Piccadilly Place: Uncovering Manchester's Industrial Origins

Piccadilly Place (centred on NGR SJ 8461 9590) lies immediately to the north-west of Piccadilly Railway Station, close to the heart of the modern city. In many ways, it is typical of other areas found within the centre of Manchester. Prior to the Industrial Revolution it lay on the outskirts of the town, only to be subsumed during rapid urban expansion in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. However, in other ways the history of Piccadilly Place is unique, particularly as the site was to play a significant part in the emergence of the industrial city. This booklet charts that development, and also summarises the history of the city and the textile industry, which was to have a fundamental infl uence on the development of both Piccadilly Place, and other parts of Manchester.