Somewhere in the collection I have a picture of this corner of Albany and Wilbraham before the shops were built.
As Andy’s pictures shows they were additions to the earlier properties which had longish front gardens which compensated for the small area at the back.
I guess the architects and builder were keen to set the houses back from the main road clearly aware that even by the 1890s Wilbraham Road had the potential to become very busy.
It had been cut in the 1860s and was already an important link between the township and Fallowfield, although that said its full potential as a site for new housing was slow to take off.
And the commercial opportunities of this stretch of the road proved too attractive to allow our block to remain private residences.
The same financial incentive led to the conversion of the houses opposite of which one became the Post Office and sadly Mr Hitler did for the others during the Manchester Blitz.
And just at the other end of Chorlton at the corner of Wilbraham and Manchester Roads the same happened to that other row of tall properties.
The clues are all there to see. The shops jut out filling what were once the gardens, and some of the interiors still retain the steps up from the ground level to what had once been the front rooms.
So while you wait for that prescription the staff are constantly going up and the down from the shop to the pharmacy area and the same design is there at the hair stylists.
I shall close with one of those observations about the continuity of history because the corner shop on Albany has pretty much been a chemist from the moment the conversion happened.
And my next task will be to track down the owner of that building at the turn of the 19th century which will reveal more on the properties.
But that’s it for now.
Pictures; the corner of Wilbraham and Albany Road, 2014, from the collection of Andy Robertson, Wilbraham Road, from the series Chorlton-cum-Hardy, issued by Tuck & Sons, November 1913 courtesy of TuckDB http://tuckdb.org/history, and detail of the same spot from the Lloyd Collection
I guess the architects and builder were keen to set the houses back from the main road clearly aware that even by the 1890s Wilbraham Road had the potential to become very busy.
It had been cut in the 1860s and was already an important link between the township and Fallowfield, although that said its full potential as a site for new housing was slow to take off.
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| Albany and Wilbraham in 1911 |
The same financial incentive led to the conversion of the houses opposite of which one became the Post Office and sadly Mr Hitler did for the others during the Manchester Blitz.
And just at the other end of Chorlton at the corner of Wilbraham and Manchester Roads the same happened to that other row of tall properties.
The clues are all there to see. The shops jut out filling what were once the gardens, and some of the interiors still retain the steps up from the ground level to what had once been the front rooms.
 |
| Shopping at the chemist circa 1910 |
I shall close with one of those observations about the continuity of history because the corner shop on Albany has pretty much been a chemist from the moment the conversion happened.
And my next task will be to track down the owner of that building at the turn of the 19th century which will reveal more on the properties.
But that’s it for now.
Pictures; the corner of Wilbraham and Albany Road, 2014, from the collection of Andy Robertson, Wilbraham Road, from the series Chorlton-cum-Hardy, issued by Tuck & Sons, November 1913 courtesy of TuckDB http://tuckdb.org/history, and detail of the same spot from the Lloyd Collection
Oh Andrew that's so interesting I just Adored reading about olde Chorlton I do plan to visit one year are maybe next year yes I shall visit next year seen as I get out in November 25
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