Out by Pomona Gardens with Andy Roberston

© Andy Robertson 

Now I am at one of those neglected and almost forgotten places with two more of Andy Robertson’s pictures.

In the course of the last year Andy has almost adopted the blog for some of his photographs of how Manchester and the surrounding area are changing.

It is an important project as so often we just take for granted when the for sale signs go up on an old building we know well and within months they have vanished and replaced by a bright something which could be an office, an apartment block or even a school.

Worse still the building lingers on slowly deteriorating a sad testament to neglect and vandalism.

So here we are on one of those main routes into the city, where once people flocked to Pomona Gardens which was one of the big amusement parks on the edge of the city and which was the last point where anything green dominated. 

© Andy Robertson 

“Pomona Gardens was one of those boisterous gardens of fun. It boasted a similar mix of attractions to Belle Vue, including ‘the magic bridge, Gymnasium, flying swings, bowling green, rifle shooting, romantic walks and a promenade for both adults and juveniles as well as boat trips on the Irwell’. 

In the summer of 1850 it pulled out the stops with its ‘Splendid representation of the ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS, as it occurred in 1849, the most terrific on record’. 

Here was the ‘magnificent Bay of Naples, painted and erected by the celebrated artist Mr A.F. Tait, and extends the whole length of the lake covering upwards of 20,000 yards of canvas and is one of the Largest ever Erected in England’"*

Now with the passage of time much of that industry has gone and the open brown sites and blocks of modern city dwellings have replaced the pleasure gardens, warehouses and factories.

So keep snapping Andy recording what we have lost and what has replaced the old familiar places.

So there behind the arch is that iconic building, once a pub, and now home to Insitu where you can by genuine period pieces taken from clearance areas and lovingly placed in homes where the were ripped out in the 1960s and 70s.

Pictures; from the courtesy of Andy Robertson, 2014

*from Chorlton-cum-Hardy A Community Transformed http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton