The Grocers' Warehouse - Castlefield



The Grocers' Warehouse was constructed at the beginning of the 19th Century in the Bridgewater Canal Basin at Castlefield.  It was one of the first large warehouses in the basin and probably the first warehouse in Britain where barges could be unloaded within the building.  In 1811 the warehouse was sold to the Manchester Grocers' Company hence the name.  The Manchester Grocers' Company vessels sailed daily to and from Castle-Quay, Manchester, and the Grocers' Company Wharf in Liverpool.  The warehouse had a water-powered hoist for unloading goods from the barges and liften them up to the road level on the cliff behind.




The warehouse is indicated in the aerial photograph below (taken in 1953) by the number 3. 



If you click on the link below, you can see the site of the old warehouse in 1972 after it had been demolished and before the reconstruction was created.  You can see the archways that mark the places where the barges once entered the warehouse.

Grocers' Warehouse

The site has changed quite a lot over the years and the warehouse itself was demolished in 1960.  A partial reconstruction was created in 1987.  The images below show you each of the numbered locations on the aerial photograph.  The images were taken in December of 2010.

Number 1 - the Rochdale Canal between Deansgate and Duke's Lock




Number 2 - The Railway Viaduct which crosses Deansgate, Castle Street and the canal.




Number 3 - the partially reconstructed warehouse site.










Number 4 - The Rochdale Canal beyond the viaduct






Number 5 - Bridge across the Bridgewater Canal



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