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 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, the 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,

A Town Hall ….. the Clock Tower …. and that statue ….. walking Altrincham’s history

When you set out to write about Altrincham’s past it is well to do the research before you visit especially when it is part of our new series of books which tell the story of Greater Manchester by Metro tram.*

Windows and lions, Altrincham Town Hall, 2026

With four already published we set out to Altrincham to include the town in the latest book which records the history of the communities served by the tram link from Old Trafford.  In total there are eight stops which take in Stretford, Sale, Brooklands, Timperley and Navigation Road along with Altrincham and Old Trafford.

And there is indeed a heap of history from the Manchester Art Exhibition of 1857, the Duke’s Canal which cut through the area, to historic pubs, factories and notable people.

So, the research offered up 53 listed buildings in Altrincham and the surrounding areas of Broadheath and Timperley in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade II*, and the others are at Grade II.

Eve and the serpent, 1882

But with just a morning for our first visit we headed for the former town hall which my Wikipedia tells me “was designed in the Jacobean style, built in red brick with stone dressings at a cost of £7,500 and officially opened in November 1901”.**

It now serves as a hub for the community making it a popular venue for wedding ceremonies and receptions.

Since 2024 the building has been run and managed by Oyez Arts which also hosts creative workshops and wellbeing sessions, performances and classes.

And this year they have struck a new deal with Trafford Council which offered them a 25-year lease on the Town Hall securing the building as a long-term home for Oyez Arts.***

We wandered in and were given our own personal tour by Libby and Ella which took in the former council chamber, and some of the historic features.  

Peter the artist was of course drawn to the colourful leaded lights and the art exhibition leaving me to explore the historic statues and wall plaques.  

Of these tucked away in a side room was the marble figure of Eve and the Serpent, created in 1882 by John Royal Whittick and bought by public subscription and installed in her own “garden” in Stamford Park.

A picture postcard from about 1900 shows her surrounded by circular beds of flowers.  Like many such pieces of municipal art she could have ended up vandalized and neglected but has found a new home

"To Honour Our Fellow Townsmen", 1902

And in the same way here in the town hall are monuments to those from Altrincham who fought in the wars of the 20th century, including the pretty much overlooked South African War, more popularly known as the Second Boer War.  

It lasted from 1899 till 1902, and has been eclipsed by the Great War.

So many of these monuments have now been lost through casual or wilful amnesia that it is good that this one has survived and in the fulness of time will become a story.

To which there are those who might wish that the statue of the market trader which stands outside might be wished away.  

It was the work of Colin Spofforth and unveiled in 2008 to a mixed reception with the Manchester Evening News reporting that “the £35,000 statue has been slammed as 'absolutely awful' by councillors and neighbours”. With some suggesting that “the £35,000 should be spent on providing replacement public toilets for the old ones underneath the market hall”.***

Water colour of the Clock Tower, 2026

Such is the world of municipal art, and because I can, I will go looking for the public reception to the town’s clock tower when it was erected in 1880.  

But for now I will just share the almost breaking news that the clock which stopped in October of last year will be repaired by Transport for Greater Manchester for £6,000.****

So impressed was Peter with the non-ticking clock he painted it which fits nicely beside this picture postcard of New Stamford Street in the early 20th century.

The Clock Tower, circa 1900

At which point I should dig deep into the street scene but that is for the fifth book in the series The History of Greater Manchester By Tram, Old Trafford to Altrincham, which will be published later this year, is available at £4.99 from Chorlton Bookshop, the shop at Central Ref, St Peter's Square, or from us at  www.pubbooks.co.uk

Location; Altrincham

Pictures; scenes from Altrincham, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Painting; Altrincham Clock Tower, 2026 from the collection of Peter Topping 

Alty Art, 2026

*A History of Greater Manchester by Tram, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20History%20of%20Greater%20Manchester%20by%20Tram

**Altrincham Town Hall, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altrincham_Town_Hall

***Delight as Oyez Arts signs 25-year lease on Altrincham Town Hall, Trafford Council,   March 26, 2026, https://www.trafford.gov.uk/news/2026/delight-oyez-arts-signs-25-year-lease-altrincham-town-hall

***'Grotesque' £35K statue slammed, Manchester Evening News, January 12th, 2013, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/grotesque-35k-statue-slammed-997105

****Is Altrincham's silent giant about to speak again?, Hannah Richardson, Manchester Evening News, January 26th, 2026, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/altrinchams-silent-giant-speak-again-33287601

That statue, 2026

When all eyes were on Chorlton, the local elections of 1928

Now I know that local elections do not fascinate everyone, but the 1928 election here in Chorlton had got the lot. 

It was fought out against a backdrop of worsening unemployment figures and an expectation that 1928 might be the year that the Labour Party became the largest group on the City Council.

Across the city the Manchester Guardian did not rate the chances of the Conservatives too highly and speculated that of the sixteen seats they were defending they might only hold eight.

The Liberals who were defending just five were reckoned to be safe in four of the five but it was Labour “with fewer seats to defend and a greater number of more vunerable positions [to] attack,” who were making an “audacious bid to secure a clear majority .... and although the attempt is hardly likely to succeed on the present occasion it is by no means a forlorn one.  The Labour representation has been steadily increasing and the at the moment only requires nine additional seats to give it the preponderance it desires”*

So attention focused here, where the Guardian told its readers the Conservatives were defending a slim majority and one that looked all the more under threat because the year before the Liberals had won the seat with a huge majority of nearly 2,500 votes, but as the Guardian went on to warn “it must be borne in mind that at the present occasion Mr Wicks, the Liberal candidate, is opposed by a serious Labour candidate in addition to the retiring Conservative.”

Sadly any campaign literature is unobtainable at present and we are forced back on the newspapers.  The Labour candidate was Alice McIlwrick who had stood the year before in Didsbury and gained  10% of the vote.

I wish I knew more about her.  She lived in various parts of south Manchester, had married at the age of 20 and was confident enough to issue a challenge to her Liberal candidate to “speak for a quarter of an hour in response to a challenge.”  

Moreover she was indeed seen by the Labour Party as a serious Labour candidate as they sent the Labour M.P., R J Davies and the Councillor Wright Robinson to speak on the same platform.

The result was not I suspect what many had expected.  The Conservatives retained the seat with 4, 788 votes to 3, 955 for the Liberals and a very creditable vote of 1,457 for Labour and 14% of the vote.  It was the first time the Labour Party had contested the seat and it would be another four years before they improved on that share of the vote.

What makes the election even more interesting was that it was rerun a month later.  The Tory councillor had died suddenly and the election was held just five days before Christmas.  Again the Manchester Guardian weighed in with the observation that “there are few wards in which Conservative and Liberal opinion is so nicely balanced.  Of the eight elections that have been fought in Chorlton since 1920 four have been won by the Conservatives and four by the Liberals.”

And in an echo of a more recent Lib Dem assertion that the “Conservatives can’t win here” the Liberals pointed out that the Tory candidate‘s majority the month before was just 253 above what he had polled in 1925 while the Liberals had won the year before with a “record majority of 2,329 votes.”

None the less they were equally quick to point out that Labour “cannot possibly hope to win the seat and  suggest that a number of moderate Labour votes go to Mrs Pilling [the Liberal] who is a strong candidate.”

But in the event the Labour vote held with Alice McIlwrick obtaining 12% of the vote, the Liberals dropping three per cent and the Tories gaining an extra six per cent.

Now this may well have been simply because of the lower turn out by the electorate.  In the November election this had been 52% but a month later it had fallen to 28%.

And in part it may also have had something to do with the intervention of the Salford Diocesan Catholic Federation who had reported that “the questions addressed to the candidates on the education question have been answered satisfactorily by Mr Somervile the Conservative candidate; unsatisfactorily by Mrs Pilling the Liberal candidate, and that Mrs McIlwrick, the Labour candidate, has not replied to them.”**

The right of Roman Catholics to establish parochial day schools for children up to fourteen had become an important issue.  The Salford Diocesan Catholic Federation had held five meetings where candidates in the election were "invited to outline their attitude towards this educational problem.  In addition five test questions have been sent to each municipal candidate, and the answers to these will be published during the weekend. The views of each candidate will determine whether he shall have the support of local Catholics."***
The issue had arisen after a dispute in Levenshulme when the Education Committee had refused to approve plans for a parochial school.

Well I suspect the jury will be out until we can find some more first hand accounts of the election but like all these things I am confident they will turn up.

Picture; The Conservative Club and party headquarters, and the result of the election in November 1928.

* Manchester Guardian October 1st 1928
** Manchester Guardian December 18th 1928
***Manchester Guardian October 27th 1928

A little bit of timeless history in St Ann’s Square ...... selling flowers

Now the historian in me knows I should go off and look for the first reference to a flower seller in the square by the church.

In 1979 I did the thing, and took a series of pictures of that flower stall.

At the time and for a long time since I thought there was nothing remarkable about the scene.

And then recently I came across a picture post postcard from 1904 showing a flower stall in the identical spot, added to which someone else came up with an earlier image from 1898.

So that rather begs the question of how long there has been a business on this location and for that matter just how many images there are of flower sellers in St Ann’s Square.

I suspect we shall find out.

And quick as a flash, Jennifer added a comment to the blog which deserved to be added in,
"Hello, hope this information my help your research.  From the late 60s to the mid 70s I worked for the Halifax BS on Deansgate. 

They had an account with the flower stall in St Ann's square. 

The couple who ran it then where brother and sister John & Sally. I think the name on the invoice was Fitzgerald. 

They told me the stall had been in their family for many years. I think the stall was taken over by John's son Roger? and then by his son. John and Sally were lovely 5. 

They advised which flowers were good for the displays and how to arrange them".

Location; Manchester

Pictures; St Ann’s Church, 1978-9 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and from the series Manchester, marketed by Tuck & Sons, 1904, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

On the High Street in 1873

I have moved a little south from Well Hall and am wandering the High Street sometime in 1873.

It is a scene we will return to in detail later.

For now what strikes you perhaps more than anything is the absence of Well Hall Road which today runs down from the High Street past the church and off in a straight line down to Well Hall.  This was to be cut much later.

In the 1870s this spot would have been dominated by  St John’s to the west and opposite the vicarage, while beyond this point heading east would have been a collection of fine houses, not so fine houses  and the smithy and National School.

Picture; the High Street from the OS map of Kent, sheet 08, 1858-73, First Edition

It’s the history …. not the quality

I am on Camp Street looking across the Rochdale Canal.

The quality of the images is not wonderful but then they were taken with a cheap camera in 1978, and the negatives have sat in the cellar for 40 odd years.

The original prints were lost a long time ago, but today I digitized those negatives, and they reveal a bit of Manchester now vanished.

Back then the area was waiting for something to happen, so while the Courts were just up the road doing the business of dealing with lawbreakers, and the College of Commerce was still introducing students to the wonders of accountancy, the law, and even a mix of Arts degrees Camp Street was a pretty forlorn spot.

For three years at the start of the 1970s I had wandered down it, exploring this part of the city instead of going to the library in the Aytoun College of Knowledge.

Back then there was an old-fashioned transport café, and those line of parking meters, while the skyline was dominated by buildings most of which have long gone or been turned into other uses.

And that really is that.

Location; Canal Street

Pictures; the Rochdale Canal, 1979 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Go west …….. and discover Altrincham’s past …. part one

It may not be the most elegant of titles, but it does the business of introducing our new book in the series of the History of Greater Manchester by Tram.*

Lions at the Town Hall, 2026

It marks a departure because the first four books have taken in the city centre and south Manchester, and with this one we head out through Stretford, Sale and Timperley and onto Altrincham.

But like all the others the format is the same ….. take a number of tram stops, discover their stories and together they build into the history of Greater Manchester.  To these we add a collection of Peter’s paintings along with some old and new photographs.

Two pots and assorted lampshades

And the route to Altrincham, via Old Trafford, Stretford, Sale, Brooklands, Timperley and Navigation Road offer up a heap of the past from Manchester’s 1857 Art Exhibition and tales from the Duke’s Canal to the Bravest Little Street.

We started in Altrincham and fell across a local postman who was convinced we should visit Church Street Antiques because in his words the “owners know all there is to know about the town’s past” and given that they have been trading from the shop for three decades it was a promising start.**

But nothing can beat just wandering the streets and taking a chance of going in and exploring the interior of old buildings.

And that led us into the former Altrincham Town Hall and a discussion with Libby and Ella who are part of the team which manage the building for the community and were more than happy to tell us the story of the Town Hall along with the statue of the market trader which was unveiled in the grounds in 2008.

To which Peter went home and produced this fine water colour of Church Street Antiques which must be one from inclusion in the book.

And later we may have more with perhaps one of the clock tower.

Well we shall see.

Bravests Little Street, 2026

Of course, there is much more and along with the Market Hall, and sundry old buildings we had a resident who directed us to Chapel Street for ever remembered as the “Bravest Little Street” for it was here that “from just 60 houses, 161 men volunteered in the Great War [and] 29 were killed”.

All of which promises a heap of stories from just one of the eight tram stops in the book which will be published later this year and is available at £4.99 from Chorlton Bookshop, the shop at Central Ref, St Peter's Square, or from us at  www.pubbooks.co.uk

Next; Peter’s painting of the Clock Tower a bit more Altrincham history.

Location; Altrincham

Pictures; scenes from Altrincham, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Painting; Water colour of Church Street Antiques, 2026 

*A History of Greater Manchester by Tram; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2026/03/go-west-and-discover-altrinchams-past.html

**Church Street Antiques, www.churchstreetantiques.com