Wilmslow Road

The road runs through the centres of Didsbury, Withington and Fallowfield, including the major student residential campus of Owens Park, to Rusholme.

Over the next fifty years residential development spread southwards as far as High Street (the old name of Hathersage Road).

[5] In 1861 the turnpike trust was threatened with abolition but survived by offering to build Palatine Road from Withington to West Didsbury.

The Tram Sheds, a feature of Wilmslow Road at the time were no longer needed and became a riding school and later the Rusholme Theatre.

Other buses along sections of route are provided by companies including Arriva North West and Bullocks Coaches.

The number of competing companies has reduced in recent years, as since bus deregulation in 1986 it had been common for four or five different operators to run services along the length of the route at any one time.

[9] In 2015, The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) invited consortia, formed around geographic and technological themes, to apply to be involved in the science and innovation audit (SIA) process.

[10] The Greater Manchester and East Cheshire SIA highlighted that 50% of the City Region's science and innovation assets were located in the Oxford Road Corridor.

Recognising the region's ‘Core Strengths’ in Health Innovation and Advanced Materials, and ‘Fast Growth Opportunities’ focused on the future potential of Digital, Energy, and Industrial Biotechnology.

In 2018, Manchester City Council adopted a Strategic Spatial Framework for the Oxford Road Corridor to guide future development and protect the area's unique innovation eco-system.

[11] The Oxford Road Corridor is home to a wide concentration of public, private, academic, and clinical institutions, generating 20% of Manchester's GVA and providing 79,000 jobs.

[12] Property companies Bruntwood and Bruntwood SciTech have invested significantly into assets in the area, acquiring the Manchester Technology Centre in 2003 and developing Manchester Science Park, and Citylabs both of which have designated Life Sciences Enterprise Zone status,[13] and Circle Square which is home to over 35 digital tech businesses including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Northcoders, Blair Project and Tootoot.

It was built on a site on the corner of Lower Mosley Street by the architect Edward Salomons for the theatrical manager Charles Alexander Calvert.

The theatre was the scene of a series of public-spirited dramatic enterprises, including those remarkable Shakespearean revivals organised successively by John Knowles and Charles Calvert.

[25] The Hippodrome, designed by Frank Matcham for Sir Oswald Stoll, was a 3,000-seat theatre built on the corner of Great Bridgewater Street, on part of the site of Hengler's Grand Cirque, and opened in December 1904.

Oxford Street (foreground) and Oxford Road (in the distance)
1849 Map of Oxford Street ( Whitworth Street was built 50 years later replacing Bond Street and Whitworth Street West follows the line of Gloucester Street) [ 2 ]
A milestone in Withington which was placed by the Manchester Turnpike Trust; it stands opposite a public house named The Turnpike
Wilmslow Road in Rusholme (the Curry Mile)
The moon over Cornerhouse