Manchester Police Buildings from the 1838 incorporation.
Map 1: Manchester's lock-ups and police offices in 1839. The poorest working class districts are marked in red. -
Overlay on Slater's 1848 Map.
Overlay on Slater's 1848 Map.
Manchester's first expansion - Police Buildings
Map 1 shows the locations of the police buildings inherited in 1838/9 from the old watch and ward system, when Manchester was protected by 261 beadles and watchmen. In the late eighteenth century 'policing' was based at the King Street office from 1772 and by 1794 there was a Billet and Beadle's office at 8 Police Street [the extension of Ridgeway to St Ann's Square] so there is evidence of an expanding police estate to match Manchester's increasing population.[1] After 1838 the following police buildings stations were taken over for the new borough police:
None of these buildings could be deemed large by later standards, but they had progressed from the simple lock-ups from which they derived their name. Lock-ups were a throw back to the village detention cell or keep, far removed from Manchester's operational needs but performing the same function nonetheless. The 1848/9 OS town plans reveal these stations being the size of a large house size with three or four cells in each.
[See Police Stations / Start 1838/9 / Oldham Road PS].
The Watch Committee [WC] would continue the usage of the term lock-up and there existed a Lock-Up Sub Committee [LUSC] of the WC right through the nineteenth century to deal with station issues. With incorporation came the acquisition of the townships of Cheetham, Ardwick and Chorlton-on-Medlock with Hulme [B,C & D Divisions respectively] and further stations were inherited and added to the police estate. These included Chorlton on Medlock Town Hall and Police Station built in 1830 and the Hulme police office and cells on Great Jackson Street and Park Place. However, due to the political infighting over incorporation in 1839 the WC minutes includes a resolution that:
'The Town Clerk to take such legal steps as the circumstances may require...to obtain the possession of the lock-ups and arms and accoutrements and other property, directed to be given up for the use of the Constables of the Borough'.[2]
The Lighting and Watching Committee responded with a resolution that:
'the ten new watchmen's coats, ricks, staves, be transferred to the Borough WC ... but engaging to restore it in equally good condition .. in the event that the functions of the said Corporation should become void'.
The WC resolved to accept the equipment and ignore the latter condition.[3] Similarly, the WC resolution for the usage of the Chorlton on Medlock lock-up was made with a proviso that, 'if refused the parties to be summoned before the Borough Court'.[4] As a result the following buildings joined the police estate:
The WC continued with their expansion of the police estate and acquired the rents of buildings in the strategic locations of:
Map 1 shows with the location of police buildings across the new borough the WC provided operational stations and cells in the working-class areas in preference to the middle-class residential districts. Their policy was to police the poorer areas, so stations for the policemen on foot are required nearby, not only to minimise the distances covered but to provide local cells to escort the prisoners over as short a distance as possible. Horse-drawn vans were only utilised to convey prisoners to Court during the latter decades of the century.
These early police buildings were in a poor condition. The WC minutes reveal their constant need for repairs and alterations. The cells were often poorly ventilated cold and damp with limited lighting. Numerous complaints were made regarding the conditions which affected the prisoners and constables alike.
[see Police Stations /Start 1838/Oldham Road PS and the Old Town Hall PS].
Although these buildings were far removed from any notion of a modern police station, they did, by their deliberate presence, indicate the Council's desire to police those areas identified as being most in need of control. They were the first most obvious physical evidence of the making of Manchester’s new police force.
However, the Borough Council failed to wrest control of the police establishment from the Police Commissioners and a civil action ensued, leading to the situation of both Borough Constables and Township Watchmen policing Manchester. For a summary of the principles and issues surrounding this takeover of the control of Manchester see Kidd, Manchester.[5]
Central government was compelled to intervene in and on the 17th October 1839 HM Government’s Chief Commissioner of Police Sir Charles Shaw was directed to take over control of the policing of the new borough. However, his evaluation of the force and his operational decisions differed from the council's assessment.
[1] Manchester Watch Committee Minutes [WCM] and the Finance and General Purpose Committee Minutes [FGPM] 9 October 1839 and Scholes Manchester and Salford Directory of 1794. Also D. Broady, & D. Tetlow, Law and Order in Manchester (Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing, 2005).
[2] WCM 18 June 1839.
[3] Ibid.
[4] WCM 18 July 1839.
[5] Alan. Kidd, Manchester, a history, (Lancaster: Carnegie Publishing, 2006) (4th ed.) Ch 4. pp.57-63.
- Old Town Hall Police HQ office and lock-up in King Street.
- Ridgefield Station House, off John Dalton Street.
- Deansgate Police Station and lock-up, Knott Mill District.
- Swan Street Police Station and lock-up, New Cross District.
- Oldham Road Police Station and lock-up, New Cross District.
- Kirby Street Police Station and lock-up, Ancoats District.
None of these buildings could be deemed large by later standards, but they had progressed from the simple lock-ups from which they derived their name. Lock-ups were a throw back to the village detention cell or keep, far removed from Manchester's operational needs but performing the same function nonetheless. The 1848/9 OS town plans reveal these stations being the size of a large house size with three or four cells in each.
[See Police Stations / Start 1838/9 / Oldham Road PS].
The Watch Committee [WC] would continue the usage of the term lock-up and there existed a Lock-Up Sub Committee [LUSC] of the WC right through the nineteenth century to deal with station issues. With incorporation came the acquisition of the townships of Cheetham, Ardwick and Chorlton-on-Medlock with Hulme [B,C & D Divisions respectively] and further stations were inherited and added to the police estate. These included Chorlton on Medlock Town Hall and Police Station built in 1830 and the Hulme police office and cells on Great Jackson Street and Park Place. However, due to the political infighting over incorporation in 1839 the WC minutes includes a resolution that:
'The Town Clerk to take such legal steps as the circumstances may require...to obtain the possession of the lock-ups and arms and accoutrements and other property, directed to be given up for the use of the Constables of the Borough'.[2]
The Lighting and Watching Committee responded with a resolution that:
'the ten new watchmen's coats, ricks, staves, be transferred to the Borough WC ... but engaging to restore it in equally good condition .. in the event that the functions of the said Corporation should become void'.
The WC resolved to accept the equipment and ignore the latter condition.[3] Similarly, the WC resolution for the usage of the Chorlton on Medlock lock-up was made with a proviso that, 'if refused the parties to be summoned before the Borough Court'.[4] As a result the following buildings joined the police estate:
- Chorlton Town Hall Police Station, Cavendish Street, Chorlton on Medlock.
- Great Jackson Street Police Station, Park Place, Hulme.
The WC continued with their expansion of the police estate and acquired the rents of buildings in the strategic locations of:
- Hanover Street and Edward Street near Smithfield Market, Northern District.
- Brook Street, off London Road Piccadilly.
- Allum Street, Ancoats.
Map 1 shows with the location of police buildings across the new borough the WC provided operational stations and cells in the working-class areas in preference to the middle-class residential districts. Their policy was to police the poorer areas, so stations for the policemen on foot are required nearby, not only to minimise the distances covered but to provide local cells to escort the prisoners over as short a distance as possible. Horse-drawn vans were only utilised to convey prisoners to Court during the latter decades of the century.
These early police buildings were in a poor condition. The WC minutes reveal their constant need for repairs and alterations. The cells were often poorly ventilated cold and damp with limited lighting. Numerous complaints were made regarding the conditions which affected the prisoners and constables alike.
[see Police Stations /Start 1838/Oldham Road PS and the Old Town Hall PS].
Although these buildings were far removed from any notion of a modern police station, they did, by their deliberate presence, indicate the Council's desire to police those areas identified as being most in need of control. They were the first most obvious physical evidence of the making of Manchester’s new police force.
However, the Borough Council failed to wrest control of the police establishment from the Police Commissioners and a civil action ensued, leading to the situation of both Borough Constables and Township Watchmen policing Manchester. For a summary of the principles and issues surrounding this takeover of the control of Manchester see Kidd, Manchester.[5]
Central government was compelled to intervene in and on the 17th October 1839 HM Government’s Chief Commissioner of Police Sir Charles Shaw was directed to take over control of the policing of the new borough. However, his evaluation of the force and his operational decisions differed from the council's assessment.
[1] Manchester Watch Committee Minutes [WCM] and the Finance and General Purpose Committee Minutes [FGPM] 9 October 1839 and Scholes Manchester and Salford Directory of 1794. Also D. Broady, & D. Tetlow, Law and Order in Manchester (Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing, 2005).
[2] WCM 18 June 1839.
[3] Ibid.
[4] WCM 18 July 1839.
[5] Alan. Kidd, Manchester, a history, (Lancaster: Carnegie Publishing, 2006) (4th ed.) Ch 4. pp.57-63.
