is Back Passage a real road?

[David H]

My father remembers a small road in Manchester in the 1930s called Back Passage, which isn't there now. Can anyone remember it, or have a pre war Manchester A to Z and can check?

[Hippy]

As a once Manchester resident I can confirm that a lot of places were called Back Passage. In direct answer to your question I don't know if there was an official named "Back Passage" in the centre. My oldest map is just post war and it is not there.

Most streets in the city had access to the rear, especially those like you see in "Coronation Street", such as the now gone Rusholme grid pattern of Edwardian housing. The rear access alleys were called colloquially "backings", only the posh people in Wythenshawe or Cheetham Hill called their backings "Back Passages"!

In the centre most big streets had a rear access road and so we got Back Piccadilly, Back Quay St., and Back Temple Street.

[ChrisPBacon]

I think its in the Gay Village.

[FredPuli]

Hence ancient Mancunian joke. Doctor "Please insert this suppository in your back passage" Patient " But where will I put me bike?"

[incitatus]

the gay village is canal street, the sign of which frequently had the c and s removed by vandals. I know of a Galloping Bottom road in somerset

[David H]

I've just got far more information on it, Hippy was right about Cheetham, as that is where he lived, and he said it was between Bignor Street and Waterloo Road there. So all I need now is a memory of it, or a map old enough, as I now have an exact location. Would have been a good place for a public toilet, I suppose...

[sft42]

There is a current "Back Passage" in london....check out this link

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=publ
ic&db=GB&GridE=531960&overviewmap=&client=public&advanced=true&addr2=back+passage&addr3=&pc=&cname=Great+Britain&X=531960&GridN=181758&Y=181758&scale=5000&cidr_client=none&coordsys=gb&place=Back+Passage,+London

to see it....it's a big one isn't it?

[gg333]

Hmmm, not sure but you can definitely find BELL END in Wollaston Northants!