Exploring Manchester’s lost island

Manchester’s Pomona Island is a place I’d never heard of until I read about it on Paul’s blog three years ago. It sounded intriguing – to me at least – and worth a bit of exploration, however I’d forgotten all about it until fairly recently though getting there wasn’t exactly straightforward.

A long strip of land sandwiched between the Bridgewater Canal and the Manchester Ship Canal where it becomes the River Irwell Pomona Island is a derelict and deserted overgrown landscape, though it was once home to some beautiful gardens and the biggest concert hall in the country, seating up to 30,000 people and almost four times bigger than London’s Royal Albert Hall.

With the growth of the Industrial Revolution Manchester city centre became massively overcrowded, dirty and polluted with the smoke and smog from hundreds of factories but the air along the River Irwell just to the south was much cleaner and was ideal for sports and recreation. In 1844/5 two brothers, William and Joseph Beardsley Cornbrook, decided to invest in the leisure industry and created Cornbrook Strawberry Gardens though the name was later changed to Pomona Gardens after the Roman goddess of orchards, fruit trees and gardens; an idyllic riverside landscape of flower beds, lawns and trees and within walking distance of the city centre it was marketed as ”the countryside without the need of a train journey”.

Along with the gardens themselves visitors could enjoy an impressive range of amusements and activities, including archery, billiards, a shooting gallery, flying swings and even a hedge maze. In the first year of being open a 100,000 people visited, encouraged by the promise of clean air and nature and as a respite from the day-to-day hard working life, and Pomona Gardens became one of the most important pleasure gardens in 19th century Manchester.

Photo from Manchester’s Finest

The success of the gardens eventually came to the attention of James Reilly, a local businessman who felt there was more money to be made from them, so deciding that indoor entertainment was the way to go he bought the whole site in 1868 for £75,000 – equivalent to just over £7,000,000 in September 2023 – and the Royal Pomona Palace was born.The building was 216ft long and 220ft wide with a 100ft high clock tower in the centre, and was completed and opened in 1875. The main concert hall was surrounded by several pavilions which often played host to political rallies featuring prominent politicians of the day, including Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, however there was also a rather unsavoury side to the entertainment on offer.

Pomona Island in 1860 – photo from Manchester’s Finest

As people returned from travelling to exotic foreign lands they often brought back strange animals, objects and even human ‘souvenirs’ and exhibitions up and down the country became popular. Some wealthy travellers would arrange for whole ‘tribes’ to be exhibited, with one of the most well-known people being Carl Hagenbeck who brought dozens of people from Ceylon – now Sri Lanka – to be displayed at Pomona for the entertainment of the public.

The success of the Palace was relatively short lived however. By the mid 1880s it had become almost entirely surrounded by factories and it also began losing customers to another local attraction, Belle Vue Zoo which was becoming increasingly popular, although that wasn’t the reason for the Palace’s closure just twelve years after it opened. On June 22nd 1887 a massive explosion at the nearby Roberts & Dale’s chemical factory left the building badly damaged and the gardens wrecked; the venue closed shortly afterwards and with the construction of the Ship Canal starting that same year Pomona Island was identified as being ideal for dockland. The following year owner James Reilly was paid £75,000 in compensation – exactly what he had initially paid for the land – and the gardens and Palace disappeared.

With the construction of the Ship Canal came the construction of nine docks, four on the Salford side of the river and five at Pomona Island although Dock 5 was never fully completed. The docks opened in 1894 and were used over the years by coastal and ocean-bound ships carrying cargo and passengers often travelling to and from Canada, but by the 1970s the increasing size of freight-carrying ships meant they could no longer navigate the Ship Canal and the docks went into a decline.

In 1972 George (Jud) Evans bought the Westward Ho!, a decommissioned Isle of Wight passenger ferry then based in Cornwall, and after getting permission to moor at Pomona Docks and the granting of an alcohol licence it was sailed up from Cornwall and berthed at Pomona Island where it underwent a 12-month refit and a slight name change to become a floating nightclub and restaurant. It was so successful that a decommissioned RAF de Havilland Comet was soon purchased and parked on the dock to act as an overflow venue complete with dance floor.

Photo from Chris Bluer/Jud Evans via Manchester Past & Present

The floating nightclub enjoyed several successful years before closing in 1981; the docks themselves finally closed in 1982 and the whole area was left to become derelict. Two years later Salford City Council bought the land on the Salford side from the old Manchester Ship Canal Company using a derelict land grant and the huge commercial, residential and leisure development of Salford Quays began in 1985. Nothing was done on Pomona Island however and the land remained derelict then in later years, when developers put forward plans to build there, locals and dog walkers campaigned to leave it untouched, meaning it became even more desolate and overgrown. Fast forward to the present day though and developers Peel L & P are now in the first phase of a 15-year masterplan which should see most of the island transformed with a mixture of apartments, townhouses, shops and leisure spaces.

My first attempt to get onto Pomona Island came in mid August after my walk along the Salford side of the Irwell in search of street art. At the point where the Irwell becomes the Ship Canal and vice versa Woden Street footbridge took me over to the Manchester side and under the railway and tram lines to a minor road which would take me back under the railway lines and onto the main part of the island, however that wasn’t the case. Past a couple of fairly new apartment blocks and a private car park I was thwarted by painted steel railings running from the car park edge right across the road; there was no way of getting over or round them so all I could do was take a photo through the gaps of where I wanted to be then head back into the city centre.

Looking downriver – the Ship Canal from the footbridge

Looking upriver – the Irwell from the footbridge

The roadway through Pomona Island

My second attempt to get onto Pomona was made two weeks later after a look at Google maps showed a tram stop towards the far end of the island – brilliant, if I couldn’t get there from one end at least I could do it from the other. From the lower level of the tram stop wide steps took me down to Pomona Strand, a pleasant road and tree lined walkway alongside the Ship Canal, with what turned out to be the first of three recently built apartment blocks up ahead.

The walkway ran along the front of the apartments and came to a dead end but the road ran round the back and in the direction of the rest of the island, however I was thwarted for a second time when I arrived at what was obviously part of a construction site and my way was barred by several yards of heavy steel barrier fencing. I could only retrace my steps and resign myself to not being able to get to the rest of the island, though rather than get the tram back into the city centre I decided to walk back along the Bridgewater Canal, a decision which later turned out to be a good one.

Past the tram stop the road went under the tram line and headed up towards a major road junction but the quaint Throstle Nest Bridge took me across to the far side of the Bridgewater Canal which was surprisingly wide for a normal canal. Back past the elevated tram stop the canal passed under another modern tram bridge and for a short distance I could almost have been in the countryside – a shame it was such a dull day as it would look really nice in sunshine.

Round a bend I came to the much older Cornbrook Bridge which crossed over onto the island; steep steps went up to one side and though they were blocked off at the top by another fixed steel fence someone had removed two of the vertical rails and there was a gap just big enough for me to step through so up I went, coming out onto what would have been another roadway onto Pomona Island. It seems like Peel L & P really don’t want anyone on there though as just to my right the roadway had been blocked off by three huge concrete blocks and yet another steel fence, however on my left the way was clear and finally, on my third attempt, I was on the main part of the island.

The Bridgewater Canal from Cornbrook Bridge.

From the bridge the roadway went down a slight incline and was joined by the roadway I would have walked along if I’d got onto Pomona on my first attempt, before curving round and disappearing across the length of the island. Having seen a photo taken by Paul three years ago of what seemed to be an empty wasteland I was surprised at how overgrown the place was – it had gone from a desert to a jungle, and later information told me that in an effort to stop campaigners trying to get the island designated as a wildlife haven Peel periodically cut down all the vegetation, thus destroying any wildlife habitat. Across the top of the now overgrown shrubs and bushes I could see some of the colourful graffiti stretching along the far side of the Irwell and a path through the jungle took me to the riverside where I saw one of the river cruise boats heading towards the city centre.

Pomona Desert, April 2020 – photo credit Paul Hills

Pomona jungle, August 2023

Unfortunately my island exploration was cut short when I felt a few drops of rain; there was no shelter anywhere and I didn’t want to be caught in a downpour so I returned to the canal and headed back to the city centre – now I knew how to get onto Pomona Island I could always go back another time.

That time came after my visit to Ordsall Hall during the mini heatwave in early September though it was such a glorious day I took another walk along Pomona Strand first. Across the Irwell the old Colgate Palmolive factory has been regenerated into Soapworks, a modern business centre with suites of upmarket offices to rent, while further along a cute shelter sat by the waterside. This was one of two boarding points for the water taxis which ran between Manchester city centre and MediaCity in Salford Quays; the service started up in 2016 but due to lack of support from the local transport authority it closed just two years later, leaving the shelters abandoned and unloved. Past the new Manchester Waters apartments the walkway ended with a pretty little garden tucked into a corner and overlooking the entrance to the old Pomona Dock 3.

Crossing Throstle Nest Bridge over the Bridgewater Canal I stopped to take a couple of photos and was delighted by the unexpected sight of a heron standing by the water’s edge. Further along in the ‘countryside’ bit I could hear voices up ahead and round the bend came another unexpected sight, two ladies paddling an inflatable kayak; wearing swimsuits, wide brimmed hats and sunglasses they were obviously out to enjoy the hot sunny day.

Back on Pomona Island I walked the length of the roadway until I could see a gated steel fence at the back end of the construction site; there was no-one around but I didn’t want to draw attention to myself so didn’t go any further. The roadway at that point passed over a small lock connecting the Bridgewater Canal to the old Pomona Dock 3 and on the canal side the two ladies in the inflatable kayak had pulled up by the lock wall and seemed about to have a picnic. Frustratingly I was unable to get to the far side of Dock 3 as the shrubs and bushes were impenetrable so with just one more shot taken along the roadway I headed back to the canal.

Dock 3, Pomona island

My walk back into the city centre ended in Castlefield Basin but the photos I took round there came out so well that they deserve their own post so I’m saving them for another time. As for Pomona Island I’m glad I eventually got there in spite of all Peel’s efforts to keep people out – there may be nothing there but I don’t think it will be long before I make a return visit.