Substantial development has since taken place, including the construction of facilities for the 2002 Commonwealth Games at the nearby City of Manchester Stadium.

In the late nineteenth century, Ardwick had many places of entertainment, but the only remnant of that today is the Art Deco-style Manchester Apollo, a venue for pop and rock music concerts.

The principal residents were the Birch family, one of whom was a major general when Oliver Cromwell (briefly) instituted direct military rule.

[7][8] Grand terraces of regency houses (some of which still survive) were built either side of the church, and these were fronted by Ardwick Green, a private park for the residents, containing a pond.

It is said that Dickens based the character of the crippled Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol on the invalid son of a friend who owned a cotton mill in Ardwick.

Other notable interments, recorded on a plaque when the grounds were turned into a sports field in 1966, included Sir Thomas Potter, the first mayor of Manchester, who died in 1845, the Chartist Ernest Charles Jones, who died in 1869, and Buglar Robert Hawthorne, of the 52nd Light Infantry, who was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1857.

[10] The Grade II*listed Church of St Benedict on Bennet Street was erected in 1880 by the noted Gothic Revival architect J. S. Crowther.

Although no longer in use as a place of worship, it still stands today and its tall red brick tower is visible for miles around.

The Hyde Road ground, close to the maze of railway tracks extending outwards from Manchester Piccadilly station, was extended in a piecemeal fashion until it could hold crowds of 40,000, but the main stand was destroyed by a fire in 1923, and the club moved to a new stadium on Maine Road, Moss Side.

[12] During the nineteenth century, Ardwick became heavily industrialised and it was characterised by factories, railways and rows of back-to-back terraced houses being juxtaposed.

Nicholls Hospital, a neo-gothic building that was later a school, was constructed on Hyde Road in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

[15] Close to the bridge, which has been replaced by a modern concrete structure, is a family-run business called Hyde Road Wheels and Tyres.

It became established as a centre of variety entertainment and billed performers such as Fred Karno, Dan Leno, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harry Lauder.

When this was demolished in 1935 to make way for a new Gaumont cinema, Stoll refurbished the Ardwick Empire and renamed it the New Manchester Hippodrome Theatre.

From mediaeval times Ardwick was an independent township in the ancient parish of Manchester within the Salford hundred of Lancashire.

[28] Ardwick railway station is on the Hope Valley line and is served by only one service every weekday from Manchester Piccadilly to Rose Hill Marple.

Ardwick Green Barracks is a fine Victorian castellated structure bearing the old volunteer motto "Defence Not Defiance".