At Chorlton Street Bus Station in the summer of 1955

Now I have been on a roll with the bus stations of central Manchester.  

And I have been feeling a little guilty at how harsh I have been about them.

Then I remembered Chorlton Street Bus Station.

It’s not a place I have visited often but on those rare occasions when I have had to see someone off on a coach journey I always came away with an overpowering sense of misery.

It stands underneath a multi-storey car park which made it darker than it should be and always seemed a cold and windy place.

And the tiny snack bar just seemed to add to the gloom.

All of which was in stark contrast to the last two times I saw our eldest off on a coach to Leeds.  The waiting area had been enlarged and enclosed.  It was bright and there were plenty of places to sit and keep warm until the coach was ready for you.  Now the transformation had occurred in 2002 and put a seal on the old station which had been opened in 1967.

What I didn’t know was that this was a 1960s’ make over and that the place dated back to 1950 when it had consisted of three platform islands with long shelters.

And looking back to pictures of the bus station in 1955 I do have to say that this earlier version had more going for it than its ‘60s successor.

True I guess it could still be a cold place but just look at the light and that sense that if you did have to leave the city at least you could see what you were leaving.

Our picture was taken at 2 pm on what looks to be a sunny day and it’s the detail I like.

Away to right are three passengers waiting in the sunshine.

He reads his newspaper and the two women are deep in conversation perhaps discussing the state of the sandwiches and judging by the bags at their feet they may also have been talking about their success at the shops while away to the left  there are men at work on the shelter roof and not a coach in sight.

Now I can't resist adding a bit more history, which in a way takes me back to the grim and miserable tone I opened with.

For here somewhere along Chorlton Street in the June of 1831 Dr Gaulter had attended those infected with Cholera.  In the course of his work he carefully detailed the conditions not only of the victims but of their surroundings.

All four of the Bullock family succumbed and died of Cholera within a few days.  All had been sharing the same bed.  The locality he reported was "crowded and full of filth."*

All of which is a trailer for a series of stories on Cholera in Manchester but as I so often say that is for another time.

In the meantime I wonder if the people captured by W.Higham in his picture  had any inkling of the grim history that surrounded them. I suspect not, and nor I venture to think will any of the countless thousands who pass along Chorlton Street today.

*The Origin and Progress of the Malignant Cholera in Manchester, 1833, Henry Gaulter, M.D

Picture; Chorlton Street Bus Station, W.Higham, 1955, m56903, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass