Lower Swan Inn, Market Street

The Lower Swan Inn, sometimes known as the Swan With Two Necks, was once an important coach stop for carriages to Bolton, Chorley, Blackpool and Leicester. In 1788 the Lower Swan offered a three day course on experimental philosophy, including a discussion on electricity [1] (this two decades before the first rudimentary battery was invented).  The following passage is from Manchester Streets and Manchester Men [2]:  "At number 39, the Swan coach office was a well-known landmark.  The building encroached upon the narrow footpath [of Market Street] to such an extent, that when a stage coach was drawn up only about two feet of space remained between the side of the coach, and the wall of the building, and Swan Court marks the approach to them.  Eighty years ago the Royal Mail coaches for Sheffield and Lincoln, and for Chester and Holyhead, left the Swan Inn, the former at 9.45a.m. daily, and the latter at 1.15.  In addition to these a number of ordinary passenger coaches made the Swan their centre."

1. www.northmanchester.net/content/view/104/2.
2. Manchester Streets and Manchester Men, Thomas Swindells (2008).