Brand new Manchester ……….. replacing the hole in the ground …. 1960

Now I always like to dig deep, trawling the historic records to support a picture.

But this time I rather think I will just leave it at the image, and instead let everyone going looking for what they want.

It is 1960, and the new look Manchester is about to rise from the ground in front of the bus depot.

Nine years later I would sit in the Milk Bar in that parade of shops opposite the buses, enjoy the view from the restaurant of the Hotel Piccadilly, and look at the three buildings that occupied the site while walking through the old gardens.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Brand new Manchester, 1960, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR0t6qAJ0-XOmfUDDqk9DJlgkcNbMlxN38CZUlHeYY4Uc45EsSMmy9C1YCk 

Magic nights in Well Hall

I can picture the poster now.

It featured a guitar and a set of unlaced boots, was finely drawn in black ink resting on a white background, and advertised a folk and blues night at Well Hall Peasaunce.

Its design and the event perfectly appealed to a 16 year old and it ended up on the wall behind my bed and stayed there  long after I had left Well Hall Road.

As for the concert it was all the poster promised and while I have long ago forgotten the names of the artists the evening has stayed with me.  It was one of those memorable nights which began with the setting.

To the right of the stage was the southern side of the Tudor Barn with the moat running alongside it and to the left were the gardens with the railway station beyond.

And as the dusk turned into night the odd break in the performance was filled by the sound of trains passing through Eltham and the noise of cars coming down Well Hall Road.

I remember the concert being full and while I did go to a few more  nothing compared with that one.

And that got me reflecting on what makes a perfect memory.

We all have them bits of our past however trivial which stick with us and bring back home.

Going back even further and before we even moved into Well Hall Road I can still remember laying in bed and watching the night sky lit by the blue flash of what must have been a train at Queens Road Station.

I say that but the blue flash may have been caused by something entirely different but it remains with me even now.

As does the day sometime in 1964 when on a first adventure into Woolwich I discovered by sheer chance the ferry and like so many others before and since it caught my imagination.

Now there is nothing unusual in any of these memories.  Since I first posted a story about the concerts in the Pleasaunce others have told me of their magical nights on those hard metal seats listening to the music by the Barn.

And in the same way the Ferry remains one of those bits of so many people's past along beside the market stalls, a traffic filled Powis Street and of course trips to Hind’s in the High Street.

Not that this is not  just another bit of nostalgic tosh but an appeal for those memories, with if possible a picture and better still a story, like the one from my friend Jean on a tram heading home to Eltham with a live eel bought by her grandmother on the market.

And these memories however episodic and disjointed are all part of our history.  Put them together and you have a set of stories to tell your grandchildren.

Location, Eltham & Woolwich, London

Picture; Tudor Barn, Well Hall courtesy of Scott MacDonald, 2013 and the floral display 2014, from the collection of Chrissy Rose

The Lost Chorlton pictures ......... no1. ..... out across the fields

Now some will already have picked up on the  series, The lost Manchester Collection, and the story behind how the pictures came to light.*

And this is the off shoot, being an occasional series from The lost and forgotten pictures of Chorlton.

It will have been taken around 1979 and strictly speaking isn't in Chorlton.

For those who want to know, it was taken in front of the weir built in the 18th century to break flood water from crashing into the viaduct of the Duke's Canal.

The spire is the chapel at the local cemetery beside Hawthorn Lane.

The lane  originally ran as far as St Mathew's Church.

Location; Chorlton and Stretord

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 1979

*The lost Manchester Collection, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20lost%20Manchester%20Collection

Just how much history can you get from one theatre programme? …… the Manchester Hippodrome

Well, the answer is a lot, and for that I have David Harrop to thank who shared this 1954 programme from the Manchester Hippodrome.

Anniversay programme, 1954

It was something a bit more special than normal because it was their “50th Anniversary Programme" and on the bill amongst the usual variety acts were “The “Popular T.V. Stars”, Morcombe and Wise and David Hughes who in the 1950s was a very successful  pop star who later made a career as an opera singer.

All the stars for July 26th, 1954

And for those who grew up in the 1950s the following week offered up Michael Miles the doyen of radio and television quiz shows and Issy Bonn “Britain’s Wise Cracking Songster Singing Your Favourite Melodies".

Together the two bills provide an insight into that last period of the variety show which could be seen in our towns, cities and seaside venues.

But with the traditional music hall acts were the future in the form of television comics, and personalities.

That makes it a wonderful piece of theatrical history but added to that there are the adverts.

Adverts like the one for Barker & Dobson, "Cameo Chocolates & Manchester Hippodrome Regal Fruit drops”.  

They began in Liverpool in 1834 expanded and diversified and taking over other companies as well as being the subject of take overs themselves.  

They even got a mention in Hansard in 1988, described as “a small confectionary manufacturer and supermarket chain” engaged in a "hostile bid for Dee Corporation the third largest food retailer".

Alas after another take over the brand name was withdrawn in the early 2000s, but in the course of the research I discovered they made Palm Toffee which came in a number of flavours from chocolate, banana, strawberry and plain.  

Barker & Dobson, 1954

For me the chocolate and plain bars won out over the rest of the range and a little bit of my early years in south east London clashed with the Manchester of 1954.

And that Manchester of over seventy years ago made me check out the other adverts, starting with the Squirrel Restaurant at 65 Deansgate.  Back then they boasted “Good Food, Reasonable Prices and Quick Service”. 

Today it is a Greek Grill House and before that a Mexican, and in 2008 still retained its link with food as Thomas William dealing in all things to do with the kitchen.

Planned Payment, 1954

But for a real favour of the 1950s which were fast becoming the decade of popular consumerism the prize must go to the clothes shop Gerald Stuart of 43 Piccadilly which embraced the age advertising its clothes with “’Planned Payment’ Easily the Best way to Pay”.  

We knew it as HP, and mother regularly fell back on the “tally man” with his van of clothes and seductive promise of stuff up front for a weekly payment.

Hippodrome Manchester, 1907

All of which is fine and captures the spirit of the time, but our 50th anniversary programme throws up a problem, because the Manchester Hippodrome closed in 1935, just thirty-one years after it opened on Oxford Street and a full 19 years before the magic date of 1954.

Added to which after its purchase to a cinema chain it was demolished and replaced by a Gaumont.

All of which might cast doubt on the theatre’s anniversary programme, but that font of all knowledge to do with “Music Hall and Theatre History” offered up the answer which was simply that the owner of the Manchester Hip’ also owned the Ardwick Empire and just renamed it after the Oxford Street theatre.*

The Hippodrome Manchester, 1910

And that allowed the former Ardwick Empire to assume the mantle and history of the Manchester Hippodrome.  A tad audacious if nit a little economical with the truth but there you are.

Leaving me just to thank David who has two exhibitions featuring much of the memorabilia of Morecambe and Wise.  

The first is at Morcambe Library and runs for two months from April 17th, and then between May 16-17 at the Morecambe  Winter Gardens.

And that is it.

Other than to offer up two of the items which will be on display at Mr. Harrop's exhibitions.

June with Morcombe & Wise, 1988

Location, Manchester 1954

Photo of the two comics undated

Pictures; The Manchester Hippodrome, 1907 m06511 7 in 1910, m06513, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and selections from the 1954 50th anniversary programme, from the collection of David Harrop

 

*The Hippodrome Theatre, Oxford Street, Manchester, Later - The Gaumont Theatre Manchester Theatres Index, Arthur Lloyd, http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/ManchesterTheatres/HippodromeTheatreManchester.htm

Peck's meat and fish pastes ............ a meal on its own

Peck's meat and fish pastes were something I grew up with.

They came in small glass jars and offered up a variety of tastes, from fish, salmon, beef and chicken and were spread on bread.

I had all but forgotten them until my friend Lois opened up the flood gates of memory with a story on her blog.*

I did go looking for the story of Peck's a few years ago but the research led nowhere and I gave up.

Now I knew there was an Australian connection because the jars arrived via a friend of mums who was given them at work and she said they were from Australia.

We always just called her B and it never occurred to me to ask how she came by the regular supply of the paste but I think she worked for a wholesale firm and these came as one of the perks of the job.

You were never quite sure what would arrive and I suspect that was also how it was with B.

I remember they dominated our lives and were a quick meal, although now I have no idea which I preferred.

Looking back now over sixty years I see they sit along with dripping, blancmange and tinned fruit salad as part of our basic diet and would only be replaced by the fish finger, beef burger and instant whip sometime in the 1960s.

Not that any of this helped with Peck's products.

The best I could do comes from the site of General Mills which is a food company based in Minneapolis and which has  factories still producing the pastes in Australia.**

It would appear that Peck's were making their spreads in Britain by 1891 and opened up in Australia in 1904 reaching their highest sales in the 1950s and 60s.

All of which fits and confirmed that I hadn't mistaken our Australian paste jars and of course offers up that simple observation that more often than not childhood memories are more likely to be true than imagined.

And in turn reminds me of that post war period when rationing had ended but the full impact of the consumer revolution had yet to arrive and in the absence of a cornucopia of instant foods, Pecks pastes on sandwiches did the job.

And all the way from the other side of the world, Matthew Lock, messaged me with a picture of the said product with the comment, "Still on the shelves in Woollies in Tasmania", so I guess Peck's have gone home.  

Thank you Matthew.  I wish I could offer a jar of the meat past to any UK reader who comes up with a similar find, here in Britain ..... we shall see.

Pictures; adverts for Pecks product date unknown, taken from Spreading the love for a vintage Australian brand

*Paste sandwiches anyone?  http://loiselden.com/2015/04/29/paste-sandwiches-anyone/

** Spreading the love for a vintage Australian brand, Taste of General Mills, March 2015

Down an alley ……..

Now if I were seven again, I rather think I might have been drawn off Beech Road and down the alley.

Down the alley, 2020

One day I will go and search its history, but for now I am content to record that back in 1969 it belonged to Ken Allen who used it as a store for his shop at 115 Beech Road.

Ken Allen, circa 1970s

And back in 1939 it was occupied by Abbot and Connie Palliaser.  Mr. Pallisaser described himself as a  “Furniture dealer Motor Engineer by Trade”, who may well have taken over the property from Harris and Son “decorators who were there in 1911.

A search of the Rate Books will tell me more, and I am inclined also to go looking for Mrs. Annie Dennis who shared 115 with the Palliasers in 1939.  She described herself as a widow with no occupation who had been born in 1872.

I grant you that this search may not be as exciting as the adventure I could have taken back when I was seven and furtively wandered into the alley, but perhaps less scary.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; down an alley, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Ken Allen, circa 1970 , courtesy of Lawrence Beedle

The Last Chance .......... Whitworth Street ....1969

Now, what do you do with the basements of those tall impressive Victorian and Edwardian buildings that still dominate much of the city?

Some like the bustling Fred Aldous on the corner of Lever Street and Stevenson Square were long ago converted into a centre for their craft business.

And many more became perfect for clubs, restaurants and casinos.

I have to admit that while I must have passed the Last Chance Casino which inhabited part of the downstairs of on Whitworth Street, I never went in.  But back in 1969 I was a student and even with a full grant a casino was way off my radar.

It occupied the large Africa House which fronted Whitworth Street and in between Atwood Street and Baever Street, with the canal and power station at its rear.

And along with the Last Chance Casino it shared the basement floor space with The Garden of Eden and Strand Casino, while opposite on the other corner of Beaver Street and Whitworth Street, there was another “dive” bar/ restaurant/night club.

Sadly Africa House has not made it into the 21st century and today the site is an NCP car park, but its neighbour whose “dive” bar/ restaurant/night club, I can’t remember has survived, and in more recent times was No.1 Oriental Buffet & Restaurant and is now home to The Foundation Coffee chain.

All of which leaves me to reflect on those Chinese and Asian restaurants which occupied many of the basement areas of the prestigious office and ware house blocks.

Back in the late 1960s and early 70s, they offered the three course mid day business meal.
For 3/- [30p] you had a choice from the set menu of a starter, main and pudding.

We tended to end up in the Chinese restaurants and in particular one on Cross Street which still trades today, and they still do the set meal, but now it is advertised as a  lunch deal, consists of “2 courses and side”, and comes in at £12.95 with an option of a “One course and side” at just £10.95.

Those three course meals were excellent, with a soup and bread roll, perhaps 4 mains, and two choices of pudding.  And of the puddings the apple pie was a favourite, with its distinctive deep yellow Chinese custard which was sweet enough to strip the enamel of your teeth.

This was a time before the explosion of café society and when the choice to eat out at lunctime was still limited.  So, while there were the traditional cafes, some fast food outlets and restaurants in the big departmental stores, there was little else.  The choice came down to Bert’s café, the Milkmaid, or the UCP. There was of course the occasional exotic place, like the Ceylon Tea Centre or Danish Food Centre, other than these, the choice of exotic and cheap, led you to the three Couse Business Meal.

Leaving me just to reflect on that other place dear to many which was the Conti Club, which was sited first on Oxford Street and then on Harter Street.

I only knew it in its Harter Street days, and for many students, and especially doctors, and nurses it will always be a special place, which  you loved or hated.  Unfairly I think,  it was summed up by a friend from Ashton who visited the only the ones, and left remarking “really it’s just a bus shelter that sell beer”.   Maybe but it was my bus shelter and even now it seemed a perfect use of a basement space.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Whitworth Street, 1969, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY,