I think Mrs Emma Hyde and Mr John Windsor would applaud the way their two homes on Upper Chorlton Road have been treated.
Well over a century ago Mrs Hyde resided at 198 and her neighbour Mr Windsor at number 200.
By then their two homes were just a bit shy of being fifty years old and they will have still been grand properties dominating this stretch of the road.
Sadly time and the second half of the last century were not kind to either house.
Each had been clumsily converted into flats with little regard for the original design and then both had been neglected over the years to a point when most developers would have just knocked them down, and built one of those big boxes, packed full of flats and as remarkable as a cheap cheese sandwich.
But not so Mr Armisted, who instead set about saving the fabric of the two buildings and then converting the interior into sixteen modern apartments.
I have followed the story of numbers 198 and 200 for the last six months, during which time I have researched their history and some of the people who have made these two buildings their home and more recently have visited the houses at regular intervals.
And now they are almost finished.
I like the way that these two have been saved and made to suit the 21st century. After all most of us will never live in a house with fifteen rooms, heated by coal fires and kept clean by an army of servants.
All of which begs the question of what should become of such grand old piles?
Pulling them down seems wrong and this way at least the building has been preserved and with it a bit of the history of Upper Chorlton Road.
Location; Upper Chorlton Road
Pictures; 198 and 200 Upper Chorlton Road, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and from the 1960's, by Downes A H, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass,
*Armistead Properties, http://www.armisteadproperty.co.uk/
**At 200 & 198 Upper Chorlton Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/At%20200%2F198%20Upper%20Chorlton%20Road
By then their two homes were just a bit shy of being fifty years old and they will have still been grand properties dominating this stretch of the road.
Sadly time and the second half of the last century were not kind to either house.
Each had been clumsily converted into flats with little regard for the original design and then both had been neglected over the years to a point when most developers would have just knocked them down, and built one of those big boxes, packed full of flats and as remarkable as a cheap cheese sandwich.
I have followed the story of numbers 198 and 200 for the last six months, during which time I have researched their history and some of the people who have made these two buildings their home and more recently have visited the houses at regular intervals.
And now they are almost finished.
I like the way that these two have been saved and made to suit the 21st century. After all most of us will never live in a house with fifteen rooms, heated by coal fires and kept clean by an army of servants.
Pulling them down seems wrong and this way at least the building has been preserved and with it a bit of the history of Upper Chorlton Road.
Location; Upper Chorlton Road
Pictures; 198 and 200 Upper Chorlton Road, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and from the 1960's, by Downes A H, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass,
*Armistead Properties, http://www.armisteadproperty.co.uk/
**At 200 & 198 Upper Chorlton Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/At%20200%2F198%20Upper%20Chorlton%20Road
I did fulfil part of your scenario in that I did live for a time a room in one of these rambling houses along Upper Chorlton Road, 190 on the corner of St John's Road. I occupied various rooms including one near the top of the house probably one of the servants rooms (it was not much bigger than a broom cupboard!) There was however at least one room even higher up which was possibly still tinier
ReplyDeleteSo where ever you put your armchair that's your gome
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