I am back on Wilmslow Road in 1967, with another of those not so old pictures of Didsbury.
We are all familiar with those very old ones from the beginning of the last century and stretching back into the century before that.
For both historians, and the interested, they pack a lot of detail, which helps explain the development of the township.
But more recent images can be equally fascinating, more so because they look almost like now, but just a bit different
And those difference can be very revealing about a time many of us remember.
So here we are then, on Wilmslow Road looking down towards the junction with Barlow Moor Road, with buses which you accessed from the rear, and paid a conductor rather than the driver, and on which you were still free to smoke on the top deck.
Now I could go on, but I suspect most people would be happier to explore the picture for themselves.
Instead I will just reflect that very little had changed in the half century before the picture was taken and would continue to be much the same for another few decades.
And that was pretty much how it was across countless High Streets up and down the country until quite recently.
But the onward march of the property developer has meant that pockets of old properties have vanished.
In the case of Didsbury that has meant the arrival of the brick building beside the old Police Station, the grey slab that holds M&S, and the equally nondescript property which is home to Santander.
At which point I must point out that this not a rant against new buildings, only that the traditional scene many of us remember has altered quite dramatically and in a relatively short time.
Nor does it ignore that back at the start of the 20th century the Wilmslow Road corridor through Didsbury, already had its fair share of big brick slabs.
That said by 1967, they had settled into the landscape, so perhaps the same will happen with the additions.
Leaving me just to reflect that 53 years ago, parking was still an issue.
Location; Didsbury
Picture; Wilmlsow Road, 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY
For both historians, and the interested, they pack a lot of detail, which helps explain the development of the township.
But more recent images can be equally fascinating, more so because they look almost like now, but just a bit different
And those difference can be very revealing about a time many of us remember.
Now I could go on, but I suspect most people would be happier to explore the picture for themselves.
Instead I will just reflect that very little had changed in the half century before the picture was taken and would continue to be much the same for another few decades.
And that was pretty much how it was across countless High Streets up and down the country until quite recently.
But the onward march of the property developer has meant that pockets of old properties have vanished.
At which point I must point out that this not a rant against new buildings, only that the traditional scene many of us remember has altered quite dramatically and in a relatively short time.
Nor does it ignore that back at the start of the 20th century the Wilmslow Road corridor through Didsbury, already had its fair share of big brick slabs.
That said by 1967, they had settled into the landscape, so perhaps the same will happen with the additions.
Leaving me just to reflect that 53 years ago, parking was still an issue.
Location; Didsbury
Picture; Wilmlsow Road, 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY
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