Now, anyone who has grown up in an area zoned for house clearance will instantly recognize this picture.
I can’t be exactly sure where it was taken, but as most of the others around it were from Beswick I think we can be confident that is where we are.
It would be easy enough just to let the picture say it all, but then where would the fun be in that?
I am drawn first to the lamp post and bicycle tyres, which remind me that I also played that game of trying to get tyres on to and over the lamp post.
I never find it that easy, but both Johnny Cox and Jimmy O’Donnell were experts and judging by these two tyres, who ever played the game back in 1967 was pretty good at it.
After which there was always bag of chips from Dodson’s, which according to the sign was still open, offering tea, fish, chips peas and puddings.
It is remarkable it is still standing particularly as from my experience, the last man standing was either the pub or the betting shop.
I doubt it had long to last, but despite the boarded upstairs windows, there is a car outside and a TV aerial on the roof.
But the writing is on the wall, or to be more accurate in the letter from the Council announcing the date of its demolition.
And if anyone wanted proof, it is there just around the corner, where the gap in the row of terraced houses has exposed the neighbouring property.
Indeed, closer to home, the house next to the chippy has already gone.
But amongst the clearances there were treasures to be found, and found by the most unexpected people.
Just seven years later I met up with a primary school teacher on a course given over to the use of Victorian art in the classroom, and in a break in the programme, she gleefully shared her own experiences of bringing the Victorian in to the school.
This consisted of marching a group of young students out of the school to buildings close by which were being demolished, and armed with hammers and chisels they set about “rescuing” fireplace and bathroom tiles, which went on display.
It was of course a different time and I doubt any such rescue mission would get past the idea stage.
That said I also remember just a decade or so later people in Chorlton were restoring their homes with Victorian and Edwardian fire places and bathrooms which had been ripped out in the 1950s and 60s, with tiles and cast iron surrounds from clearance areas in the north and east of the city.
Leaving me to reflect on the odd side of those clearance programmes.
Location; Beswick
Picture; Dodson’s lonely chip shop, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY
It would be easy enough just to let the picture say it all, but then where would the fun be in that?
I am drawn first to the lamp post and bicycle tyres, which remind me that I also played that game of trying to get tyres on to and over the lamp post.
I never find it that easy, but both Johnny Cox and Jimmy O’Donnell were experts and judging by these two tyres, who ever played the game back in 1967 was pretty good at it.
After which there was always bag of chips from Dodson’s, which according to the sign was still open, offering tea, fish, chips peas and puddings.
I doubt it had long to last, but despite the boarded upstairs windows, there is a car outside and a TV aerial on the roof.
But the writing is on the wall, or to be more accurate in the letter from the Council announcing the date of its demolition.
And if anyone wanted proof, it is there just around the corner, where the gap in the row of terraced houses has exposed the neighbouring property.
Indeed, closer to home, the house next to the chippy has already gone.
But amongst the clearances there were treasures to be found, and found by the most unexpected people.
Just seven years later I met up with a primary school teacher on a course given over to the use of Victorian art in the classroom, and in a break in the programme, she gleefully shared her own experiences of bringing the Victorian in to the school.
It was of course a different time and I doubt any such rescue mission would get past the idea stage.
That said I also remember just a decade or so later people in Chorlton were restoring their homes with Victorian and Edwardian fire places and bathrooms which had been ripped out in the 1950s and 60s, with tiles and cast iron surrounds from clearance areas in the north and east of the city.
Leaving me to reflect on the odd side of those clearance programmes.
Location; Beswick
Picture; Dodson’s lonely chip shop, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY
The tyre on the lamppost made me smile. We were in Chorlton on Medlock, the area being very similar to the pictures of Beswick here and we played the same games, including the tyre on lamppost. The houses around us were gradually being demolished until we ourselves were re-housed. There were also old bombsites where demolishing took place courtesy of the blitz! They just hadn't been re-built. It was a place of adventure, I was 10 in 67, and was not without some risk. I fell off the roof of the old empty tile factory needing stitches in my knee and another time out of a first floor window in a partly demolished house. Was OK though as the backyard had been piled high with old stinky mattresses! Like many I wonder if todays kids will learn as much about risk as we did! I think fondly of those days regardless of the environment but then I suppose it was as much to do with my age at the time!
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