The forgotten Chorlton Bookshop ……..

Take a former front room in a house on Barlow Moor Road and in the late 1970s into the next decade you had a bookshop.

It was only open on a Saturday and specialized in books on the Labour Movement, Socialism and Green and Feminist issues, and was located in the old Labour Party offices.

From memory I doubt that they were queuing outside on the street but there was a steady trickle of customers most Saturdays.

Sometimes there was a run on posters or the latest book by a well-known politician and there was always regular trade for Tribune and Labour Weekly.

And in my case while doing a stint on the rota I was a sucker for odd pamphlet “topical badge”.

Most of the material came from Grass Roots on a sale and return basis, not that it ever rivalled Bryan the Book on Beech Road or Chorlton Book Shop, but for a few years it was a presence.

Location; Barlow Moor Road

Pictures, the alternative bookshop, circa 1979-1980, from the collection of Andrew Simpson