B6181

Route

Heading north

The B6181 is a short link road on the edge of Manchester city centre.

The road starts at traffic lights where Dale Street meets the A62 Newton Street. Our road now heads southeast along the remainder of Dale Street (owing to a bus gate northwestbound traffic is forced to turn right into the unclassified Port Street). The road is lined with apartment buildings that have seen better days plus the occasional bar or café.

After passing the entrance to Piccadilly Basin on the Rochdale Canal (now a car park) we cross the canal and reach a T-junction. We TOTSO right onto Ducie Street and end shortly afterwards on the A6 Piccadilly, adjacent to the approach road to the station of that name.

History

When originally classified the B6181 number was only allocated to the short Victoria Bridge Street, crossing the River Irwell between Salford and Manchester. It allowed traffic to cut the corner between the A6041 Chapel Street and the A56, while the A6 crossed the River Irwell further south on Blackfriars Street.

Later maps extend the B6181 eastwards along Cannon Street and Dale Street before bearing right onto Ducie Street to end on the A6 Piccadilly. The B6181 then became part of a one way system of the A6, with traffic heading east. In the 1990s reconstruction following the Manchester Bombing removed traffic from travelling through the Arndale Centre, thus making the ex-B6181 impractical as a through route here. However, the eastern end of the B6181 extension retains that number despite quite obviously being a back street.