46 years ago on Beech Road waiting for change

 I don't think of 1979 as a faraway place.

Buying fruit and veg at Muriel's, 1979

But it is 46 years ago and is before the bar and cafe revolution changed the look of Beech Road, before the internet, before the tram came to Chorlton and before smart phones and televisions with remote devices.

The pubs closed in the evening at half past ten from Sunday to Thursday and there remained that desert between three pm. and five thirty when the doors closed.

Bench chat 1979

For many born in the 1980s the stories of what Beech Road was like, along with all that other "old stuff" are as much a part of history as the death of Queen Victoria and the Relief of Makeking was to me.

Adventures on Cross Road, 1979

That said there were always adventures in the Rec which finished on a park bench or better still continued with any one of a heap of hide and seek.

Olden TV, 1979

Location; around Beech Road, 1979

Pictures; 46 years ago on and around Beech Road from the collection of Andrew Simpson