It’s history Jim ……. but not as we know it

And yes if you are a fan of Star Trek, you will think you recognise the original.*

So apologies for stealing it but it fits well with the picture which comes from a building on Dickinson Street and neatly offers up a bit of social history.

Today the sight of smokers standing in the entrance to a public building or outside a pub is a common sight along with the ash tray fitted to the wall or in this case an adapted one.

But this practice is just over 15 years old and was the result of legislation introduced in 2007 which banned smoking inside public buildings like offices, workplaces, pub and restaurants.

At the time it was seen by some as the first step to the end of the world and an infringement on the freedom to pursue a life style of choice.

And even now there are some who will argue that the smoke free legislation contributed to the growing trend of pub closures.

Of course, those of us with lung complaints or an aversion to breathing in smoke had no such freedom to choose to avoid the practice, given that pretty much all public places were not smoke free.

Added to which where there were areas designated for non smokers they were not a complete protection from passive smoking.

As a child in the 1950s I remember the workman’s buses preferred by my grandfather where the top deck was full of men smoking on the way to work, and a decade later entering the staff-room of my school as an eleven year old and encountering that blue hazy atmosphere.

And in the years afterward the most instructive piece of evidence to its lingering after effect was the way the smoke still clung to your clothes the day after the night in the pub.

So, my Dickinson Street picture is a piece of social history.

Location; Dickinson Street, Manchester

Pictures; Smoker’s Corner, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Which I always thought was said by Dr, McCoy on treating a silicon based pregnant lump of rock, but not so, it is a misquote. The closest you get is by Spock who on several occasions comes lose with,SPOCK: "Within range of our sensors, there is no life, other than the accountable human residents of this colony beneath the surface. At least, no life as we know it". Star Trek The Original Series, 1 episode 26, The Devil In The Dark: and SPOCK: "It is not life as we know or understand it. Yet it is obviously alive, it exists". From season 1 episode 29, Operation: Annihilate!: