Outside GMex admiring the open space and the Midland

Now I know it’s no longer called GMex and also on a cold wet and windy January day the open space in front of the exhibition centre is not so appealing.

But on a hot day in May with plenty of sun it is not a bad place to be.

It does after all command good views of the old railway station and the Midland Hotel and also allowed Andy to comment “that building seems to be taking a lot of time to get demolished!”

It’s the one in the distance and I have to agree.

I did try to remember what it was called but that has defeated me.

For those with longer memories GMex was Central Station which closed only months before I arrived in the city in the September of 1969.

I wandered around it when it was a car park and later toured the site with the late John Smith when the conversion into the exhibition centre was well under way.

And that is all I want to say, except that I once did have tea in the Midland.  It was back in the 1970s and like Andy's building my memory of the event is very hazy.

So that really is it.

Location; Manchester







Pictures; outside GMex, May 2017, from the collection of Andy Robertson

On Range Road in Whalley Range with the Manchester Carriage and Tramway Company depot

Now as far as a story goes that I think will have to wait but I couldn’t resist using Andy’s picture of this bit of Grange Road taken last month.

Range Road, once a tram depot later a laundry and homes, 2014

The jury maybe out on whether using the facade of an old building and constructing something entirely new behind it constitutes good design but I rather like the idea.

If you can’t use the original for what it was intended for this at least allows a little of its history to be preserved and in the process gives a context to this bit of Range Road.

It also prompted me to try and understand what this building was and more importantly how it fits with the rest of the structure on the corner of Range and Withington Roads.

The bits of the deport that are left, 2014

Today the bits of what was once one building look odd and pretty much defy any attempt to make sense of what is a brick block with a canopy on one side of it.

If I think hard enough I can just remember it as a garage and that is about it.

You would see it as you passed on the bus and it never really intruded very deeply.  It was just a jumble of ugly bits of building made worse by someone’s attempt to paint some of the brick work.

That canopy, 2014

But once it belonged to the Manchester Carriage and Tramway Company and extended along Withington Road and round on to Range Road.

The company had been formed from a merger of two transport business's in 1880 and for over 20 years operated horse drawn tram services throughout Manchester and Salford.

At its greatest extent in 1900 it ran services over 140 route miles, using 515 trams and 5,244 horses housed in 19 depots.*

And our building was one of those depots with another close by on Chorlton Road.

Badly painted walls, 2014

But by the early 20th century local authorities were showing an interest in operating their own Corporation transport services and the Manchester Carriage and Tramway Company ceased trading in 1903.

So while in 1894 our building was one of their deports by 1911 it had moved with the times and was home to the Provincial Motor Cab Company Ltd.

But this “new century” enterprise had no use for all of the original building and so the stretch on Range Road was used by Mrs Emma Thompson as a laundry.

And that pretty much is where we started the story with that picture of Andy’s which was once part of a horse drawn tram empire became a laundry and now fronts private residences.

Not that I have finished because just as I couldn’t resist starting with Andy’s picture I shall close with this one of part of the building in 1962, when it was the Range Garage.

Range Garage in 1962

Something of the grandeur of the place when it was owned by the Carriage Company can be seen from the picture by A H Landers.

And there is that canopy to the left of the great entrance, complete with petrol pumps.

But this original was too big even for a garage which boasted it was open Day & Night so the section to the right housed the Metalic Construction Company (Manchester) Ltd.

All now gone save that odd bit of brick and canopy and of course the facade on Range Road without which Andy wouldn’t have had a picture or me a story.

Pictures; Range Road and the surviving bits of the deport from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the Range Garage, 1962, A H Landers m41068, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

* Gray, Edward (1977), The Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company, Manchester Transport Museum Society

Manchester Remembering 1914-18 ......... at the Imperial War Museum North ..... Sunday June 4

Now this Sunday at the invitation of the Imperial War Museum North I will be signing copies of Manchester Remembering 1914-18.*

The book “offers an intimate portrayal of the city and its people living in the shadow of the Great War. 

A beautifully illustrated and highly accessible volume, it explores the city's regiments, the background and fate of the men on the frontline, the changing face of industry, the vital role of women, conscientious objectors, hospitals for the wounded and rehabilitation, peace celebrations, the fallen heroes and war memorials.

The Great War story of Manchester is told through the voices of those who were there and is vividly illustrated with evocative images.”

Sunday 11 am to 1 pm and again from 2 pm to 4 pm.

*IWMN,  http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-north Trafford Wharf Rd, Stretford, Manchester M17 1TZ

Walking the water ........... the Rochdale Canal in late May

Now the Rochdale Canal has seen its own fair share of changes.

From working waterway to derelict and sad dumping spot it has been returned to a place with a purpose.

And as before, the boats ply the stretch from the Castlefield Basin up to Dale Street at Piccadilly and even some of the branches that led off from the main canal to warehouses cotton mills timber yard and coal wharves coal have been restored.

So what better to do on a hot May day than walk the waterway.

Location; on the Rochdale Canal, Manchester,

Picture; on the Rochdale Canal, Manchester, 2017 from the collection of Andy Robertson

Remembering Slightam's of 105 Manchester Road

Slightam's, circa 1966

Now I have become interested in Slightam’s of 105 Manchester Road.

They ran one of the shops which offered a full range of services from "Newsagents, Stationers, Fancy Goods [and] Tobacconists" but also acted as a “Lending Library [with] over 1000 books.”

I first came across them on the dust cover of a book from one of those lending libraries which had been passed to me by my friend Margaret.

And not long after I posted a story about the book cover which referred to Slightam’s Lorna and David came back with memories of the shop.

Lorna remembered “that was a shop with immense character. It was a newsagent. Mr Slightanm always wore gloves with no fingers in. I don’t think the shop changed for many years, it was like Aladdin’s cave” while Dave added that “I remember, I even delivered papers for him. There was an old fashioned phone kiosk in the back of his shop that took old pennies”

Sowerbutts, 1911

All of which deserves a lot more research, more so because the 1911 directory listed 105 as “Sowerbutt’s Robert, newsagents Telephone Call Office” which not only offers up a wonderful sense of continuity but throws a light on how the telephone system worked in the early 20th century.

And in turn that telephone link helps date my dust cover.

I thought it might be the 1930s and said so but looking again at the advert for Slightam’s the clue is their telephone number which was Chorlton 140 and which in was changed to “now -881-3146.”

Now that change occurred in 1966 and so our hand written correction to the number means that the dust cover and the circulating library from which this book came was still doing the rounds in the 1960s.

Not earth shattering history I grant you but I think it’s fascinating and may well lead to a few more stories about the Slightam’s.

Thank you to Lorna and David.

Picture; advert courtesy of Margaret Connelly.

The mystery of the blocked up archway beside the canal at the Gaythorn Bridge

Now I haven’t yet got to the bottom of the mystery beside the Rochdale Canal and I rather think I never well.

Lock 90 and that mystery, 2017

Of course there will be more than a few people with an interest in tunnels and dark secret passages who will have a theory and an explanation.

For now, I wonder where that archway led and its original purpose.

It stands by lock number 90 on the Rochdale Canal just before the canal runs under the Gaythorn Bridge.

Soon this bit of the waterway will be dwarfed by the huge residential and commercial block which according to the developers will consist of 360 luxury apartments rising above Albion Street in 28 storeys.

A window not an entrance? 2017

And that is how I came to our arch because while I have past it countless times it was only when Andy Robertson sent me a new set of pictures of the building site that I noticed the entrance to nowhere.

Its part of a stone structure and may once have given access to what was variously a timber and coal yard, although closer inspection suggests it was perhaps a window.

Lock 90 in 1849

The maps from the late 1840s and into the 50s show that the land directly beyond that arch was a coal wharf with a weighing machine shown almost on the spot of the entrance.

Later still in 1894 there does still appear to be a building but none of the directories from the period list anything on this side of Trafford Street which runs parallel with the canal.

The bigger picture, 2017

I did come across one picture in the digital archive of the tow path facing the bridge on Albion Street dated 1909 but I am sure this in not our wall.

So for now that is it but if there is anything constant in the world it is that someone will know or will go off to look for the answer.

I hope so.

Location; the Rochdale Canal

Picture; down on the Rochdale Canal, 2017 courtesy of Andy Robertson, and from the 1849 OS mapd of Manchester & Salford, 1844-49, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

Looking for Corporal Fletcher and his sister in the spring of 1916 ................. stories behind the book nu 3

An occasional series on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War.*

Altrincham Street and arch leading to Britain Street, 1960

Now you won’t find Britain Street any more although there are clues to its previous existence.

It once ran from Granby Row to Brierly Street crossing Altrincham Street close to London Road and was swept away the during the extension of the UMIST campus.**

But it is still possible to follow its line of route and the keen street detective just needs to turn off London Road on to Altrincham Street and there to the right is the railway arch and the remnants of one side of Britain Street while directly opposite and running into the university buildings is the continuation of the street.

Letter to Miss Fletcher, 1921

And that feint echo of what once was there is pretty much replicated in the story of Corporal R Fletcher of the Manchester’s who died on April 12 1916 and is buried at the Amara War Cemetery in Iraq.

His story began with the discovery of a letter to his sister which accompanied his war medals “which would have been conferred upon [him] had he lived.”

I would like to know more but the historical records have as yet offered little more.  I know his sister was living at nu 32 Britain Street in 1921 but a search for her or for anything more on Corporal Fletcher has drawn a blank.

Envelope addressed to 32 Britain Street, 1921

There isn’t even a picture of the house on Britain Street which judging from the maps and the remaining evidence was a narrow street of industrial units and residential properties overlooked by the railway line and flanked by the very busy London Road.

Nor do its residents get a listing in the street directories which is odd because by the beginning of the 20th century most people would be recorded from even the most humble of dwellings.

And the houses were occupied.  In 1898 nu 32 was home to W H Worall who along with his nine neighbours paid a weekly rent of five shillings and six pence to Buckley Shaw their landlords and for this they got a six roomed house which by then may well have been over sixty years old.

Britain Street, 1893

All of which means that there is lots more work to do on the Fletcher’s.

Sadly his military records appear to have been destroyed and his sister stubbornly sits in the shadows.

But I am confident I will find them and they will make their way into the book.

Well, we shall see.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Altrincham Street, W H Beaumont, 1960,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass letter and envelope addressed to Miss M E Fletcher, 1921 from the collection of David Harrop, and Britain Street, 1893  from the OS Lancashire, 1888-1893 courtesy of Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Manchester and the Great War, Andrew Simpson, due out at the end of 2016, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

**University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology

***Manchester Rate Books, 1898

Goodbye to Carry on Nurse , choc ices and the back row ..... the Odeon

Now anyone with a nostalgic side should probably look away.

For decades this was the spot of magic nights, a first romantic date and a long love affair with the cinema.

But as Andy Robertson’s pictures show all that is almost gone.

Well actually, sitting in the dark with a Carry on film, a choc ice and those impossibly sweet Kiora orange drinks went a long time ago.

The building has lingered on but is now almost gone.

The boards outside the site announce an office development of “178,000 sq ft of Premium Grade A Office space” and even the imposing facade will vanish.

According to that excellent site Cinema Treasure, “The Paramount Theatre was built in 1930 to the designs of architects Frank T. Verity & Samuel Beverley for the U.K. arm of the American Paramount Theatres chain. 

The Manchester Paramount Theatre was a sumptuous American import.

Verity & Beverley were Paramount Theatre’s chosen architects for their U.K. enterprise — they were also responsible for the Paramount Leeds, Paramount Newcastle-on-Tyne, Paramount Glasgow, Paramount Liverpool, Paramount Birmingham and Paramount, Tottenham Court Road, London. Their architect’s practice continues today as Verity-Beverley.

Originally containing 2,920 seats in orchestra, mezzanine and balcony levels, the Paramount Theatre was the largest of Manchester’s picture palaces to survive as a cinema. 

It opened on 6th October 1930 with Maurice Chevalier in “The Love Parade”, plus a variety show on stage, and it was equipped with a Wurlitzer 4Manual/20Ranks theatre organ. 

The Paramount Theatre also had a cafe for the convenience of its patrons.

In November 1939 the Paramount circuit was obtained by Oscar Deutsch’s chain of Odeon Theatres Ltd. and it was re-named Odeon in April 1940. 

It was twinned in 1973, triplexed in 1979 with a further four screens created in 1992.

The cinema was closed in September 2004 due to competition from the AMC Great Northern 16, which had opened nearby in December 2001. 

In Autumn of 2010, plans were approved by Manchester City Council to demolish the former Paramount/Odeon and redevelop the site for an office building. Preparation for demolition work began in late-June 2013, but demolition work wasn’t commenced until August 2016, and then only a little was done mainly to the interior. Total demolition began in April 2017 and will be completed in June 2017.”*

So for those with a nostalgic disposition you had better look away as Andy’ pictures show the indignity of demolition.

Leaving me to remember standing under those lights and that ceiling.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; the demolition of the Odeon, May 2107, from the collection of Any Robertson

*Cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2430

Today in Stevenson Square

Location; Stevenson Square

Pictures; Stevenson Square, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Revisiting the Great War nu 2 ............ food queues, aliens and a marriage

Queueing fot poataoes in 1914

We all have our own images of the Great War and for most of us they will be that mix of young men in ill fitting uniforms, barbed wire, trenches and women at work in our munitions factories.

Less familiar perhaps will be those of people queuing for food or the lines of policeman escorting enemy aliens into custody.

Now these are part of that landscape which is the Second World War but is less commonly featured in stories of the Great War.

Leaflet for meeting, 1915

And yet as rationing was not introduced until 1917 and food prices along with the cost of fuel and rents rocketed upwards queuing became a way of life.

It led inevitably to a level of discontent which was recorded in the media and manifested itself in demands by the Labour movement for greater control over the production, distribution and sale of all everyday commodities.*

Much of these demands can be followed in the minutes and leaflets of the Food Vigilance Committees which sprang up all over the country.*

These were grass roots organisations composed of trade unions, co-op societies women’s groups  and labour party branches and fed their deliberations, along with reports of the actions they undertook to the War Emergency Workers National Committee which had been established by the labour movement at the start of the war.

I doubt today that many know of either organisations or the part they played in protecting the living standards of working people.

Manchester Guardian 1914

And in much the same way the swift response to those who became known as enemy aliens rarely gets the same attention as the moves made by the Government against Italian and German nationals in 1939.

Churchill’s “collar the lot” and the subsequent imprisonment of both the innocent and the potentially sinister is the stuff of many television documentaries but the experiences of Germans in 1914 is less well covered.

At best there are a few references to attacks on German property violent attacks on individuals but that is it.

Like the Defence of the Realm Act, the Aliens Registration Act gave the Government wide spread powers, which required all aliens  over 16 to register with the police and to seek permission if they planned to be away from their registered home for more than 24 hours.

And so within just twelve days after the war began the Manchester Guardian reported that two thousand Germans living in Manchester had registered.***

But registration was just the start, for by the following month some at least of these were being arrested and sent to a camp at Queensferry.

On September 9th according to the Manchester Guardian “Fifty-five more German and Austrian subjects who had been arrested by the Manchester police were sent to the camp at Queensferry.  

They were manacled and chained together, and were under an escort of policeman armed with rifles.  

The total number of alien enemies arrested in Manchester is now 107 of whom 99 have been sent to military detention camps.****

The authorities justified the action by citing that “news of the German advance towards Paris had brought about a distinct change in the attitude of the younger members of the German colony.  They began freely to express their satisfaction at the German successes and boast of what they would do as soon as German soldiers landed in England.”

To its credit the Manchester Guardian was appalled that the detained men had been chained, commenting that “it should be borne in mind that these men are untried, that they are arrested on suspicion ....... and though there may be good ground for their detention there is none for degrading them.”

But such was the mood of the country a mood which would only get darker during the course of the next four years.

So with that in mind I shall finish with one of those little bits of normality which so often get overlooked.

Marriages, August 3 1914

And that was that on the day before war broke out VICTOR GEORGE CHARLES BREEDEN had married HILDA KATHLEEN DOBBS, both of Chorlton-cum-Hardy at St Werburghs Church.

Mr Breeden went on to serve in the Great War and was awarded the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal but his military records gave not survived and I have as yet not been able to locate them in Chorlton.

All I do know is that Mrs Breeden died in Wales in 1963.

So that is where I will leave it.

Pictures; Queue for Potatoes, 1914, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
 leaflet announcing a Mass Meeting organised against the rising cost of living at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, February 1915, and the aims of the London Food Vigilance Committee, 1915 courtesy of the Archives & Study Centre,  at the People’s History Museum

*Food Vigilance Committees, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Food%20Vigilance%20Committees

**The War Emergency Workers National Committee http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20War%20Emergency%20Workers%20National%
20Committee

***Germans in Manchester, Manchester Guardian, August 13 1914

****Alien enemies in manacles, Manchester Guardian September 9 1914

Waiting for the rush hour at Oxford Road ............

Now I have a soft spot for Oxford Road Station and like plenty of others I have taken more than a few pictures of that reflection of the Refuge Building.

I can’t remember exactly when or why I was there but I managed to get the photograph on one of those quiet moments.



Location; Oxford Road Railway Station, Manchester




Picture; Oxford Road Railway Station, 2009 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Wednesday May 24 ................. My Manchester

We will all have our own slightly different feelings about the events of Monday night and yesterday.

For all of us it will begin with the loss of life and the impact that those deaths will have on family, friends and the wider community.

And because so many of those who were murdered were young there is that awful sense that their futures and all they may have become and all they may have achieved has just been ended.

Others far more eloquent than me have summed up the collective feelings of the people of the City and beyond.

But the bravery and dedication of the emergency services and bystanders on the night along with so many individual acts of generosity and kindness during yesterday deserve to be spoken of again and again.

All day yesterday like so many others, we received messages from friends and family checking on us and expressing their revulsion and sadness.

And that is all I want to say.

Picture; looking out on Manchester, 2002

A little bit of continuity on Chorlton Green

Now I like the way that some buildings almost return to what they once were.

floral affair, 2017

So this is number 15 Chorlton Green which has been floral affair from 2015 and a century and a bit ago was a greengrocer.

Of course I have no idea if Mr Johnson Clark sold flowers back in 1903 but I bet the odd bunch of daffodils sneaked their way in to the shop with the apples, pears and potatoes bought from the markets in Manchester.

Had he been trading half a century earlier when Chorlton was full of market gardens I doubt that he would have travelled into the city, but by 1903 where we lived had pretty much lost its rural character.

Chorlton Green Supper Bar, circa 1975

And as if to underline that transformation within a few years number 15 and the adjoining property had become a fish and chip shop, and that will be how many people remember the building.

Only recently a friend shared a picture of the place when “Chippy Madge” was there and I bet there will be plenty of others with the odd snap of the steamy shop on a cold January night.

And more who will call the mix of gossip and banter exchanged by those waiting for their crispy chips and crunching battered cod.

I can’t be sure yet when the property was built but it is there on the OS for 1893 and with a bit of detective work using the census returns, street directories and rate books we will get close to knowing the date.

For those with a pressing need to know I think it might well have been 1893, because a first trawl of the rate books shows no property for that year or before which might suggest it was built in that year but unoccupied till later.

We shall see.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; Chorlton Green Supper Bar, circa 1975 from the collection of Tony Walker

Painting; floral affair © 2017 Peter Topping

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

My Manchester

My Manchester, pictures without the words, ............ Looking out onto Exchange Square, 2013

Picture; Looking out on Exchange Square,2013  from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Remembering those on our war memorial

The second in a series where I revisit stories about Eltham and the Great War

© Rod Allday

I have been thinking about the contribution Eltham made to the Great War.*

And a little later in the day I received the latest newsletter from the Eltham Society** which highlighted the efforts to track the 227 names which appear on the war memorial.

This is not an easy task not least because a large number of the service records of those who fought were destroyed during the Second World War.

And until relatively recently many of the other sources which might give clues to their lives were not available on line and might be deposited in a number of different locations.

But despite these obstacles it has been possible to uncover something about all but four of the men who “marched away”

The bulk of this research was undertaken by Tony Robins from 1991 till his death in 2004, and since then by Mr Nigel Bennett.

© Stephen Craven

The four remaining “Unknowns” are J.Mather, R.S.Thomas, R. Ward and H or I Young.

 But that isn’t quite the end of the quest, “Mr Bennett has discovered others whom he feels should be on the list, having been Servicemen of Eltham in WW1 but who died in England, perhaps after the Armistice on 11 November 1918, as a result of their injuries or illness.

At this late stage the names cannot be added to the stone. 

That was done only at the specific request of the families of those commemorated, in the mid 1920s.  

But we could add them to the digital and paper listings, at the IWM and locally for posterity. 

Some have standard-type Commonwealth War Commission gravestones in the churchyard.  

Others were buried with family members.”***

So there is the challenge.

Anyone wishing to help can contact the Eltham Society.****

Pictures; the war memorial © Rod Allday, & © Stephen Craven, and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

*Eltham and the Great War, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Eltham%20and%20the%20Great%20War

**1914-1918 Eltham’s Commemoration 2014-2018 Part One: FOUR TO FIND and FOUR TO EXPAND ON, Margaret E. Taylor,  The Eltham Society Newsletter No 196 May 2014

***ibid 1914-1918 Eltham’s Commemoration

****The Eltham Society, http://www.theelthamsociety.org.uk/

“the herald of a better day”* ......... stories behind the book nu 14 ..... thoughts of Victory and a thank you

An occasional series on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War*

I am guessing that this picture postcard sold well.

There are four from the collection and two contain messages on the reverse.***

One sent from Eastbourne in the June of 1919 carries the simple message, “Peace June 28 1919" and the other posted on January 1 1919 to Mrs H Norton at 262½ Maynard Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia from Charlie Wishes his mother well telling her “I am well.  Love to you, and the children, Love Charlie, XX”

Now when you write about the Great War it is all too easy to dwell on those who died but of course the majority came back and went on to live productive lives putting as best they could the war behind them.

But here are two of those that survived, and given my own attachment to Canada Charlie’s message has an added significance, given that one of my great uncles fought in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, while another great uncle, along with my grandfather, great grandfather, and two uncles served in the British army and more on the side of Germany.

So I think it is more than possible that one of my family would either have sent or received Victory, the only puzzle I have is which version because Tuck & Sons issued two.

The first on the reverse had the simple message, “The Path of duty was the way to Glory” from Tennyson and in larger and bolder print “May the Future make amends for the Sacrifices of the Past.”

This was followed later by a second which added an extract from King George V’s message to the Empire, and ran “May the morning star of peace which is now rising over a war worn world be hears and everywhere the herald of a better day in which the storms of strife shall have died down and the rays of an enduring peace be shed upon all nations.” *

I wish I had access to the catalogues of Tuck and & Son to see exactly when each version was published and how long the series ran but at present that is not possible.

I had toyed with the idea of using the postcard for the book but I know my old friend David Harrop has a card which he thinks even more appropriate and it to David that I have to give a special thank you.

Without him the book would have stumbled at the first hurdle because attempting to amass a collection of material from the Great War which was varied and special to Manchester is a daunting exercise, but David has just such a collection

And he was more than happy to supply anything I wanted and continues to find more from that collection.

So with a quarter of the book written and a selection of memorabilia “in the bag” from picture postcards, letters home, as well as photographs, souvenirs from the Front and medals and very personal memorials it is time to thank David again, remind you of his permanent exhibition at the Memorial Lodge in Southern Cemetery and point you to the collection of stories on the blog which David has inspired.****

And that is all I want to say other than for the curious, the flags on the card are the United States of America, Italy, Belgium, Montenegro, Roumania, Greece, Panama, China, Great Britain, France, Russia, Serbia, Portugal, Cuba, Siam, Japan.

Pictures; Victory; from the series, Victorious Peace, issued by Tuck & Sons, first issued January, 1919, courtesy of Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/ 

*King George V’s Message to the Empire, November 19, 1918

**Manchester and the Great War, Andrew Simpson, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War

*** Victory; from the series, Victorious Peace, issued by Tuck & Sons, first issued January, 1919, courtesy of Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/

****David Harrop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/David%20Harrop

A century and a bit of your front room

Now I am fascinated by the idea of taking one house and telling its story over a century and a bit.

And it is a project which has led to three different sets of stories on the three places I have called home since 1951.*

But what has always been lacking are a good set of photographs which contrast the way we lived in the past with contemporary living.

Of course part of the explanation is that we didn’t have a camera, added to which it never occurred to us to record where we lived.

If you did it was just as a backdrop to a family snap.

The sort of photograph which showed Aunt Ethel smiling back at you on her birthday or the family gathered together after a christening.

All of which is a shame because being able to stare at the same spot separated by a hundred years intrigues me.

Take this picture of the front room of a house in Maple Avenue.  It is a typical Edwardian room filled with objects which fight for every available bit of space.

Of course at a time when many families including quite humble ones employed a servant that degree of clutter was just someone else job to dust.

Our house like many was a compromise.  My parents had opted for some new bits of furniture which were simple and clean in design but they sat beside a mix of bits which had been inherited, or bought second hand and joined the “Utility chairs” they had picked up cheap in the local market.

All of which seemed a long way from the sort of life offered on the pages of Habitat which in the fullness of time became our manual for contemporary living.

The shopping spree at the John Dalton Habitat might only have extended to a wine carafe and one of those transparent plastic frames for displaying a cook book but it was a step on the road to elegant living.

And when the transition was made from bed sit or shared flat to that first house, most of us had a notion of how it would be decorated and furnished.

All of which is an introduction to a collection of pictures which make that contrast in living styles.

I was recently shown round the development at 200/198 Upper Chorlton Road.  The properties had been built in 1872 and for their last fifty or so years had been neglected.**

Now they are being brought back with some tender care and attention to detail by Armistead Properties which offered up a few shots of the show room which makes for a nice contrast to the inside of Maple Avenue.

The rest as they say is pretty much for you to compare.

Location; Chorlton over a century and a bit

Pictures;sitting room Maple Avenue early 20th century, from the collection of Ray Jones and show flat at 200/198 Upper Chorlton Road

*Chorlton, Eltham,  Peckham, 

**At 200/198 Upper Chorlton Road,
***Armistead Properties

Another station another town

I don’t know whether it was the sun or the promise of Florence to come but at 8 o’clock on a Tuesday morning  Viareggio station seemed a pretty good place to be.

Now I like train stations and this one is no exception.  It is simple, clean and does the business.

It also has one of those wonderful little cafes which surpass most outlets here.  The food is fresh often made in front of you and there is none of those tables with dirty plates and half finished cups of coffee, which you have to move yourself before sitting down.

So I like Viareggio, and in its way Florence Station was pretty interesting to.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Chorlton Pubs and Bars ........ the gang of '36 at the Horse and Jockey

Now I like the way that people continue to be generous with both their family pictures and the memories.

So I was very pleased when this one was sent to me by Yvonne.

The Horse and Jockey will always be special to me, not only because as one of our oldest pubs it featured in my first book and was the venue for its launch but also because as the “Pub on the Green” it has been at the centre of much of Chorlton's history.*

But rather than ramble on I will share Yvonne’s description of the picture.

"Hello Andrew!  I enjoy reading your post on the Chorlton Blog.  

I was born there - leaving when I was 8.  I have a photo of my mother and sister with their 'gang' from about 1936 outside the Horse and Jockey.  

It’s of a 'gang' of 'teenagers' just before the War outside the Horse and Jockey. 

My mum Dilys on the left, her sister Gwen on the right. She used to tell us all their names but the only one I can remember is Joe Rook!”

And that is a pretty good start.

Yvonne hopes it will “stir some memories up” and so do I.

In the meantime I will go looking for Joe Rook in the historical records, and think the picture would be a fine addition to the new book on Chorlton Pubs and Bars.**


All of which just leaves me to thank Yvonne and remind everyone that the new book is out tomorrow, and you can pre order at www.pubbooks.co.uk email Peter at peter@pubbooks.co.uk or the old fashioned way on 07521 557888
Location; Chorlton

Picture; A 'gang' of 'teenagers' outside the Horse and Jockey circa 1936 courtesy of Yvonne Richardson

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 

**A new book on Chorlton Pubs and Bars,