Sadly in early August of 2012, Manchester lost yet another link to its almost forgotten past.

Little so far is known about this building on Princess Street.

However, what we can ascertain was that it was certainly one of the oldest buildings if not the oldest in this part of Manchester and possibly a rare example of 18th/19th century business premises, with its own overhanging privy seen still insitu which at some point would have emptied its contents straight into the River Medlock below.

In the early 1800s, toilets were usually nothing more than communal cesspits, shared by dozens of families and frequently became blocked with waste. Sometimes they overflowed into wells, infecting drinking water in the process. This persisted until the first Public Health Act 1848 was created to improve sanitary conditions across England and Wales and to ensure that all new houses had drains and lavatories.  This…