These striking archive pictures show Manchester's dark history - when the city's grandest buildings were blackened with soot.

Coal fires and smoke from the industrial chimneys turned many of the Victorian landmarks a sooty black before the Clean Air Act of 1956 reduced pollution.

Archivists at the Manchester Metropolitan University have collected a series of images showing familiar buildings in Albert Square, King Street and St Peter's Square when they appeared almost like silhouettes on the skyline.

Here, we have put the pictures alongside more recent images of the same buildings from Google Street View to show how Manchester had a dramatic facelift after the 1950s and 1960s.

Take a look at the gallery below

Architectural historian Dr Andrew Crompton explained: "It's fair to say Manchester was the filthiest city in the world and the point of maximum blackness was in the late 1940s.

Buildings glittered in black

"All the buildings were blanketed in soot and even the streets were black. The blackest area was around Victoria Station where the soot had crystallised and the buildings actually glittered in black."

Dr Crompton, who lives in Didsbury and has lectured at the University of Manchester and University of Liverpool, added: "The black buildings were actually very beautiful.

"It gave the city a terrific architectural unity - everything was black and even the people dressed in black.

"If you could bring it all back people would travel from around the world to see it."

Click through the pictures below and use the slider to see 'Then and Now' images

Dr Crompton said Victorian architects were resigned to their grand buildings being coated in soot - but some sought out materials which would wash clean in the rain.

"Some used terracotta so that they would stand out from the other buildings - for example, the former YMCA and the Midland Hotel.

"And the green tiles on the Peveril of the Peak pub were another example. The Peveril would have stood out like a luminous green beacon 60 years ago - it would have been very conspicuous against the black buildings."

The last smog

Dr Crompton said the Clean Air Act of 1956 had a swift effect in lifting the smog in city and the buildings were either cleaned or the soot gradually washed off in the rain.

"The last smog in Manchester was in 1969 - I can remember being sent home from school - but there was nothing after that."

"There are only two places where the blackened walls survive - one is the interior courtyards of the Town Hall, which are occasionally used as locations for period dramas.

"And the other one, which is still in public view, is 22 Lever Street. This is still coated in soot. It should be made a listed building as the last remnant of Victorian Manchester before some fool decides to clean it."

All images are courtesy of the Visual Resources Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University.

More archive images are on the centre's Flickr page at this link.