Less a mystery more a piece of research ........... pondering on the age of those properties on the corner of Corkland and Wilbraham

Now occasionally I have wondered about the three properties on the corner of Corkland and Wilbraham Road and before someone mutters “the lad ought to get out more” there might well be a story here.

They must date from sometime between the mid 1930s and 1959 because they do not appear on the OS map for 1934 and were there twenty five years later when Mr A E Landers wandered down recording the whole length of Wilbraham Road.

I can’t say I would award a prize to the architects who while they did a decent job with the land available produced a pretty ugly building.

I have never liked those tiles they went in for in the 1950s and that frontage running above the shops is heavy and clumsy, and while I am at it the windows and door are less than elegant.

Still Gloria Fashion, Rushtons and the Co-op dry cleaning business seemed happy enough to trade from there and at some point so did  Gerry Marlowe with his Nylon Bar and J H Edwards.

And maybe I am being a little picky about the building which has prompted me to plan a visit to the Ref to look through the street directories for Cavendish Terrace which will supply me with a date for its construction and a complete list of who traded from the properties.

Armed with that list we should be able

to chart the changing shopping patterns of Chorlton which I think will make for a fascinating insight into how where we have lived has been transformed in just five decades.

All of which leaves me with that last observation that I can’t remember which businesses operated here a decade ago.

But with supreme confidence I know someone who will.



Pictures; Cavendish Terrace in 2014, from the collection of Andy Robertson and various views of the same properties in 1959 by A E Landers, m18453, 18451, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass