Now if you are of a certain age this will be a pretty familiar scene.
It is one I saw countless times as I walked down from the station towards Piccadilly Gardens.
At first glance it isn’t that different from today but the old bus in its SELNEC livery and the buildings in the far distance behind the Joshua Hoyle warehouse on the left place us sometime in the 1970s.
And if that wasn’t enough the message on the back firms up the date because it is a request to John Dees at Piccadilly Radio to play a song by John Holt who was a reggae singer from Jamaica.
What I especially like about the photograph is that it is a picture of Manchester which I can instantly relate to.
Unlike all those old faded black and white and sepia images from the beginning of the 20th century this is from my time.
If pushed I could tell you where I had been and where I was going while walking down the station approach and who I was with and even where I was living.
Of course for many looking at it today it is as remote as those old photographs from 1900.
And even for me it is a full forty and something years ago which just about sets a shiver going through me and makes me think of just how things have changed in four decades.
Back them the height of sophistication was the cassette tape, which played discreetly while entertaining friends to a meal which started with prawn cocktails, finished with Black Forest gateau and was accompanied by a bottle of Blue Nun.
The debate on the Picc-Vic underground connection rumbled on, and no one had yet got round to putting some rickety chairs on a street corner, serving up some tapas and over expensive wine and calling it cafe society.
Location; Manchester
Picture; Approach from Piccadilly Railway Station, circa 1970s, from the collection of David Harrop
At first glance it isn’t that different from today but the old bus in its SELNEC livery and the buildings in the far distance behind the Joshua Hoyle warehouse on the left place us sometime in the 1970s.
And if that wasn’t enough the message on the back firms up the date because it is a request to John Dees at Piccadilly Radio to play a song by John Holt who was a reggae singer from Jamaica.
What I especially like about the photograph is that it is a picture of Manchester which I can instantly relate to.
If pushed I could tell you where I had been and where I was going while walking down the station approach and who I was with and even where I was living.
Of course for many looking at it today it is as remote as those old photographs from 1900.
And even for me it is a full forty and something years ago which just about sets a shiver going through me and makes me think of just how things have changed in four decades.
Back them the height of sophistication was the cassette tape, which played discreetly while entertaining friends to a meal which started with prawn cocktails, finished with Black Forest gateau and was accompanied by a bottle of Blue Nun.
The debate on the Picc-Vic underground connection rumbled on, and no one had yet got round to putting some rickety chairs on a street corner, serving up some tapas and over expensive wine and calling it cafe society.
Location; Manchester
Picture; Approach from Piccadilly Railway Station, circa 1970s, from the collection of David Harrop
Prawn cocktail, blackforest gateaux and Blue Nun or maybe a bottle of Hock. I am right there now!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Sparrow Hardwick building, 107 Piccadilly is just visible behind the bus. What a grande building, worked there once in the warehouse in 1973.
ReplyDeleteOne Stop record shop immediately comes to mind when I saw this picture of the "Lazy S" Buying albums then was a big thing (not just tapping your phone). Great memories.
ReplyDeleteStill got all the vinyl all the way back to 1963.
DeleteYou're a tad older than me Andrew. 1965 for me. I Got You Babe by Sonny and Cher. Remember being in One Stop records first hearing D'yer Mak'er from Houses Of The Holy by Led Zep.
DeleteWhen I first heard of it, I thought Selnec was a place in Eastern Europe.
ReplyDeleteAnd not a type of vodka?
DeleteWalking all the way from platform 13? Having been to the record shop on fog lane and then to the one on piccadilly station approach as I recall it being known as.
ReplyDeleteMy wife worked for Courtaulds on 15th floor of Roswell Tower, the white but lding at the bottom of the ramp on the right. When it was windy it used to sway in the wind, cannot help wondering how many of the modern buildings do and by how much.
ReplyDeleteRodwell Towers back in the 70s definitely had a lean I always felt like I had a lager or two.
DeleteIt turns out it wasn't Me. was
I worked for Courtaulds in the late 60’s on the 13th floor of Rodwell Tower just at the bottom of the approach to Piccadilly Station.
ReplyDeleteI also worked at Courtaulds in the late 1960's - The Viscose Division. Lovely job
DeleteI too worked for Northern Spinning Division at Rodwell Tower 1976-78 in the Finance Dept. I remember Kevin Kay, Stanley Johnson, Roger Shepherd, Bob Chapman.
ReplyDeleteRodwell Towers had to close due to a lean over the canal that had to be fixed.
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