Vanished streets and clubs torn down for Arndale

IT’S been half a century since Manchester’s Arndale shopping centre opened its doors to the city’s shoppers.

- By LEE GRIMSDITCH

Although officially opened by HRH Princess Royal in 1979, the first phase of Manchester Arndale opened in 1975.

Still one of the largest in the UK, Manchester Arndale was built in phases between 1972 and 1979. Over the years, the mammoth indoor shopping centre has seen many changes, not least the major reconstruction that followed the IRA bomb in 1996, which devastated the city centre.

However, the original plans to completely transform this part of the city began before the end of the Second World War. The city council decided that the area around Market Street needed major redevelopment, but no progress was made until the city surveyor said redevelopment was “long overdue” in 1962.

In the mid-20th century, the area where the Armdale Centre now stands was a maze of Victorian buildings, warehouses, winding streets and alleyways. During the ‘50s and '60s a number of ‘beat clubs; unlicensed coffee houses and at least one pornographic cinema sprung up in the area, which was later dubbed ‘Manchester's Soho’.

The clubs included Manchester Cavern on Cromford Court, where American blues stars like Little Walter and Sister Rosetta Tharpe played alongside The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders.

In 2002, writer, broadcaster, lecturer and musician CP Lee said the venues’ existence in the now-lost district made Manchester a rival to Hamburg as the “fun city of Europe”.

But not everyone welcomed this new dark and dangerous aspect of Manchester nightlife.

“Dirty, poorly illuminated and being patronised by individuals of exaggerated dress and deportment, commonly known as mods, rockers and beatniks,’ was how police described Manchester's underground club scene in 1965.

Much of the city’s thriving music scene was in the dingy, unlicensed clubs between Market Street and Withy Grove.