Former warehouse
I've flown from here to New York
A many times, including via thomas cook airlines, now sadly gone.
Other airlines are opening up with new routes, including Aer Lingus, I'd love to take that flight. In this article we'll look at the hidden connections between Manchester and New York, we'll explore the similarities in architecture, we'll capture the streets in the Northern. Quarter that became New York for film shoots and the roads in Trafford Park with New York-style street names
So, is Manchester a mini Manhattan? I've always felt there were similarities and parallels between Manchester and New York. I said this once to a guy and he replied, no, there's no similarity whatsoever. No connections, totally different cities. I was proven right when in 2013, filmmakers arrived in Manchester and turned Dale Street into 1940s New York.
It was chosen because of its similarity to New York. The street was sealed off, they brought in classic American automobiles, police cars, shop frontages, lamp posts, signs, fire hydrants, all to create a fantasy of 1940s America in the heart of Manchester. They were making. Captain America The First Avenger. They also filmed in Stanley Dock Liverpool. So there's no doubt that there are echoes of New York in Manchester, especially in the Northern Quarter. This former warehouse on Newton Street, The Bradley, has a similarity to the Flatiron Building. It's now an Easy Hotel.
Many of these red-brick façades were built around the same time as those in lower Manhattan, in the late 19th century. With the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894, trade flourished, architectural styles were shared, people migrated, mostly in a westerly direction. These metal fire escapes are very reminiscent of those in New York. This building on the corner of Hilton Street and Newton Street, looks similar to buildings along Broadway and 5th Avenue, New York, not Manchester. It's a beautiful building, now Hatter's Hostel. That inner cutaway with the windows and yellow tiles seems very Manhattan-esque to me. I can imagine a view over the Lower East Side and Midtown. There were strong trading links between the US and Manchester in the 19th century.
Manchester was known as Cottonopolis and cotton was shipped here. The Abraham Lincoln statue commemorates the president's gratitude for the solidarity of the people of Manchester during the American Civil War and their help in the struggle to end slavery. I love the rear façades of the buildings, constructed purely for commercial intent, and yet there is a beauty about them. With their stepped back façades, these blocks resemble me of those in Lower Manhattan. They were later altered and a new building has appeared in front of them, so that link is lost. I think Manchester's Northern Quarter with its bars and street life has a strong similarity with Greenwich Village. These pillars on Oldham Street remind me of the Apollo Theater in Harlem. On Great Ancoats Street this cast-iron façade is very reminiscent of those in Lower Manhattan.
Even the name - Hudson Buildings - carries an echo of New York. It was built around 1924, when there was vigorous trade via the ship canal. The American Ford Motor Company set up a car factory in Trafford Park, the first purpose-built industrial park in the world.
Cars were built there from 1911 to
1931, when production moved to dagenham.
The American Westinghouse company set up a subsidiary in Britain and opened a factory in Trafford Park. It later became part of Metropolitan Vickers, a British company. These façades on Swan Street are classic New York, even more so since the arrival of the new skyscraper on the left. That skyscraper, small by American standards, is Angel Gardens on Rochdale Rd, completed in 2020.
Just nearby is Manchester's first skyscraper, the CIS tower, inspired by the Inland Steel Building in Chicago. After the Co-op buildings on Miller Street were blitzed in World War 2, a delegation went to the United States to look for ideas for a new building. In 1962, the CIS tower was completed. I'll feature it in more detail in another article. When I visited the Inland Steel Building in Chicago, the similarity was obvious, though, in scale, it's closer to the neighbouring New Century Hall built at the same time as the CIS tower. Nearby High Street, in the Northern Quarter, was transformed for another movie set in New York. That was the remake of 'Alfie' with Jude Law from 2006, unfortunately not successful. As with Captain America, signs and cars were imported.
The Northern Quarter provided a perfect mini-Manhattan film set at a fraction of the cost of filming in the real location. As a child, I longed to go to America, an impossible dream, so I imagined Manchester as a kind of Manhattan or an imaginary American city. I listened to Northern Soul, a style of American. R'n'B that was especially popular in Manchester and other parts of the north, hence the name. At. Twisted Wheel club all-nighters, the records were almost exclusively 60s and 70s Black American. Later generations of DJs also found inspiration in New York and Chicago. When I eventually arrived in New York to spend a summer working there, I felt as if I'd already lived there.
This view of 10th Avenue from the High Line, a walkway built along a disused rail line, is not far from where I lived on 9th Avenue. There's a similar view from the railway bridge on Deansgate, quite a co-incidence as it's planned to convert the nearby disused railway viaduct into Manchester's High Line. There are other architectural parallels. The Jefferson Market. Library was originally built as a courthouse from 1874 to 1877. Manchester's Minshull Street Police Courts were built from 1868-71. Minshull Street is at the end of Canal Street and in New York, there's also a Canal Street and let's not forget New York bar near Canal Street that's. Manchester.
Both New York and Manchester have trend-defining gay scenes. Is it a coincidence that New York's UN Building and Manchester's City Tower, former Sunley Tower look similar? The Chrysler Building was completed in 1930, Manchester's Northcliffe House on Deansgate, was built in 1931 and demolished in 2003. There are even parallels with Manchester's Alexandra Park and New York's Central Park, both overlooked by grand buildings, St Bede's College and the Dakota building, respectively. Over in the Village, Trafford Park, by Westinghouse Road and Europa Way, you'll find First Avenue, Second Avenue, Third Avenue, Fourth Avenue Fifth Avenue and then. Fifth Street, Sixth Street, Eighth Street, Tenth Street and Eleventh Street. These street names date back to the time of those American factories I mentioned earlier. The magnificent Trafford Park Hotel stands empty, shades of Detroit-style decay. And at the centre of the Village on Third Avenue and Eleventh Street, you'll find some nice eateries and a strong community spirit.
Even the corrugated iron. St Antony's Church for me has overtones of New England though this style originated over here. So if you disregard the chip shop, double yellow lines, the broad Manchester accents, the cars and trucks driving on the left, the cheese sandwiches with grated cheese in them and the double-decker buses - you'd swear you were in Manhattan or maybe Brooklyn. The new Manchester skyline has been called 'Manc-hattan' and the towers of Deansgate. Gardens recall the Twin Towers, but is it true to say that Manchester a mini-Manhattan? No, probably not, but there are undoubtedly forgotten echoes, influences, clues and connections between. Manchester and New York as well as the wider North America, if you care to look for them. And anything that helps us to relate to our familiar surroundings in a new way and to bridge the miles and the years between us and those distant events and places, can only be a good thing. So I hope you found this article interesting, maybe even inspiring.
I hope it's changed the way you look at Manchester.