Now it was a friend who commented that “You could buy anything under the Verandah”, and until the arrival of the bar culture on Barlow Moor Road that was still the case.
The strip of shops ran from St Anns’ Road almost to Sandy Lane and date from the early 20th century.
Today only Ken Foster’s offers something which isn’t a variation on a salad and burger, accompanied by beers and ales from around the world with a cheeky coctail.
Not that I am knocking the bar culture, for with the demise of the traditional small retail businesses, bars, cafes and restaurants are better than empty shops.
And so to the picture which the caption suggests dates from around 1917, with “Bax’s grocers shop [which] has a window notice ‘REGISTER HERE FOR ALL RATIONED GOODS’”.
In some ways the picture looks quite familiar, although the observant will note that the eight ornate stone features at roof level have gone.
And they may be some who keenly search out the shop which through the 90s was “Kingy” which sold everything from cheap plastic household goods, kid’s novelty toys and that picture of the San Francisco Bridge.
Location; Barlow Moor Road
Picture; the Verandah shops, Barlow Moor Road, circa 1917 from the Lloyd Collection
On revisiting Chorlton it seems that instead of the elegant verandahs and a variety of useful shops we just have wall-to-wall eateries with frontages all constructed from decking boards, like an Alan Titchmarsh theme park.
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