House of Correction...

I climbed up to the top of that new, rather cool multi-storey car park that has been built of the Salford side of the the River Irwell in the centre of the city. Now I never thought I'd used the phrase 'cool multi-story car park' ever in a sentence but they've really made an effort with this one to blend in with all the new office blocks that are springing up in this part of the city.

But I hadn't really gone to wonder at a car park. I wanted to get a high vantage point to take some pictures of what is on the other side of a fence keeping people out of the new building site. Before they put up the new offices, the archaeologists have been sent in to poke about a bit and what they have come up with under the old surface car park isn't an unfortunate relative of Richard III but the remains of the New Bailey Gaol and House of Correction that served the city until it became too big and a new prison was built at the wonderfully named Strangeways. Great name for a prison. They built in on top of a park called Strangeways Park. People in modern Manchester often bemoan the lack of a large green open space in the city centre, Strangeways Park, just north of where Victoria Station is today would have been perfect.

In a few weeks the remains of New Bailey Prison will have been covered up and glass towers will be rising here instead.