One of many firsts

Giant’s Basin, from where these photos are taken, is positioned in Potato Wharf, the original terminus of the Bridgewater Canal. Constructed on behalf the Duke of Bridgewater, it opened in July 1761 and was the first canal in Britain, kick starting the construction of Manchester’s wider canal network.

Giant’s Basin is a circular weir, though originally cloverleafed in shape, which essentially functions like a giant plug hole for the interconnected waterways which converge at this point. It carries the overflow of water from the Bridgewater Canal into the River Medlock, a fantastic example of the ingenuity and skill of Victorian Manchester’s engineers. Indeed, this 1765 structure is statutorily listed for being the first such canal weir.

As for the view itself, while the transformation is remarkable, most of the key features remain relatively unchanged.

Two historic warehouses built to receive and process goods during Manchester’s rapid growth – Merchants and Middle – are still standing and now have new lives as accommodation, workspace and Hits Radio.

The tubular steel legs of the high-level Castlefield Viaduct are just in shot but it’s the older, 1849 Manchester, South Junction & Altrincham Railway viaduct which sits centre stage. This line represents Manchester’s first suburban railway line and is still in use today.

Sandwiched between the two, the Cornbrook Viaduct was built in 1877, but also stood disused for many years until it was taken on by GMPTE (now Transport for Greater Manchester) for use by the Metrolink network.

In recognition of its historic significance, Castlefield was designated as a conservation area in 1980 and the UK’s first Urban Heritage Park in 1982, though the first image, dating from the late 70s, shows that it still wasn’t really an area to be found in.

Its transformation really began to take shape in the 1990s, when Manchester’s influentials gravitated towards its heritage and potential.

As Andy Spinoza charts in his book Manchester Unspun, it was bookmaker-come-developer, Jim Ramsbottom, who first saw the untapped potential in “the ghostly remains of the city’s origins” and took the leap to invest in Merchant’s Warehouse, as well as Dukes 92 and more.

If you’re of a certain age, you may remember the grand opening of Simply Red Mick Hucknall’s Barca, right on the waterside in 1996, just out of shot in these images.

But maybe the first difference you noticed between the two images is the presence of a new crossing, this time for pedestrians. The Merchant’s Bridge – which also opened in 1996 – brought a new, modern image to the basin, and signalled to all that the area was open for visitors.

No longer a no-go area, the canal basin was now officially the place to be, for al fresco dining and more (if not quite as balmy as the European city developers and the City Council wanted to evoke).

Today, the neighbourhood is crammed with apartments and watering holes. Its historic character isn’t lost though, recently becoming the backdrop to the Peaky Blinders tv series.

Spinoza concludes on the area’s transformation:

Castlefield was the place to take visitors with good taste.