A6042

Route

Albert Square

The then-A6042 Corporation Street in 1977. This view has been altered beyond recognition.

The A6042 seems to be a very confused route around Manchester and Salford. At least three sections have been claimed for it so far:

Peter Street – Princess Street

The A6042 starts as Mount Street, though depending on which map you consult its exact start point differs. Multimap shows it starting on Mosley Street outside G-Mex (which could alternatively be the A5103), while the OS Landranger has it starting slightly further north, where Mount Street crosses Peter Street. It is a one-way street northbound, skirting the west side of Albert Square. It then stops on the A34 John Dalton Street. Cross Street from here on is unclassified, although again the exact point the classified road ends depends on the map.

Corporation Street

(This section is doubtful)
The A6042 resumes (with no obvious connection between the two sections except on foot) at the end of the unclassified Withy Grove, outside the Printworks. It now heads north as far as the A665 Miller Street.

Trinity Way

If the road were ever a continuous route, then after a short multiplex with the A665 over Victoria station throat, it then doubles back on itself, to head south west along the D2 New Bridge Street and Trinity Way. When originally built, it went as far as the A34/A6 junction near Salford Central Station. In the 1990s it was extended along one branch of the A34 under the railway line (maps show either number for this section) and then on to meet the A57 which continues east as the ring road.

History

The A6042 is described in the 1922 Road Lists as Link in Manchester (Corporation Street (part)), being the section between the A6 Market Street and the A665 Miller Street. The road was later extended south (out of zone) along the B5222 Cross Street and continued on to reach the A34 Peter Street. Much of Cross Street and Corporation Street were redesigned as part of the regeneration following the IRA bomb in 1996 and subsequent rebuilding of the Arndale Centre; this section is therefore unclassified and largely pedestrianised.

For some reason the A6042 number was later given to Trinity Way, making the road part of Manchester's inner ring road.