Sinclair’s: Then-and-Now, But Not Quite…
This is a then-and-now that doesn’t quite line up.
And that’s the point.
The ghosted building is the old Coal Exchange, once standing beside Sinclair’s Oyster Bar on Victoria Street. But Victoria Street has gone, the Coal Exchange has gone, and Sinclair’s itself has been moved.
Most old photographs of this corner tend to look from the Market Place side, with the Old Wellington in the foreground. This one is different. It looks from Victoria Street, so the Old Wellington is hidden behind and Sinclair’s is more prominent.
There’s no date on the old photograph, but I’d guess it’s probably around 1910.
What makes this view so odd today is that the building survives, but the street doesn’t.
Sinclair’s now sits in the slightly manufactured setting of Shambles Square, between the Corn Exchange and the Mitre Hotel. It was moved there with the Old Wellington in 1999, after the redevelopment that followed the 1996 IRA bomb.
So although this is a “then and now” post, it isn’t a neat one.
The building is still with us.
But Victoria Street has gone.
The ground levels have changed, the surrounding buildings have disappeared, and the whole setting has been rebuilt.
Even Sinclair’s isn’t quite what it first appears to be. The Old Wellington is the genuinely older timber-framed survivor; Sinclair’s is later, with its familiar black-and-white “Tudor” appearance added as a later effect.
So this comparison is, appropriately enough, a bit of a Shambles.
The building survives, but not where it was. The street has gone. And even the “Tudor” look isn’t quite as Tudor as it seems.
So the overlay isn’t perfect.
I can’t even stand where the original photographer stood - probably somewhere around the back of today’s Hugo Boss shop - because that piece of Victoria Street has effectively vanished.
And even if I could, Sinclair’s itself has moved. The current ground levels, steps and built-up edges mean the view can’t quite line up.
Even when a historic building is still there, Manchester’s history doesn’t always line up neatly.
Sinclair’s Oyster Bar and the Old Shambles features in the Medieval Quarter walking tour.
Historic photos / illustrations: Manchester Libraries Archive
