I have to admit it is a scene which is very familiar and
like all good pictures from the past I seem to remember it as monochrome.
Of course that doesn’t make sense but as hard as I try I can’t
picture it in colour.
It is just one of those things.
And there will be plenty of others who instantly recognise the
scene, even down to the fashionable dress and hairstyle of the young woman on
the right.
The picture come to light through a new project which Neil
Simpson tells me is “the Town Hall Photographer's Collection Digitisation
Project, which currently is Volunteer led and Volunteer staffed is in the
process of taking the 200,000 negatives in the collection dating from 1956 to
2007 and digitising them.
The plan is to gradually make the scanned images available
online - initially on the Manchester Local Images Collection Website".*
And almost a century later I was pretty much on the same
spot and chose to replicate the shot.
Of course at the time I had no idea that someone back in
1968 had stood where I was and taken a picture.
I bet even then the photographer would have had to be
careful of the traffic while I had a clear run given that back in 2016 the road
was closed as the finishing touches were being made to the tram line in
readiness for the Second City Crossing.
Today I wouldn't dream of standing in the middle of the road, taking my time and then taking a picture.
The trams pass that spot with a frequency that means at best I might just get a shot in but I doubt it and that as they say is progress.
Still at least I can turn in a bright colour image.
And that just leaves you to record the differences.
Location Manchester
Picture; of looking towards St peter’s Square, 1968, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and almost the same spot in 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
*Neil Simpson, Manchester Local Images Collection Website, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/sets/7215766350511542
To the far left is the building before Elisabeth House. I've often wondered what was there before.
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