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The
Circus / Premier Inn - Portland Street & Oxford
Street
 The Premier Inn hotel
called "The Circus" curves around the corner of Oxford
Street and Portland Street.
  The final block of
buildings on the northwest side of Portland Street
from Dickinson Street to Oxford Street, appears to be
made up of 19th Century warehouse/office
buildings.
 In 1880s the block was
an eclectic collection of warehouses, factories,
offices, shops and even a ladies school.
************ The aerial image
below, showing the block in 1953, illustrates this
apparently unplanned conglomeration of buildings.
 The key to
understanding the layout of the buildings in 2011
is the frontage on the corner of Portland Street
and Oxford Street, seen below. Here a modern
building, which sweeps around the corner, includes
an entrance to a Premier Inn Hotel. On the
Oxford Street side is a Weatherspoons pub called
"The Paramount" (in honour of the nearby Odeon
Cinema that was once a theatre called The
Paramount) and a bar called "Varsity".
 John J.
Parkinson-Bailey, in his book "Manchester
- An Architectural History" said this
about the development, "Due to be built in
2000, on the brownfield site next to the Odeon
in Oxford Street, is AMEC development's
"Circus", a 240 bed budget hotel with
leisure and restaurants below, and a 25,000
square foot basement for a health club.
The architects, Leslie Jones, have developed a
scheme which integrates the facades of the
listed (and at present empty) buildings on
Portland Street and Dickinson Street with a new
facade of brick with stone detailing and exposed
steel."
Below you can see
the remaining facades along Portland Street,
beginning at the Oxford Street end.
The link below
shows the corner with Oxford Street in 1964.
The question that I
don't know the answer to is, "Why is the development
called 'Circus'?" At this point all I can do is
speculate.
The Goad Insurance map, dated 1901, shows that not far away, near the junction of Chepstow Street and Great Bridgewater Street, there was a rectangular building labelled "CIRCUS - VACANT SEPTr 1901 - 15' to eaves - 45' to ridge - Corr Iron Clad". The building is coloured yellow which according to the map key indicates that it was a wooden structure. A wooden structure clad in corrugated iron suggests a temporary structure. I have no idea what this building was prior to 1901 and I can find no reference to an actual circus in Central Manchester. Further along Portland Street, beyond Princess Street, is a tiny public house called the "Circus Tavern". This isn't an answer to my question, it is another reason for the question, Why Circus?  Close Window |
