Standing in front of the Rivoli on Barlow Moor Road sometime in 1936

Now I can’t be certain when this photograph of the Rivoli on Barlow Moor Road was taken but given that the cinema opened in November 1936 and closed because of bomb damage four years later it will be sometime between the two.

And there are other clues to a possible date.

The first is the film Anthony Adverse which was released in the November of 1936 and will have been showing in suburban cinemas within the year.

It was a dreadful film based on an impossible plot heavy in morality and set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

That said it featured infidelity, a mistress of Napoleon and the remorse of a slave trader who turned away from “that odious traffic in human flesh” and was set in lush tropical surroundings and magnificent European palaces.

Added to which it had the young Olivia de Havilland who at the age of 20 was starring in her fourth film having already acted with Errol Flynn in Captain Blood and who within the year would star in The Charge of the Light Brigade and later still The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex and that all time weepy that was Gone With the Wind.

The film had also picked up four Academy Awards so I guess had we been here back then we would have gone along.

And that might have been the motive for Mr Clarke of 83 Clarence Road to take the photograph and add it to his portfolio of images he marketed as picture postcards.*

After all if you had seen the film or just visited the cinema you might just be prompted to pick this card out of all the rest next time you wanted to send a message which is what postcard manufactures banked on.

Commercial photographers with an eye to what would sell toured local streets taking pictures of individual houses and offering them to the residents and when that market dried up offered them to postcard companies.

In the case of Mr Clarke he did both, producing the cards with his imprint and selling them to the local shops, including Mr Lloyd’s on Upper Chorlton Road and Mrs Burt’s stationers on Wilbraham Road.

He was active during the 1920s and into the 30s and produced a series of book marks for the opening of Central Ref.

By 1940 he “re-located the family home and ceased making his living solely from photography as a 1944 wedding certificate shows him as an Inland Revenue clerk residing at 5, Keppel Rd.”**

But during his time as a commercial photographer he produced some fascinating pictures of Chorlton, of which this is one that I have never seen before.

And for all those who have debated the actual location of the cinema there is no doubting that Mr Clarke’s picture nails it firmly on the spot now occupied by K.F.C.

What I also like is the detail of the two kiosks on either side of the entrance and that the Rivoli is one of those new picture houses which have fully embraced the motor car as the cark park sign indicates.

So that pretty much is that.

Picture; the Rivoli circa 1936-40 from the collection of Peter McLoughlin

*Harold Clarke, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Harold%20Clarke

**Tony Goulding, grandson

The Tudor Barn in 1909, one for the album

The Tudor Barn in 1909

Now here is one for the picture album.

This is the Tudor Barn back in 1909 and that really is about all I want to say.

Although I find it hard to match this image with the building I knew.

It comes from Eltham Through Time.*

Picture; courtesy of Kristina Bedford.

*Eltham Through Time, Amberley, Publishing,  2013

Ms Bedford also has an interesting web site, Ancestral Deeds, http://www.ancestraldeeds.co.uk/

A day of steam, fun and history ……………The Great Railway Exposition

I have no idea how I ended up on Liverpool Road, forty years ago.

I might have read about the event, or just followed the crowds.

Either way it was a wonderful day of steam, fun and history, and reminded me of growing up in the 1950s, and taking express trains pulled by steam powered locomotives.

Even now that mix of steam, warm oil, and clunking railway wagons is enough to transport me back to rail excursions, when electric and diesel traction was rare on our railways.

I am indebted to Paul Sherlock who sent me this cover of the souvenir booklet, which anchors the moment, because I had long forgotten just when it occurred.

It was an amazing day and left me with a portfolio of pictures.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; The Real Railway Exposure, 1980 courtesy of Paul Sherlock, and moment on the day, 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

So where did we hold a demonstration?

Crown Square, circa 1981

This is Crown Square, and back in the 1970s and 80s it was one of the places where demonstrations finished up.

There were other places, of which Whitworth Park, Alexandra Park along with Albert Square were the ones I seem to remember.

Go back almost a century and Stevenson Square played host to a large number of rallies and demonstrations while in the decades before Peterloo many impromptu gatherings occurred at New Cross.

All of which just leaves the sight of Peterloo, which everyone will be familiar with.

Albert Square, circa 1981

As for the start place that seemed to be any open bit of land large enough to take lots of people and close to the big roads into the city.

In the early 1970s the favoured venue was Oxford Road, although I can remember assembling by Strangeways prison once.

More recently and for reasons I don’t fully understand we were told to meet up near the Cathedral to process to Piccadilly Gardens.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Crown Square, and Albert Square, circa 1981 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Madam Jethro ….. Gifted Clairvoyant … the 6ft Mahogany wardrobe … and “The Gladiator” Photo Works …… Chorlton in 1937

 It is often the seemingly trivial things people leave behind, which offer up fascinating insights into how we lived.

And so, it is with a copy of the Chorlton and Wilbrahamton News from the late 1930s which Maggie Watson passed over to me last night, with the comment,  “During our renovation we found a crumpled newspaper under a stair tread. I saved what I could. 

It was obviously put there at the time the house was built in 1937. Are these of any interest to you?”.

 Which of course I was. 

 Her house was built by Scott the builder, who built and lived in the house we now occupy on Beech Road.

 All of which made the newspaper a bit more interesting and more so because Maggie’s house had been the site of a farmhouse which dated back to the early 19^th century and possibly into the 18^th century.

 Discoveries like Maggie’s will usually confirm things we already knew, push back dates of buildings, and open up new enquiries.

 

So, the advert for the Grange Laundry on Beech Road “A Really Good Laundry”, pointed to the uninterrupted continuity of the business through the first half of the last century, while Thomas’s Coaches at 4 Chorlton Green pushed back the date when this new industry has a presence beside the old village green.

 And that brings me to Madam Jethro ….. Gifted Clairvoyant, who must surely be worth a search.   

 The entry in the small adds column announces “Madam Jethro, Gifted Clairvoyant .  Book your appointments please.  Hours 2 to 8pm.  Borderland every Thursday”,  but it offers no clues as to where she lived, leaving me just to reflect that with The Great War less than 20 years in the past there will have been many wondering whether  Madam Jethro could provide a link to a lost relative.

The adds also shine a light on the attitudes of the day, when a property owner could advertise “Large Unfurnished Room; Lady,- 16, High Lane, Chorlton” and the Riding’s Cycle company with a branch at 363 Barlow Moor Road, could take a quarter page advert showing pictures of eleven women with the caption “More Pretty Entrants in Riding’s Great Northern Cycle Queen Contest”.

 What strikes you are the number of adverts for electrical repair shops, along with such services as “Have your Car thoroughly cleaned and “Simonized” by competent man” and “Mrs. M. Craddy, ‘Spirella’ Corsetiere, Demonstrations in Client’s Own Home, by Appointment.  At home, Saturday, 10 to 6. – 2 Chelford Road, Darley Park, Manchester  16. Tel. Chorlton 3271”.

 

Sadly, the news and features pages were not retained by who ever secreted the bits that Maggie found and that is a loss, but there is more than enough to provide us with a picture of Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1937.

 I can’t be sure at present who secreted the bits of newspaper, but it is odds on it was one of Whitelegg family who were there in 1939.  Mr. Reginald Whitelegg  was born in 1884, his wife Millicent two years later and the children, George and Millicent were born in 1908 and 1919.

 Given that Reginald was a house painter and his son a bricklayer, it is just possible they worked for or worked with Joe Scott who built their house, and was known to reward employees and friends with favourable terms when renting out the houses he built.

And so tomorrow and into the next week I think I shall wander across the adverts, recording the cost of items, the names of some local shop keepers, along with a sideways look at the cinemas and the films being shown on the first week in July.

 Leaving me just to mention that Gladiator Photoworks, which operated from 2a Keppel Road and boldly claimed that “Better Snaps Cost No More Bring Your Films Where Your Snapshots Are Actually Made It costs no more to have your snaps finished by Professional Photographers Snapshot Specialists".

 Location; Chorlton

 Pictures; from The Chorlton and Wilbrahamton News, July 16, 1937, from the collection of Maggie Watson

 

Connections ...... Edith Nesbit of Well Hall and William Barefoot Labour politican and councillor for Eltham

Edith Nesbit, circa 1890

Now I like the way that history continues to surprise you, often taking you in directions which you could not have imagined.

Until recently I was not aware that Edith Nesbit had lived at Well Hall and knew only that she had written the Railway Children.

But she was far more than just someone who wrote children’s books.

Her marriage appears to be what we might today describe as an open one and she adopted two children from her husband’s relationship with another woman who was employed as their house keeper.

She was one of the founder members of the Fabian Society, a member of the Social Democratic Federation and wrote and spoke regularly on socialism.

Amongst her friends were H.G. Wells, Bernard Shaw and the Webb’s, all of whom visited the house in Well Hall.

She was also a member of the local Labour Party and it was here she met Tommy Tucker an engineer on the Woolwich Ferry, who she married three years after the death of her husband Hubert.

All of which fits nicely as like Edith, Hubert and Tommy I was also a member of the same local Labour Party.

Woolwich Labour Party was formed in 1903.  At that time the Woolwich constiuency took in Woolwich and Eltham, and even when it was split between Woolwich East and Woolwich West for the 1918 General Election the Labour Party took the decision to stay as one party.

So when I joined in 1966 aged just 16 I was walking with Edith, Hubert and Tommy.

William Barefoot, date unknown

And also William Barefoot who will have known Edith and may well have been a guest at her home in Well Hall.

He was one of the leading forces in the Woolwich Labour Party having been its secretary from 1903 till 1941.*

He had become secretary of the Woolwich Trades Council in 1899 a post he held until 1921, was editor of The Woolwich Labour Journal and the Pioneer a weekly paper.**

Now if I were prone to idle speculation I might well go ‘off on one’ pondering on how well Ms Nebit and

Mr Barefoot knew each other and whether she contributed to either The Woolwich Labour Journal and the Pioneer.

Now the Greenwich Heritage Centre holds both the Journal and the Pioneer but the collection only cover the years 1919-1926, and I am not sure when she left Well Hall.

I know she married Mr Tucker in 1917 and later moved to Friston in East Sussex, and later to East Kent, and died in 1924.

That said I shall go digging elsewhere for both journals and the first port of call will be the archives of the People’s Museum.

Now it would really be nice to discover some of her political writing which in turn will have crossed William Barefoot’s desk and so I shall go looking.

Pictures; Edith Nesbit courtesy of The Edith Nesbit Society, http://www.edithnesbit.co.uk/ and William Brefoot, courtesy of Archives & Study Centre, at the People’s History Museum, Manchester, http://www.phm.org.uk/

*William Barefoot and a day in the archives of the Peoples’ History Museum in Manchester, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/william-barefoot-and-day-in-archives-of.html

** ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE LABOUR PARTY AT LOCAL LEVEL, The Woolwich Labour Party, 1903-53, Dr Roger Eatwell, 1982,  http://www.microform.co.uk/guides/R97253.pdf

Off to the “flicks” in the winter of 1913 and a challenge for today

Now on a dismal Saturday afternoon in Eltham during the winter of 1913 I might well have decided to take myself off to the Picturedrome where I could have seen epics like the Battle of Waterloo, stories drawn from great novels like Zola’s Germinal or melodramas loosely based on the Old Testament along with documentaries about nature, disasters at sea and much more.

The Battle of Waterloo, 1913

The obvious choice would have been the Eltham Cinema on the corner of the High Street and Westmount Road, which was run by Mr Robert Frederick Bean and which had only been open for a few months.

But with the help of the tram I might instead of ventured off into Woolwich, Greenwich and even Plumstead.

And as much as the film might have attracted me so might the name of the cinema.

Some had names which reflected this new and exciting form of entertainment ranging from the Kinemacolor Palace to those incorporating the word “electric” of which my favourite was the Bijou Electric Theatre, while others traded on exotic places like the Trocadero, and the Alhambra Pavilion.

Germinal, 1913

Most also incorporated the title “Pictuedrome” and some went through frequent name changes.

But what they all had in common was that magic of sitting in the dark and seeing moving pictures many times life size telling stories of adventure, romance set in faraway places which for most people were just names on a map.

So with that in mind the choice was pretty wide.  I could have wandered over to Plumstead and visited the Imperial on Plumstead Road or taken a chance on the Windsor Electric Theatre on Maxey Road but equally could have been drawn to either the Globe on the Common or the Cinematograph at numbers 144-6 the High Street.

Greenwich offered up another three and Woolwich had six.

Judith, 1913

A century on I rather think it might be fun to go looking for these ten.  Sadly in the case of the Three Crowns, the New Cinema and the Premier Electric Theatre they are just listed as Woolwich, but the remaining seven have full addresses.

In Woolwich there was the Arsenal Kinema, Beresford Square, the Premier Electric Theatre, at 126 Powis Street, and the New Cinema at 93 New Road.

And that just left the Greenwich three, which were the Trafalgar Cinema, 82 Trafalgar Road, Chapman’s Pictures Bridge Street, the Greenwich Hippodrome, Stockwell Street, and the Theatre Royal, on High Street.

The Terrors of the Jungle, 1913

And there is the challenge.  Not that any will still exist, but armed with a modern map, a corresponding map for 1913 and a street directory for the same year it should be possible to do a bit of detective work.

Location; Eltham, Plumstead, Greenwich and Woolwich.







Pictures; stills from films available to watch in 1913, from  The Kinematograph Year Book*

*The Kinematograph Year Book Program Diary and Directory 1914, http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/kinematograph-year-book-program-diary-and-directory-1914-2014-09-18.pdf