Making sense of the unfamiliar

Here is one of those pictures which the more you look at it the less familiar it is. Well I say that but some will recognise it as Wilbraham Road looking down towards the junction with Barlow Moor Road and away there in the distance is the slight rise in the road which marks out the railway bridge.

Some at least of these fine Victorian buildings are still there but most have gone. To the left of the picture the shops were demolished to make way for the Precinct.

I am more interested in the other side. On the corner of Brundrett’s and Wilbraham Road a woman peers into the window of the outfitters of N East & Co, next door was a butcher’s shop and beside that a photographer. The site became Woolworths, while further on the tall houses were to suffer the fate of many along Wilbraham Road and were converted into shops.

And at the extreme right of the picture on the other corner of Brundrett’s Road were two fine houses demolished in 1959 as a part of the new shopping and residential block. All of which is a trailer for two more of Peter Toppings paintings.

Picture; from the collection of Rita Bishop, early 20th century