Sampson Street runs from York Street, Hanley and merges into Century Street which then through to Cobridge Road, Etruria.
It was originally Clarence Street but was renamed in the early 1950's to Sampson Street.  

At the junction of Sampson Street and Century Street was crossed by two railway lines - the main main North Staffs Railway 'Potteries Loop Line' and a mineral railway line which ran to a coal wharf on Waterloo Road and also to Burslem.

Brook Street (now Century Street) around 1890

Looking towards Hanley, to the left was Clarence Street and to the right - the continuation of Brook Street.

In between the two roads was the Pearl Pottery and the Brook Street Pottery - the bottle kilns can be clearly seen.

This 2000 photo show Sampson Street to the left, Century Street goes off to the right. 

Brook Street and Clarence Street - 1898 OS map
 

Century Street and Sampson Street
MS Live Earth - 2008 this view is in the opposite direction to the 1898 map above 
(were Brook Street and Clarence Street)

This area was cleared in 2007/8 for development as a retail and leisure site. In the centre of the map is the Granville Hotel - this hotel is now demolished.
 

Name stone on the corner of the Granville Hotel

the Granville Hotel

Earl Granville (1815-91) was a landowner, property and colliery owner. In the Potteries he owned Shelton collieries and was the principal owner of Etruria Iron Works.

His properties in Hanley paid nearly one third of the rates of the town. He supported the local school of art, founded Granville schools at Cobridge in 1854, in the mid-1850s built two model rows of cottages for his workers at the southern end of Waterloo Road and a hotel at the junction of Clarence Street and York Street.

 
looking down Sampson Street from York Street

Members of the Hall family who ran the 'Model Lodging House' in nearby Union Street, were also associated with the Granville Hotel in Clarence Street

photos: Nov 2000

Fuchs lubricants - between Sampson Street and Century Street

The Head Office of Fuchs UK is based in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. The plant is the largest independent oil plant in the UK.
Originally Walkers Century Oils (hence 'Century Street')

Century Oils developed from a partnership founded in Stoke-on-Trent in 1874 the brothers William and John Walker.

The genesis of the Walker business came from the discovery of commercially exploitable deposits of crude oil in the seams of a local colliery. The Walker Brothers distilled crude oil at a refinery built at Cobridge.

The Century Oil Works was located the heart of the potteries where an abundant supply of of coke and coal was required to fire the kilns, and much coal tar was available for processing. Walker's produced a range of products including axle grease, engine oil, paraffin, lamp oil and candles. Their tar wagons would have commonly been seen in local goods trains on the Potteries Loop Line of the NSR.

the bottle kiln of Dudson's pottery works
the photo taken from the junction of Sampson Street and York Street. 
 

  photos: Nov 2000