So no more popcorn and Power Rangers from the shop that was Chorlton Blockbuster part 2

Happier times

Now most of us will have a memory of Blockbusters on Barlow Moor Road.

If you are grown up it will be choosing the Friday  night video while the take away was being prepared, and if you were still young enough to want popcorn and a selection of Spice Girls and Power Rangers films it will be the excitement of knowing that what you rent can be watched all over again on Saturday.

And there will those who can remember Sale Cycles or maybe even Mr E Boydell and Company who occupied the building into the 1970s.

Of course all that is already a thing of the past and soon even the building will have gone.

Earlier in the week Andy Robertson was on hand to record its destruction, and will be back to document the final clearing of the site, the moment the builders break new ground and the new development.

Waiting for the end

I have been musing on the building in its many different uses for a while and think it’s time to invite people to offer their own stories.

In the meantime above is Peter Topping’s painting of the place in happier times, when the popcorn was on offer, the new James Bond film sat proudly on the back wall and all was well with the world.

But already the signs were there to see from the large number of second hand DVDs for sale and the empty racks which would hint that things were a tad dicey.

Of course that was the way with many similar concerns like the one which stood almost opposite and the even brief appearance of such shops further down Barlow Moor Road and on Wilbraham Road.

And by the time you read this the Blockbuster site will just be a hole in the ground, making Andy’s picture and Peter’s painting just a memory.


Painting; Blockbusters, © 2014 Peter Topping,

Facebook; Paintings from Pictures,, Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Picture; Blockbuster’s 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson,