Of trams and horses and handcarts on a May day on Mosley Street in 1914

It is May 1914, and of course what we know is that within just four months many of the people in our picture will be drawn into the Great War.

We are on Mosley Street just by the junction with Princess Street and off to our left is the Town Hall while ahead on the right is the City Art Gallery.

Back in the early 19th century it was a fashionable residential area, and here could be found the homes of Hugh Birley, Nathan Meyer Rothschild and Samuel Brooks who in 1836 bought Jackson Moss and developed it into the equally fashionable and comfortable estate of Whaley Range.

Which is quite fitting really given that tram 852 is heading south to Alexandra Park.

Like many of the pictures in the collection there is much to see. To the right of the tram is a man with a hand cart which was still one of the most common sights in the city. And beside him is the tram conductor who stares back at the camera, which begs the question of whether the tram is stationary, given the nonchalant way the conductor is leaning against the lamp post.

Not that many people are bothered to look.  By 1914 cameras and photographers were common enough for them to be taken for granted.  Only the workman with the hammer takes the time out to join the tram conductor.  Everyone else on that May morning is too preoccupied to even give a glance.

But  there is more.  To the right a little down Portland Street are horses which reminds us that on the eve of the Great War there were still plenty of them around.

And dominating the scene is the City Art Gallery looking very much as it does today.

Picture; from the collection of Rita Bishop, courtesy of David Bishop