Goodbye Hanbury’s …. the Palais de Luxe .... and .... 408 Barlow Moor Road .... heaps of Chorlton change

 Well perhaps not all change.

Closed, 2023

The old shop at 408 Barlow Moor Road remains closed and I can’t remember when it was last open, although I can claim to have gone inside a few times, but not sure what if anything I came out with.

That said I suppose it can be included in changing Chorlton as there is a regular turn around on what is fly posted on the windows.

And these will offer up a record of what we or the fly poster thought was relevant to the residents.

To be fair Freddie and Florence Fly Poster do keep their offerings update with some for this August and a few more for October, although the jury is out on the Winter Fun Land advert, which may be an early reminder or just a tired and mournful relic of Christmases past.

Posters and events, 2023

All of which takes me the new Italian restaurant and deli and to 479 Barlow Moor Road.

Domus Italia, 2023

The Italian is still being fitted out but 479 will soon be gone

It was once our first purpose cinema, then an early Tesco,  a TV repair and rental shop and later still a series of supermarkets.

There will still be a few people who remember going to the Palais de Luxe which opened in 1914 and closed in the 50s.*  

The plaster mouldings above the screen including a plaster shield were still there a decade ago but will soon be gone when the building is demolished.

Soon to be gone, 2023

Already the builders’ boards or in this case wire mesh are up and yesterday the scaffolding also went up.

And soon there will be nothing left for those of us who remember the place as Hanbury’s and the many more who happily shopped there during its time as a Co-op.

Perhaps there may even be the odd shopper who can recall it as a Tesco, but I think that will be pushing it.

So here are two memorable pictures in homage to all those lost cinema experiences in the dark and the crumpled Hanburys loyalty card which was just a bit paper to which the cashier added a date from her rubber stamp.

Hanburys circa 1988

And for the curious this bit of  Chorlton's history will become shops and apartments.**

Location; Barlow Moor Road

Palais de Luxe, 1928

Pictures; 408 Barlow Moor Road, 2023, the former Palais De Luxe, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Hanburys shopping bag, courtesy of Catherine Brownhill, the closed Co-op store, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the Palais De Luxe cinema, circa 1928, Charles Ireland, GD10-07-04-6-13-01 courtesy of East Dunbartonshire Archives

*A forgotten photograph, ............ the Palais de Luxe in 1928, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-forgotten-photograph-palais-de-luxe.html

** 097667/FO/2011/S1, Erection of a part 3/part four storey building to form a commercial use on the ground floor and 13 self-contained flats above, with associated car parking (5 spaces) and cycle storage, following demolition of existing property, Manchester City Council Planning Portal,  https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=LTKO3CBC06N00&activeTab=summary