That house beside Malton Avenue that everyone remembers

Now this is one of those buildings with a history and almost everyone you talk to will remember it as everything from a doctor’s to a cafe and to an office.

It is on the corner of Barlow Moor Road and Malton Avenue and was built sometime after 1910 when the area was redeveloped.

It had once been part of the estate of the Holt family whose extensive garden ran from the corner of Beech Road along Barlow Moor Road down High Lane almost to Cross Road and then across back to Beech Road.

When the last of the family died in 1908 their large house was demolished, the trees along the eastern side of the garden were cut down and the Corporation used a stretch to build the tram terminus while the rest became houses, shops and the Palais de Luxe cinema.*

Sadly until now I had not come across much more about the place, and then out of the blue Douglas wrote to me asking about the cinema.  He “lived in the detached house right next to the cinema, on the corner of Malton Avenue and Barlow Moor Road, no 477, so the cinema wall formed one side of our garden. I went to the Burnage High School for Boys and also the Wilbraham School of Music in High Lane.”**

And all of a sudden the building was given a new lease of life as a place which was a home.

Now in the fullness of time I hope that Douglas will share more memories of number 477, the cinema and life on Barlow Moor Road in the 1940s

*A forgotten photograph, ............ the Palais de Luxe in 1928
http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/forgotten-photograph-palais-de-luxe-in.html 
from the series Chorlton cinemas, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20cinemas

**Douglas Cook, www.whitedownmusic.co.uk
Picture; 477/483 Barlow Moor Road, 1959, A.H.Downes, m17516, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Bold new plans for four Manchester Squares ………..

It’s just one of those age things that if you can remember cars in St Ann’s Square, you will have had plenty of birthdays.

Today, you can take your pick from a pleasant amble across the square, take in the market stalls which are a frequent feature, or just sit and watch everyone else going about their business.

Just over 40 years ago much of the square was given over to cars, lorries and coaches, and while the pavements were wide this was still a place where you had to be mindful of parked and passing traffic.

There had been moves to pedestrianize the square, and introduce open air cafes in 1962.

But the plans were shelved because of concerns that “congestion would be caused on Market Street and St Mary’s Gate if the square was closed to traffic”.* Four years later the Civic Trust of the North West which had advanced the original plan, tried again with a “New Plan for main squares”.

This proposed “new pedestrian area in four main squares in Manchester,  [suggesting] extra traffic restrictions, so that a new pedestrian route could wind through part of the central shopping area”.

The scheme would have involved changes in St Peter’s Square, Albert Square, St James Square and St Ann’s Square.

In St Peter’s Square, the Cenotaph and cross could be moved and re positioned directly in front of Central Ref, while in Albert Square, the Albert Memorial would “remain in its present place, but other statues would be moved slightly and the lavatories in the square would be removed”.

 A pedestrian route would run from Brazenose Street to connect with St Ann’s Square which would see the church “sit in a pedestrian area as it was originally intended and the whole atmosphere of the square would be changed by the removal of the clutter of cars and parked vehicles and the continuous discordant effect of the traffic slowly meandering through the Square”. 

 Leaving the pavements to be widened on St James Square and “parts of South King Street and King Street would be closed to normal traffic [and] opened only for part of the day for service traffic”.

 

All of which looked a bold plan, but would be a long time coming.

King Street was pedestrianized in1976, and St Ann’s Square in the early 1980s, leaving St Peter’s Square to be transformed in part by the coming of the Metro in the 1990s and fully transformed by the Second City Crossing, which resulted in an enlarged square, the loss of the Peace Garden and the removal of the Cenotaph to a spot outside the entrance to the Town Hall.

And for those wondering where St James Square can be found, it is the narrow street which connects John Dalton Street with South King Street.

With the passage of time it is difficult now to remember  that there was a time when you had to dodge cars.

 Location; Manchester

Picture; St Ann’s Square,2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1960, 1960 – 3107.3, 3107.4, 3107.1, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

 *Manchester shelves plan for St Ann’s Square, Manchester Guardian, December 1962.

 **New Plan for main squares, Manchester Guardian, August 17^th, 1966.

 

As others saw us, Eltham in 1831

Now whenever I want to get a sense of somewhere in England in the 19th century I turn to Samuel Lewis’s Topographical dictionaries.

Eltham Hill, from an engraving, 1778

First published in 1831 it  provided a description of all English localities as they existed at the time of first publication.

It showed exactly where a particular civil parish was located in relation to the nearest town or towns, the barony, county, and province in which it was situated, its principal landowners, and the diocese in which it was situated.

It also and this was new, named the Catholic district in which the parish was located along with  the names of corresponding Catholic parishes.

There were six subsequent editions, the last of which (1848-9) was in four volumes and an atlas.

“The village [of Eltham] is irregularly built, but contains many handsome houses, and the environs abound with noble mansions and elegant seats; Shooter’s hill so name from its having been anciently used for the practise of archery, and on which a singular triangular tower has been erected, by his lady, to the memory of Sir William Daines, Bart., is celebrated for the beauty of its situation and the extent and variety of its prospects; on its summit has been erected one of the telegraphs communicating between London and Dover.

The parish is within the jurisdiction of the court of requests held weekly at Greenwich, under an act passed in the 47th of George III [1808] for the recovery of debts not exceeding £5.

The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Rochester, rated in the books at £3.2.6., endowed with £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage of Sir Gregory Page Turner, Bart.

The church is dedicated to St John the Baptist, is a plain edifice, with a spire.

On the summit of a hill south by east from the town, are the remains of a Roman camp.

Dr William Sherard the celebrated botanist resided here in the early 18th and cultivated a botanical garden.”*

And for those who want to read more the volumes are available on line

*A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis, Vol 2 1831

Picture; A view near Eltham in Kent, printed in London by R.Sayer & J.Bennett, December 1778, courtesy of Jean Gammons

Mornings at Manchester Jewish Museum …..

The Manchester Jewish Museum* is one of my favourite places and has been since it opened in 1984 and is a place I regularly write about.**

Almost soon after that opening I signed up to be a “Friend” and while the scheme has changed its name, I remain happy to support its work which as it says is “a registered charity (charity no. 1154353) and accredited museum (no. 179). 

We connect Jewish stories to the world and to our society, in order to explore both our differences and similarities, and to celebrate that which makes people unique and that which connects us all.

As well as preserving and presenting the history of Jewish Manchester, our programme helps us bring communities together to understand and share experiences. 

Delivering meaningful and sustainable engagement projects with our diverse communities. [which it does through] “schools activities educating future generations about Jewish history and traditions”.

All of which is done in the “Grade II* Listed Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, which holds a fascinating collection documenting Manchester’s rich and diverse Jewish heritage.

And that is how I first came across the Museum in the 1980s when I was researching and delivering history courses on Jewish Manchester to school students.

Back then the museum was very helpful in lending material I could use.

More recently following a £6 million redevelopment the museum now has a new purpose built gallery to display our collection, which is presented  in three themes, Journeys, Communities and Identities.

All the stories told on gallery are Jewish but by framing them within these universal themes they hopefully feel relevant to all of our audiences, Jewish and non-Jewish.

Our Journeys Gallery tells the story of the different motivations that brought Jewish people to Manchester: looking for opportunity, escaping hardship, poverty or persecution, and ‘landsleit’ – the move to join existing communities that reflect your own identity. 

From 18th Century pedlars to 20th Century refugees and Holocaust Survivors, the collection reflects each wave of Jewish migration into Manchester.

Our Journeys Gallery also includes a newly commissioned 4-screen immersive film produced by Heritage Interactive and directed by Dan Lusby. Heritage Interactive produced all the digital creative content in our gallery including this film, our sliding digital panels on our organisations wall, and the Jewish identity tablets in our Identities Gallery”. 

The museum hosts a whole variety of events from cultural to comic, along special exhibitions and has an interesting policy towards those who live in the area which encourages local residents to become “one of our Museum M8s and get free admission to the museum all year round for you and your family”.

I took a trip up from Chorlton last week and was not disappointed.

Location; Manchester Jewish Museum, Cheetham Hill Road

Pictures; Thursday at the museum, 2026 & 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Manchester Jewish Museum, https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

**Manchester Jewish Museum, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Manchester%20Jewish%20Museum

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ................ nu 53 Silver Street, a bus station and some nasty history

Now this is Chorlton Street Bus Station in the 1960s and the image presents a bit of mystery, but more of that later.

Chorlton Street Bus Station, 1964

For now it is that gap between the office block and the ramp to the right of the picture and Chorlton Street which gave its name to the bus station which interests me.

That gap was the continuation of Silver Street.

You can still walk down Silver Street from Aytoun Street which ran on to David Street but my bit has vanished.

Back in the 1850s Silver Street and its neighbours were a warren of small closed courts leading off narrow alleys and filled with small back to back houses.

They were not perhaps the worst the city had to offer but they were neither the best.  In his case notes during the cholera outbreak of 1832, Dr Gaultier offers up a a vivid picture of the area. Chorlton Street he wrote “was tolerably clean and open but the vicinity crowded and populous.”*

Silver Street, 1849

But the home of the Bullock family was dire.

Mr and Mrs Bullock lived in one room with their two children and Mr Bullock’s mother.

The room was on the upper storey of a “filthy and crowded house” and was equally as “filthy.”

Even before they contracted cholera none were seen to be in good health and baby Martha aged eight months was “ricketty, and emaciated.”

In the course of just one week all of them died of cholera.

A month later our doctor was back in Silver Street attending Jane White who lived in a cellar and who died just days after contracting the disease.

Today Chorlton Street and Silver Street look far removed from the mass of courts, alleys and crowded houses of 1832 and that stretch of Silver Street occupied by Jane White is now underneath Chorlton Street Bus Station.

And here is the puzzle with that first picture, because read the histories of the bus station and they all agree that it was opened in 1950, redesigned in 1967 with the addition of the multi story car park and went through a major rebuild in 2002.

Major Street and the lost Silver Street, 1963

Now all of that is fine, but the caption on the picture offers up a date of 1964 which means that somebody is wrong.

I am confident someone will offer an explanation for the date of the rebuilt bus station and while I wait I suggest that those wishing to walk the past can just step back into the past can get a stab at it, because that vanished bit of Silver Street is now the entrance to a small car park between the back of Yates’ and the car park ramp, while the small road that runs along the bus station is the continuation of Major Street, but that is for another time.

Silver Street, 2016

But that is not quite all, because soon after I posted the story Andy Roberston sent me this picture of the corner of Silver Street where it joins Princess Street.

In may haste to complete the story I had failed to go looking for any more of Silver Street.  So the intrepid seeker after lost streets of Manchester can walk along another bit of my street, although it does end in a car park.

Location; Manchester

*The Origin and Progress of the Malignant Cholera in Manchester, Henry Gaulter M.D., 1833case notes no 5-8, page 162 and nu 71, page 178

Pictures; Chorlton Street Bus Station,  W. Higham, 1964, m56893, the ramp under construction 1963, W. Higham, m56982, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  Silver Street from Andy Robertson  2016, and detail of Silver Street 1849 from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1849, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Down at the Savoy Cinema in 1937 on Manchester Road watching Road to Glory

Now back in the summer of 1937 I could have had three cinemas to choose from here in Chorlton and of these the most impressive was the Savoy on Manchester Road which had opened in 1920 as the Picture House before being renamed the Savoy when it was leased to the Savoy Cinemas and later became the Gaumont.

And in the summer of 1937 for three days I could have gone and seen Road to Glory made the year before by Howard Hawks which told the story of trench life during the Great War through the lives of a French regiment and included as you would expect a tangled “love interest” between a nurse and two officers.

I am not sure it would have appealed but at least I know what was on offer and that is thanks to Peter McLoughlin who shared this film bill with me.

I doubt that there are many of these still knocking around.  After all they are the sort of thing which you pick and then discard but this one has survived it is a wonderful insight into a night at the “flicks.”

The obvious starting point are the films themselves and in time I will look them all up and in the process get something of an idea of what the cinema going public were being offered back then.

For modern audiences the frequency of the shows will also be a revelation.  

When I was growing up in the 1950s you got I think a week of the same show, but two decades earlier and programmes changed more regularly which I guess is both a recognition of the number of films being churned out but also that people went to the pictures more than once a week.

Not that this should be much of a surprise.  In an age before the telly the pictures offered a nights entertainment which included the film and a newsreel and was all done with style.

The old flea pits still existed but the big purpose built cinemas of the 1920s and more especially the 30’s gave you a sense of luxury which started with the uniformed doorman and continued with that plush auditorium which was light and bright and had a distinctive smell which I guess was a mix of those thick carpets and the floor polish and much later there was the smell of the hot dogs slowly cooking in a corner beyond the box office.

And the picture houses were warm which on a cold winter’s night was another attraction and on one of those dark nights they would be one of the only buildings which were lit up and acted a beacon as well as a promise of a good night ahead.

All of which brings me back to that film bill and the simple observation that you should always be careful about what you are going to throw away.

Pictures; film bill for the Savoy ABC, 1937 courtesy of Peter McLoughlin, and the Picture House later the Savoy, 1922, from the Lloyd Collection.

Walking Woolwich and Eltham in 1948 … no 3

Now I back with my copy of the Official Guide to Woolwich which was published by the council.

It includes Eltham and Plumstead, and was the “Fifth Edition”.

I have no idea when it was issued but looking at the images and some of the listings we must be sometime between 1948 and the early years of the next decade.

And today's offering come from the drive for better and affordable housing for all.

So that is it, and I shall continue till I run out of pictures.

Location; The Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, circa 1948

Pictures; Woolwich and Mottingham from The Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, circa 1948