Vanished shopping centre with wooden walkways that's a Manchester missing link

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Manchester city centre is constantly evolving.

And the story of one, lost shopping complex, reflects just how much the retail landscape has changed within a relatively short period of time.

Between Victoria Station and the Corn Exchange there used to be a mall. Running from Fennel Street to Todd Street, it linked the two iconic city centre buildings, and was filled with independent businesses.

But, in common with too many other, quirky, higgledly-piggedly corners of the city centre, it was demolished in the name of post-war progress.

It's a Manchester missing link - a bridge between old shopping habits and new, as well as a vanished shortcut that provided with commuters with a way of sheltering from the rain on the way to and from Victoria station.

Even its name and its origins are shrouded in mystery.

It's variously called Lancaster Avenue, Lancaster Arcade, and Cheese Alley.

Pictures from the 1960s show its three tiers were home to shops including Olwen’s stamp and coin centre; B.&M. Baker raincoat and casual wear manufacturers; Jim Murray trouser makers; along with Irwin Bros manufacturing jewellers and bullion dealers.

Its distinct design - narrow wooden walkways, with shops housed in cell-like units - has led some to speculate it was once a women's prison.

But Manchester Metropolitan University retail expert Professor Gary Warnaby indicates it was purpose-built, part of a Victorian fashion for building shopping arcades - an arcade being defined as a glass covered passageway connecting two busy streets and lined on both sides with shops.

The precursor to the modern shopping mall, five were built in the thirty years after 1870, according to Prof Warnaby.

"Barton Arcade was the first, built in 1871, and occupying an