Many will know Hunter Street or will have travelled up or down it maybe not even knowing it's name. These days it's forever on the radio's traffic and travel due to congestion etc even though it's now an 8 lane inner city ring road/motorway. Yet up until the 1980s it was a relatively peaceful 2/3 lane method of getting from Scotland road/Byrom st up onto Islington.
This 1908 map locates it for you and hopefully the following photos will do it justice.
![](http://img814.imageshack.us/img814/1355/hunterstarea1908.jpg)
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This is how it looked in 1927 at its junction with Dawson Place.
![](http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/5658/dawsonplacehunterst1927.jpg)
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and closer up.
![](http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/1802/hunterst1927.jpg)
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About half way up Hunter Street on the left was the Old Friends meeting house with its accompanying graveyard.
![](http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/7870/hunterstoldfreindsmeeti.jpg)
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This is the stretch of Hunter street from the Old Friends meeting house (just visible on the extreme left) up towards Christian st - 1933
![](http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/1281/hunterst1933.jpg)
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This is the top of Hunter st at its junction with Christian st. The main arch of Gerard Gardens took up this site a couple of years later.
![](http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/7968/hunterst5375christianst.jpg)
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On the opposite side of Hunter street, near the top stood Christ Church. John Houghton, a brewer who lived in Trueman Street and had a pub called The Bull Inn and a brewery there funded this church. On old photographs of Lime street, you can see the dome of this church protruding above the County Sessions house. This church too had a graveyard, the 2nd such burial place on old Hunter street and the Waterloo railway tunnel cutting from Waterloo docks to Edge Hill ran under both of them.
![](http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7924/christchurchdrawinghunt.jpg)
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This is a photo of the Old Friends meeting house undergoing demolition. War stopped any further progress of the building of Gerard Crescent and you can that the mid section is already built, some years before in the late 30s but as it is inhabited by now, the ends of the landing have been capped which will continued after the war. The photo was taken from the roof of the Walker Art Gallery in 1945.
![](http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/644/cresandoldfriendsmthsed.jpg)
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This is a City architects sketch of Hunter st in 1948 showing part of the new tenements taking shape on the revitalised Hunter street.
![](http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/9574/hunterstsketch1948.png)
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By 1950, the end sections of Gerard Crescent were completed and lift shafts had been added. By now the council policy was to do away with the 1930s tenements and smaller styled units with an arched entrance to inddor staircases and landings were added on Hunter street. Here at the front and back views of Gerard Close.
![](http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/3640/gerardclose.jpg)
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![](http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/4139/gerardclose2.jpg)
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Two 1960s views looking down Hunter street towards Byrom street. Pre flyovers, a brewery and the Manchester slte company took up most of the south side of the street.
![](http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/2774/hunterstreet.png)
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![](http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/9254/hunterst1966.jpg)
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This photo shows the new Friends meeting house, replacing the aforemention one which was demolished in 1945.
![](http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/7295/hunterstreetnewfriendsm.png)
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This pic shows what was left of Christ Church graveyard as we knew it as kids in the late 60s until they started building the flyovers. The properties shown are the rears of what was on Islington such as Rushworths.
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These photos shows how close the flyovers were to Hunter street.
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In the mid 1980s Gerard Gardens was demolished to accommodate the inner ring road. Scotland road had been widened and New Islington created and Hunter street was to become what we know it as now. Bearing in mind the Flyover is still there as a reference point, you can see that part of the Westbound carriageway (going down Hunter st) and all of the Eastbound carriageway (heading up Hunter St) is built on what were those Gerard Close 1950s units and the end sections of Cartwright House, Gerard Crescent and Gerard Gardens.
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And it up and running.
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