Old Gas Works Gould St, Collyhurst , Manchester

 The Gould Street Gas Works was a gas manufacturing plant located in Manchester, England. Originally built in 1824, the plant was operated by the Manchester Corporation Gas Department and was in operation from 1833 to 1969. It was named after the street on which it was located, which was named after John Gould, who was a prominent Manchester businessman in the 19th century. With the emergence of a growing population and development of manufacturing needed a supply of gas and coke to the expanding industrial areas, also making the current aldermen and counsellors" understand that 'something had to be done'. This all the more because, in addition to the growing need for oven coke to fuel the growing factories and foundries: pressure was growing to supply gas as a means of lighting irregularly illuminated buildings, dark streets and alleys of that time. The installation of public lighting would mean, may reduce potential criminal activity, as the location is close to the notorious Angel Meadows.It soon became apparent that only a large and substantial gas works could meet all needs.

A revisit in Feb 2023 revealed a hidden structure..a cavern, what would have been the main input processing unit, another tunnel section was full of coke cinders...this section was covered by 

The Urban Legend uk and Exploring with Carl....

A preview of the underground Manchester series..by TheUrbanLegendUK...

The UrbanLegend uk

Ventilation Device

pics below,were taken from the second hidden tunnel

In addition to the inherent dangers, these industrial units appear to have become targets for sabotage

during times of riots. For example, in the Chartist breaks of 1824, Gould Street works:

then, in the initial stage of construction, was attacked, resulting in its newly built sections

substantially damaged. Other sabotage attempts took place in 1876, by the Fenian Movement  (a

Irish-American Republican Secret Society, which first emerged in 1858 as the forerunner of the IRA). After In this incident, several of the Gould Street workers were given the powers of special police officers "to take action if necessary and according to the situation."

With the advent of rail transport, manufacturing leapt to

a staggering 7,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day,

compared to the initial production of 50,000 cubic feet. This

the departure was possible thanks to the high number of trains

could easily deliver directly from the mines. 

The images below were taken in 2019..

Close to the site were a series of structures that related to the gasworks, along with workshops that were part of a garage..

There were also excavations, as this was the first stages of the gas works demolition

Section of track, may have been used for coke transportation

The demolition of the Rochdale Road Gasworks began in late August 2023 McGoff Construction has commenced work on site at the Group’s latest residential development in Manchester.