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Eastgate
- Castle Street
  The Eastgate office
building on Castle Street. in Castlefield, derives
its name from the fact that it is located along the
line of the eastern wall of the Roman fort. In
a previous life it was called Gail House, described
as a rag mop factory. During its industrial
life it was also home to a tarpauling works.
The £2.6 Million conversion, that created the
building you see today, was designed by the
architectural practice of Stephenson Bell.
Their brief was to create "studio offices" suitable
for users engaged in creative businesses.
  In the
image below you can see the area, in 1953,
when it was still an industrial
site. Gail House can be seen at the
end of Castle Street across from the
Grocers' Warehouse. I have outlined
it in red.
 If you click on the link below you can see the building in 1966. Gail
House
The Duke
of Bridgewater's canal reached
Manchester by 1765. Its purpose
was to transport coal from his mines
near Worsley to Manchester to fuel the
developing industries. At the
Manchester end, in Castlefield, wharfs
were created to land the coal and one of
those coal wharfs was located beside
Castle Street. The map below
depicts the site in 1845. As you
can see, the Merchants' Warehouse and
the Grocers' Warehouse were already in
place but there were no buildings
between the coal wharf and the Rochdale
Canal. By 1863 the businesses
trading on Castle Street included three
wharfingers and canal companies: the
Bridgewater Trust and Old Quay Company,
James & William Green, and John
Howson.
 By
1889, shown in the map below, a
complex of industrial buildings had
been added. At that time the
occupants were Crighton & Sons
Machinists and James Lamb had a
furniture factory in the building
that is called Eastgate today.
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