City Police Headquarters
As you can see above, this building on Southmill Street was being incorporated into a new development in April of 2024, when I visited.  It was once the headquarters of the city police before they moved to new premises.  Normally I would move this page to the section of the website entitled "Gone Forever" but whilst its function is changing and elements of the building have been demolished, the front section will remain.  What folows is the information about the building before this began.  Information about the St Micheal's development it is becoming part of can be found elsewhere in this tour section.

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This building, presenting a grand Portland stone front to Southmill Street, was built in the 1930s as the headquarters of the city police.  An article on the Greater Manchester Police website, dated August 1, 2014, explains that when the police moved into this building it was, " ... state of the art at the time" however, "Bootle Street police station is not fit for modern policing and over the past few years the building has been slowly decommissioned as police moved to the new divisional headquarters in Newton Heath. It is expected that Bootle Street will close permanently when the last staff leave in the autumn."

In August of 2014 the Manchester Evening News announced that Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs had formed a partnership that had plans to redevelop a block of land between Albert Square and Deansgate that included the former police station.  The project involved the construction of offices, bars, restaurants and a four or five-star hotel



Behind this Portland stone block the rest of the building is made of pale bricks.  There is an interior courtyard with access from Bootle Street. 





The image below was taken in the courtyard in the 1960s.  The policeman is admiring the Triumph sports cars.



(The image above is shown with the permission of the Greater Manchester Police Museum and Archive. If you follow this link you can see more of the historic photographs in their Flickr Photostream.)

The Pevsner guide indicates that the building was opened in 1937 which is three years after the foundation stone was laid.


The sign on the building indicates that this is "A Division Headquarters".



The images below were taken on the Bootle Street side of the building.  The blue light is next to the entrance of the Bootle Street Police Station.