B6469

Whitworth Street West, Manchester

The B6469 runs along the southern side of Manchester city centre. It was originally numbered A57 to the west of the A6 and A635 to the east and was probably downgraded as a result of the construction of the A57(M) Mancunian Way.

The road starts in the district of Ardwick at traffic lights, where the other three directions are all numbered A635, and heads west along Fairfield Street. It quickly goes under a bridge, then a tunnel, under the railway lines immediately east of Piccadilly station (the bridge actually no longer carries track) and then runs in the gap between Piccadilly station (on the right) and the long-closed but still extant Mayfield station (on the left). After crossing traffic lights we go under platforms 13 and 14 of Piccadilly station then pass the station drop-off area and taxi rank before reaching another set of lights, where we cross the A6.

Still on Fairfield Street, we pass the ornate former fire station on the right then bear left onto Whitworth Street to pass the former UMIST main building and the Sackville Street gardens. We continue past office blocks and apartments and cross Princess Street and Oxford Street, the southbound and northbound A34 respectively; on the corner of the latter is the Palace Hotel, the former HQ of the Refuge Assurance. Now on Whitworth Street West we pass the approach to Oxford Road station, then run alongside the viaduct.

The road looks as though it will go under the railway line but it bears right at traffic lights to remain on Whitworth Street West, still with the viaduct on our left. At the next set of lights, in the shadow of Beetham Tower and the former Central station, we cross the A5103 and bear away from the railway line; this brings us alongside the Rochdale Canal which we have run parallel to since the A6. The canal descends locks to our right whilst we remain level. After going under a bridge linking Deansgate station to the similarly named Metrolink station we move on top of the canal and end at traffic lights on the A57 Deansgate. The canal reappears straight ahead whilst the old A56 used to zigzag right then left into Liverpool Road, now the A6143.