Manchester Local Image Collection

Over 80,000 pictures and prints of old Manchester

The payments mechanism is currently unavailable. To order a high quality print, please email archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk

The Manchester Local Image Collection is a unique photographic record of Manchester, its people, streets and buildings from a period stretching well over 100 years. Over 80,000 images of Manchester and the surrounding area are available to view online. All images are available to purchase as fine A4 sized quality prints.

The original images are mainly photographs with some prints, drawings, watercolours and postcards, dating from the eighteenth century to the present day. The pictures of people, streets and buildings illustrate all aspects of the social, industrial, religious and transport history of the city. Between 1950 and 1972 the Manchester Amateur Photographic Society carried out an almost complete street by street survey of the city, showing the suburban streets before the major clearances and redevelopment during that period. The entire survey, as well as the Photographic Survey of 1892 – 1900, appears here.

A selection of images from our photographic and archive collections can be viewed on our Flickr photostream.