When Chorlton nostalgia proves iffy ……….

I am looking at a picture of Chorlton in 1982 which offers an interesting take on just how easy it is to view where we live through rose tinted spectacles.

You know the line, which starts by bemoaning the amount of litter discarded across the road, runs on to call down the way the place has become a haven for takeaways, charity shops, and bars.

To be fair I do have some sympathy with the idea that perhaps there are now too many bars and takeaways, but the retail model that saw heaps of small local traders has gone, banished by supermarkets, and online shopping, and charity shops are good value, make sense on this recycling age and of course benefit those who need help.

But the image I took forty-three years ago belies that assertion that the 1980s were a haven of litter free streets, thriving traditional local businesses, and an area in want of a charity shop.

Here in 1982 on the corner of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads, the litter drifts around the Nat West Bank, the Butcher’s shop is no more, and already there is a charity shop.

I know it is 1982 because the relatively new Social Democratic Party were contesting all three Chorlton seats in the local elections and had rented the empty Cash Butcher’s shop making an SDP presence in the centre of the township.

Already the decline away from those traditional shops was evident on Beech Road, which saw some close but for a while not reopen and during the 80s saw the brief appearance of an amusement arcade.

Historically the litter louts of the 1980s were not new, and a close examination of photographs from the beginning of the 20th century offer up scenes of the discarded stuff, not only on roads but also in the Rec on Beech Road.

As to the number of alcoholic outlets in the 1900s, they were still limited to few pubs, there was a very successful temperance lobby which blocked applications for new pubs and even objected to the expansion of new existing ones.

That said the trend for bars, and charity shops ahs quickened, but given the demise of that old retail model, I suspect the alternative would be empty shops.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Chorlton in 1982, from the collection of Andrew Simpson