The Ostrich opened on Wharf Street in the 1820s and was described in 1854 as being in "an extraordinarily populous neighbourhood, surrounded by workshops where hundreds of the best paid workmen are regularly employed...". The famous police chief of the time, James Caminada, commented on the Ostrich pub in 1869: "Every weekend it was customary for a considerable number of thieves to frequent this house, and during the racing season it was the resort of numerous travelling gangs. [1]" The 1863 and '73 Directories shows that Henry Rolley was at the Ostrich [2], and around this time the pub manager, "John", was sacked and subsequently found to be in league with a local crook and was sent down for seven years [1].
Former location of Wharf Street, Ancoats. (c) googlemaps.
The Ostrich is seen here in 1896 as a fine looking public house, but by 1920 the map in The Old Pubs of Ancoats shows no such pub on the street. Wharf Street was just north of, and ran parallel to, Great Ancoats Street off (Old) Mill Street, linking up with Little Newton Street. Although it has long-been lost to the Cardroom Estate and Ancoats Retail Park, the route of Wharf Street was just south of where Cardroom Road is today. This puts it approximately at the corner of the Argos store as shown above.
1. The Old Pubs of Ancoats, Neil Richardson (1987).
2. www.manchester-forum.co.uk/index.php/topic,5657.0.html.
