On Chester Road looking to hear "last orders"

The Commercial as was, and now Insitu, 2014

Sooner or later if you live in Chorlton you will find your way to Insitu on Chester Road.

We have been going there since the 1980s and followed them from their shop on Seymour Grove, to the big old ware house near the former St George’s and now to that impressive former pub in the heart of Cornbrook.

Now Insitu deals with anything “period” and if yours is one of those Victorian, Edwardian or 1920’s houses then most likely the insides were long ago ripped out.

It will have started with picture rails moved on to the dado rails then the kitchen range, fireplaces and very certainly the bathroom.

The Commercial, Turville, & the Last Hop  

For no one with idea about modern living in the 1950s, 60s and 70s could tolerate what had been built with the house.

I should know.  In search of what had been we went up to Gorton where they were pulling houses down and bought a complete old bathroom set, and fire place.

It didn’t occur to us that these were not of the same period.

We were on the look out for the past.

 From there we headed to Insitu and still today wander in.

It has  changed somewhat since they first took over what had been the old pub, which had been the Commercial, became the Turville and finished as  Last the Last Hop.

It dates from the early 1870s and even as an empty pub it is an impressive building so much so that it was awarded Grade II status in 1994.

The Bulls Head, 2014

Sadly the Bulls Head across the road has fared less well.

It was destroyed in a fire and has been demolished but right now and maybe not for long some of the interior tiles can still be seen.

I doubt they will be there long and Andy’s Picture may be the only permanent record of the inside of the place.

A little of me feels the tiles should be saved, and I do remember talking to a teacher on a course back in the 1970s who did just that, in her dinner hour close to where she  taught in Gorton.

All that is left of the Bull

Her dinner times and sometimes assisted by students involved a little rescue archaeology before most people had come to understand what it meant.

But taking them off would be theft and I doubt that they would come away easily, which is a shame, and reminds me that I have already decided to find out more about the Railway and now have the Bull’s Head on the corner of Chester Road and Cleworth Street to add to the list.

Pictures; from the collection of Andy & Catherine Robertson