Pest control and bird proofing in Northern Quarter & Ancoats.

Who calls us in the Northern Quarter and Ancoats?

Oldham Street was one of the city centre’s main shopping streets until the 1970s, when the building of the Arndale saw most of its long-standing stores close or move. Today it and the streets around it are known for independent trade: record and vintage shops, cafés, bars, music venues and a comedy club, with Afflecks housing dozens of independent traders where Church Street and Dale Street meet Oldham Street. Much of it trades from buildings put up before the Second World War.

Over Great Ancoats Street the mix changes. Restored industrial buildings such as Beehive Mill on Jersey Street and the Flint Glass Works hold offices, coworking floors and serviced suites, and Ancoats now has a busy independent trade in wine bars, neighbourhood restaurants and pubs. Newer schemes have commercial space of their own; Sawmill Court was planned with eight commercial units meant for cafés, restaurants, shops or small firms.

Most people who contact us here have someone to answer to: a kitchen manager expecting an environmental health visit, an office manager whose tenants found droppings in a shared tea point, a managing agent fielding a complaint from a fourth-floor flat, or an owner who wants pigeons off a listed frontage. Every visit ends with a written report that can go straight into a HACCP file, a facilities log or a landlord’s records.

Why does pavement waste matter so much here?

A sack on the pavement is easy food. Rats forage along building lines after dark and chew through thin bags, birds tear them open at first light, and spillage from a split bag can keep rodents in a nearby drain or wall void fed. The risk rises when bags go out hours before collection or sit against a wall with open gaps around pipes and air bricks.

Our surveys follow the whole route a bag takes, from kitchen to back door to the spot where it waits for the lorry. Fixes are usually practical: hold waste in a lidded, rodent-resistant container indoors until shortly before collection, double-bag food waste, wash down the bag-out point and seal gaps at the foot of the wall beside it. Businesses also carry a duty of care for their own waste under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, so a written routine helps on compliance as well as pests.

Why do the canals matter for rat control?

The Rochdale Canal runs along the Northern Quarter’s edge at Piccadilly Basin and on through Ancoats, passing Dale Street Lock and Brownsfield Lock. At Ducie Street Junction the Ashton Canal branches off and heads east through Ancoats; the Canal & River Trust describes it as a green link running out of the city centre.

Whichever account fits a given street, the method holds: find the harbourage, remove the food and close the route in. On canal-side sites that means checking drainage and rodding points, placing any external bait in tamper-resistant stations in line with CRRU stewardship guidance, and proofing balconies and lower facades on residential blocks.

How do you proof a listed mill without damaging it?

Ancoats became a conservation area in 1989, and its Grade II* buildings include Beehive Mill, Murrays’ Mills, Brownsfield Mill, Paragon Mill, Royal Mill and the Daily Express Building. Oldham Street lies in a part of the city that sits on a tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status.

Flats, block managers and build-to-rent

Much of the housing here is flats. Smithfield Gardens, from the 1970s and 1980s, was the Northern Quarter’s first modern housing scheme, and some of the area’s old industrial and warehouse buildings have been converted into flats. In Ancoats, Murrays’ Mills now holds more than 120 apartments, Sawmill Court was planned with 158 flats to rent, and New Islington, known for decades as the Cardroom Estate, is being redeveloped as one of the seven Millennium Communities. The Grade II Victoria Square tenement on Oldham Road, dating from 1889, remains part of the housing stock.

Pests in blocks like these rarely keep to one flat. German cockroaches and bed bugs travel along pipe runs and risers, and mice move through service voids between floors, so treating one apartment while its neighbours go untreated tends to fail. We work through the block manager or letting agent where we can, inspecting affected flats, bin rooms and risers together. Pests fall within the domestic hygiene, pests and refuse hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 gives tenants a route to court over an unfit home. Our pest control for landlords service produces a report for every flat visited.

Council service or private contractor?

Many councils run a pest control service for residents, but what is covered, who can book and the charges all vary and can change, so check the council’s own pest control pages before you book. If you rent from a council or housing association, report the problem to your landlord first. If you would rather book a private firm, phone or use the enquiry form and we will arrange a survey.