So .... soon ...... no more Chorlton Precinct ……

I don’t share that jaundiced view of our Precinct which soon will be no more.

No more Quality Save, 2023

True, the design was not the best, in that it created an enclosed space locking out that stretch of Barlow Moor Road while Graeme House always seemed an ugly addition which was too tall and too slab like to be pleasing to the eye.

And over the last few decades it had become shabbier and a bit sad as some of its shops had short lives.

But I liked it.  

So, while I am vegetarian, I recognised that Frosty’s was the place to go for meat, Boot’s never disappointed, and above all Tony’s green grocery shop was where we shopped for the odd potato, two carrots and a bunch of grapes and was where we got our Christmas trees for nearly 4 decades.

The last Tony tree, 2023

Long ago I gave up choosing our own trees and instead handed the job to Tony who got us two trees for the price of one, and always delivered fine ones.

And now as the last traders are packing up I feel more than a little sad, not least at the loss of so many wonderful shops but also at what I think will replace it.  

Despite the suggestions of what might be to come and the rounds of consultations the replacement lacks something …. Not least I think in the number of retail outlets and the sheer height of the building fronting Barlow Moor Road.

So there you are the story has been occasioned by a picture of the now closed Quality Save much loved by our Saul, and one of Tony’s Christmas trees delivered in December 20th which will not come down till after the last traders have left the building.

Leaving me just to remind people of the exhibition charting the history of the Precinct and its last year in pictures and paintings by Phil Portus and Peter Topping which is on show until February in Chorlton Library, when it too closes for a makeover.

Location; Chorlton Precinct

Pictures; Quality Save and poster design, 2023, courtesy of Peter topping and “The last Christmas Tree” from Tony Adams, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson