realised why.
Remember those Bogs, my missus worked in Pizza land in the 90's, and we'll, it was the decades version of "Cottagers Cove", as many public lavs became, sadly.
the fountain most likely opened in 2002. on ariel views dating back to 2000, piccadilly gardens was still as the 'sunken garden.'
Very interesting video
I walked past you whilst you were recording that first bit at the fountain I was wondering where that door led
Quakers are a breakaway from the Church of England. Their preachers would have been persecuted like a lot of other religious movements, so putting one of them on the ducking stool would probably be quite normal. Clark's shoes was founded by Quakers, as Rowntree's confectionery.
That Fountain & the lighting was simply an ego exercise in waste….. Yes, engineering-wise impressive. But. Just like a firework display: Once seen, it is done. A waste of resources to be sure.
Keep it simple. Keep it natural. Flower beds NEVER fail to attract people of all ages. It triggers the humanity in people when they see nature getting on with its business….. It strikes a chord within them.
They become better human beings as a result. How is that "bad thing"?
They use to go to watch women getting beaten to death? Always been a savage place then
came up randomly suggested in my feed and I was pleasantly surprised to discover how level-headed and reasonable you are – sad reflection of things that I was bracing for it, but I’m glad I was wrong. really interesting local history, thank you! ❤ i’m in my 30s and i’ve only ever known it with the fountain, so it’s strange seeing it with the sunken garden everyone waffles about.