Friday 12 June 2015

Digging deep into the history of 35 Demesne Road ..... a house empty and abandoned

Now there is something I don’t like about empty and abandoned buildings.

On a practical level it is of course the waste of a place which could provide a home or set of homes.

But it is more I guess about the end of something.

And so it is with number 35 Demesne Road which today is pretty much a derelict building.

Part of the roof is open to the skies, many of its windows are boarded up and those that aren’t have long ago been broken.

The fireplaces will be cold, the wall paper peeling and the grand staircase dismal dirty and possibly dangerous.

It is in every sense a building which seems to have no future, made all the worst by seeing it on a bleak December day when the interior will be no warmer than the outside.

Not that this is a descent into some romantic tosh.

I have no idea to what extent this was a happy home or how far the people who lived there were contented and at peace.

In fact at present I have only been able to uncover a few names and those are confined to around  1911 but they do offer up a story.

At the end of 1910 when Slater’s street directory was being compiled it listed a Mr Thomas Porter, director and Herbert Stewart Lysons accountant at the property.

Mr Porter had been there by 1897 and with a bit of digging we should be able to push that back to sometime earlier in the 1890s, which in turn may help date Inglewood which was the name of the house.

It doesn’t appear on the 1894 OS so will have been still relatively new when the two were recorded on the 1901 census along with Mrs Porter and two servants.

A decade earlier and Mr Lysons was living at home in Pendlebury with his father who was a “Colliery Stores manager” and he at 19 described a “Colliery Surface labourer”.

But young Herbert was on a path of self improvement.  By 1901 when he was living with his uncle Mr Porter at Desmene Road he had become a chartered accountant.

At the census of 1911 he was living alone in the house with just two servants and given that this was an eleven roomed property I guess they must have rattled around a bit.

The intriguing question is whether he brought his new bride Minnie to live at the house when they married in 1918.

She had been living nearby in Albert Road and later in their married life they were at 62 Demesne Road where he died in 1939.

Her father was a ship owner and he may have known Herbert professionally or perhaps socially.

Minnie survived both him and his sister and died in 1974.

And this is almost all we have although I do know that from Andy’s research there was a son born in 1920, and that Herbert founded an accountancy practice in 1899.

According to one source* he had offices around the city starting in St Mary’s Gate, and moving to Deansgate, St Ann’s Place, Albert Square St Peter’s Square and King Street.

Now that seems a long way from our empty house on Demesne Road, but not so.

Mr and Mrs Lysons will have continued to pass the house and may have wondered what went on behind it door after they had left.  And so might Herbert’s sister who would have known the house.

She had spent most of her adult life in Stockport but lived out her final years on Chandos Road and so she might too have wandered past the property perhaps on a visit to Alexandra Park.

And here I shall stop before I do indeed slide in to romantic speculation leaving only to reflect finally on the fate of the house.  It is in a sorry state, but there are no planning applications to demolish or later the property and maybe just maybe some one will be along to save it and make it a family home again.

Pictures, 35 Demesne Road, 2014, courtesy of Andy Robertson

* Chartered Accountants in England and Wales: A Guide to Historical Records
 edited by Wendy Habgood, 1999, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AR-9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA156&lpg=PA156&dq=herbert+lysons&source=bl&ots=4y0sJEFjiK&sig=LzrIXAuqcfum2u6cbJ2LhSOw-po&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PxF_VOOxM4rd7QaRuIG4Ag&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=herbert%20lysons&f=false

30 comments:

  1. I lived at 35 Demesne Rd from 1978 to 1995. I was one of several tenants there and our landlord was a Mr Zandi.

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    1. Our friend Joan lived I a very large apartment on the top floor for over 30 years. When she first went to live there in the 1950s there was a most impressive stained glass canopy above and side of the front steps.

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    2. I knew a Joan Byrne very well who lived there many moons ago! Was she your friend? Anne

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    3. Yes, her niece Tina and her husband Bob are great friends of mine, we had supper together only last evening. Tina thought Joan's apartment was marvellous and it is Tina who has great memories of the original stained glass canopy around the front door.

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    4. Yes, I was having supper with her niece Tina, and Tina's husband Bob last evening.

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    5. Were you possibly the neighbour that helped when Joan had a fall in her flat.

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    6. Wow! What a small world! Remember Miss Byrne having relatives in Ireland. She was a lovely, intelligent lady and loved the cricket in the summer!

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    7. Yes, I was the neighbour who helped Joan when she fell and and from thereon deteriorated . Followed her as she became infirm and last saw her in York House, bless her!

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    8. Tina also recalls Joan speaking of a Mr. Simpson who also lived in the house - either the same floor as Joan or the one below - he too had been there for many years. Tina and Bob now live in Sale, but then lived in Chorlton, and yes lots of relations in Ireland.

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    9. Yes, I knew Mr Simpson. Lovely quiet old man and always polite. He and Joan both had pianos and played well. One day I came back from work to find Landlord in the hallway. He told me that poor Mr Simpson was found passed away on floor in his flat. He had lived there many years.

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    10. Dear Anne,
      Not sure if my note reached you earlier last week, Joan's niece Tina was delighted when I told her that you remembered Joan, she would love to hear from you, but she does not use the computer, if possible she would delighted if you could call her on 0161 283 6030. Thank you. Michael

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    11. Hello Michael, I am not good over telephone due to impaired hearing but will try anyway. I could pop down to see Tina though. I was brought up in Sale. Anne

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    12. Dear Anne,
      Tina said she very much enjoyed talking with you on the telephone the other week, and is greatly looking forward to meeting you, when you come over for coffee. Unfortunately Tina has misplaced your telephone number, so would be grateful if you could call again to arrange a mutually convenient time to visit. I have just returned from two weeks in London, otherwise would have been in contact sooner. All good wishes Michael

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    13. Ps. I should have said Tina's number is 0161 283 6030

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  2. I lived there 1978 to 1995 along with other tenants. Our landlord was a Mr Zandi.

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  3. In 1962 myself and my brother were prosecuted for scrumping 6 apples and 1 plum from the back garden. We were fined 10/6 each !! A criminal record at 1 years of age

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    1. So was this abandoned since then? It's crazy that it's still standing

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  4. I lived there as a tenant until 1995
    The house, so I believe, was for sale by Landlord Mr Zandi but fell through when the property, empty at the time, was set on fire, along with adjoining number 33.

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  5. I would love to rescue this property

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  6. Contact the Owner - owns that one, 31 and 33 also

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  7. derelictmanchester9 November 2023 at 13:40

    I explored the house along with urban explorer razorchrismaybury...It was in a highly dangerous condition, moreover a guy near to where I live, confirmed that his grandfather was one of the first residents at the property...

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  8. Hiya, I live over the road and have known about this property for a while. Yesterday on the way past there was someone on the grounds of the property preparing the land, presumably for some machinery or something to be able to access. Looks like something is happening with it.

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  9. Would like updates on this from anyone nearby.

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  10. Look forward to any updates please.

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  11. So sad to see a once beautiful house being left to deteriorate to such an extent it becomes unsafe and has to be demolished! No doubt the land it is on will have increased in value!!

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  12. I pass it often and although there was machinery starting work to demolish it, they don’t seem to be in any great hurry & I haven’t noticed movement around it recently

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