Water Street

Today's photo is looking along Water Street towards Oldham Road from the roof of The Arcades shopping mall. The No. 330 bus from Stockport has just turned out of Gas Street on its way to the bus station.

In the middle distance, Holy Trinity Church is clearly seen. In the far distance the Beetham Tower in Manchester is just visible in the haze.

Water Street and Gas Street took their names from the corporation-owned utilities that had premises nearby. A cotton mill once stood where The Arcades now is, with Charlestown Mission Chapel on the right hand side of the road. Behind the chapel were narrow streets with rows of small early terraced mill-workers' houses that formed Charlestown.

It is hard to believe that, around 1800, Charlestown was separated from the small town of Ashton under Lyne, then spreading along what is now Old Street, by open fields!

See Google Aerial View of this location.
See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.