What’s in a street name? In the case of Balloon Street in Manchester, a daredevil aviator and his fearless cat.
Historian James Schofield told Radio Manchester’s Hidden Manchester how the city centre road owed its name to pastry chef James Sadler, who in 1748 became the first British man to make a hot air balloon flight.
To great fanfare, he made a second ascent in Manchester accompanied by his feline friend in what Schofield said “would have been a sensation and have blown people minds”.
And it wasn’t just the balloon itself that was immortalised – Sadler had nearby Sadler’s Yard named in his honour, while the cat gave its name to the Sadler’s Cat pub.
