Deansgate

All you want to know about Deansgate

A view down Deansgate looking from the Beetham Tower.

Deansgate is a main road (the A56) through the city centre of Manchester, England. It runs roughly north–south through the western part of the city centre. At its northern end, Deansgate runs parallel with the River Irwell. The road is named after the lost River Dene, which may have flowed along the Hanging Ditch connecting the River Irk to the River Irwell, at the northern end of Deansgate.[1]

It contains many shops such as a large House of Fraser department store (known as Kendals from the 1830s until 2005), along with many public houses and bars including the Moon Under Water, formerly the Deansgate Cinema. At 820 square metres (8,800 sq ft), able to accommodate 1,700 customers, and employing 60 staff, it has been listed in The Guinness Book of Records as the largest public house in Britain.[2]

As it is one of the main roads that connects the northern and southern areas of Manchester, Deansgate has a great deal of traffic, and the many shops, pubs and bars ensure it is busy with pedestrians both during the day and late into the night.

The northern end of the road used to contain a retail area known as The Shambles. This was badly damaged in the IRA bombing in 1996. The area was eventually redeveloped and is home to several new buildings, including No. 1 Deansgate and the Manchester Branch of Harvey Nichols. Other recent additions to the Deansgate area include the Royal Bank of Scotland building, the Beetham Tower, and the redevelopment of the Great Northern Warehouse. These stand in contrast with more historical buildings, such as John Rylands Library and the Barton Arcade shopping mall. The disused Manchester and Salford Junction canal runs directly underneath Deansgate and underneath the Great Northern Warehouse.

It is also home to the head offices of the Manchester Evening News and The Guardian newspapers. At the northern end of Deansgate it then becomes Victoria Street, on which lies Manchester Cathedral, and at the southern end is Deansgate railway station.

References

Notes

  1. ^ Cooper (2003), p. 52.
  2. ^ Parkinson-Bailey (2000), p. 287.

Bibliography

  • Cooper, Glynis (2003). Hidden Manchester. Breedon Books Publishing. ISBN 1859834019. 
  • Parkinson-Bailey, John J. (2000). Manchester: An Architectural History. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719056063. 

External links

Coordinates: 53°28′48″N 2°14′55″W / 53.48, -2.24861

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deansgate"

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