IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Piccadilly, MANCHESTER, M1 1LU

The substation on Back Piccadilly still bears the name Woolworths even though it hasn't been Woolworths since 1979.

Not the railway station nor the "gardens" but the street. It is no longer the A6 road from London to Carlisle but a section of the bus terminus with three shelters catering for buses towards Droylsden and Ashton. The imposing buildings behind include the NatWest bank Image and Nobles Amusements Image The latter used to a house a reasonably priced café but in recent years only slot machines and is likely to be closed soon as there are plans to redevelop the building. I had to wait quite a while for the street to empty of buses to get this clear view before another bus pulled round from Oldham Street.

The former Woolworths Image store on the corner of Piccadilly and Oldham Street was for a long time Noble's Amusements Image but is now a Morrisons Local store with Travelodge and other businesses also occupying the building.

The Woolworth's department store at the corner of Oldham Street and Piccadilly in Manchester, photographed a few days after the disastrous fire of 8th May 1979 which killed 10 people and left a further 47 needing hospital treatment. The store comprised six floors along with two basement levels and at the time was said to be the largest Woolworth store in Europe. Crucially, the store had no sprinkler system fitted. It is believed that the fire was started by a damaged electrical cable that had furniture stacked in front of it. The disaster led to a major shake-up in UK fire laws after it was revealed that polyurethane foam fillings in furniture at the store made the situation much worse. The foam would burn rapidly, producing large amounts of thick dense smoke which would have soon obscured the exit signs. This would have led to confusion and, together with the irritants in the smoke affecting people’s vision and causing breathing difficulties, would have hindered any escape. The changes in legislation are believed to have saved thousands of lives since. At the time, on 8 May 1979, the Woolworth store blaze was the city's worst fire disaster since World War II. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3696407.stm “Fatal city store fire remembered” (BBC News) http://www.fireservice.co.uk/history-articles/woolworths (UK Fire Service report)

Nobles amusement arcade Image has stood on Piccadilly for decades but has now closed.

The former Woolworth's store at the corner of Piccadilly and Oldham Street. Built in 1928, the imposing five-storey building was once the flagship Woolworth's store in Manchester. At the time of the fire in 1979 (Image]) it was the largest Woolworth's store in Europe. After Woolworth's moved to the Arndale Centre, the building housed Nobles Amusements (Image]) for many years, but it is now empty, awaiting redevelopment.

The imposing five-storey building built of Portland Stone in 1928 on the corner of Oldham Street and Piccadilly, which is now under wraps, was once the flagship Woolworth's store in Manchester Image For many years it had been Noble's amusement arcade Image but they were evicted in 2012 Image and now the building is being transformed into a Travelodge. In front of the building are bus-stops for services towards Ashton under Lyne and Glossop. In the forefront is a bench by Piccadilly Gardens.