Llangollen Castle, Deansgate

Former location of Llangollen Castle, Deansgate. (c) googlemaps.

The top end of Deansgate today bears little resemblance to pre-WWII Deansgate when this end of the road contained the grand Victoria Buildings and Cromwell's statue (the Woolpack was an ancient pub on the site of the Victoria Buildings).  Where this grim looking entrance to the Renaissance Hotel is in the weirdly bricked street frontage used to be the Llangollen Castle [1].  A slender pub of only one bay, it backed almost onto the River Irwell, with Devonport Court to its left and rear.  

Victoria Buildings, Deansgate, 1889. (c) francisfirth.com.

The Llangollen Castle would have been on the left of the Victoria Buildings shown in the above 1889 photo.  The Victoria Buildings were destroyed in WWII and the Cromwell statue now resides in Wythenshawe Park having been taken down in the 1980s when this end of Deansgate was altered.

Cromwell statue, Deansgate. (c) olivercromwell.

1. Manchester Victoria 1849, Alan Godfrey Maps (2009).