Railway Terrace and the changing shops of Chorlton

Now It is an awful confession but Railway Terrace on the corner of Manchester Road and Buckingham Road was until fairly recently just a stop on the bus into Chorlton from town.

I became aware of the parade of shops I suppose when Wild at Heart that organic meat shop opened.

It was also the site of a shop where Walter had worked as a boy during the 1930s.  Now I didn’t really know Walter well and wish I had spent more time talking to him about his child hood memories.

But he worked in a dairy shop in the parade, so I decided to do some research and started by looking for a date for the terrace but didn’t get far.  It was built after 1911 and I guess will have been part of the development of the area sometime in the 1920s and 30s.

Looking again at the picture I am struck at the turnover of properties in the short period from when Wild at Heart opened.

It had a relatively short life was followed by Moroccana and is now a new business and the other two shops have also undergone change.

And here is another simple lesson.  Always date your photographs.  This one will be sometime around 2011 but exactly when I took it is now lost which is not a good when you are attempting to chronicle change.

On a happier note lots of people have shared their memories if the terrace and for all of them here is Andy Robertson recalling, Railway Terrace.

I remember the shop on left as a tobacconist/sweet/paper shop. I am guessing it closed in the 90s and became a hairdressers. 

Middle shop used to have lots of 2nd hand TVs in window. The shop on the right was called Burke's Petals in the early 00's I think, a sort of hardware shop possibly specialising in lawnmowers. 

Many is the time Cathy would get the bus back from town and I would say, "shall I pick you up from Burke's Petals bus stop"

Picture; Railway Terrace, Manchester Road, circa 2011, from the collection of Andrew Simpson