A little bit of the Swinging Sixties waiting to arrive …..

We are on Denmark Road in 1967 with one of those street scenes which perfectly captures the bridge between what had been and the bright new dawn of the Beatles, Twiggy, Biba, and Harry Sherman.

This was the year when Adrian Henry wrote of 

"Beautiful boys with bright red guitars in the spaces between the stars". *

And like all young teenagers I yearned to be part of that new world, but a terraced house in southeast London, with limited spending power determined that I would be on the edge of it all.

And so, in a way was Selene’s the place that delivered "Hair Styling, Tinting, Dyeing and the Marcel Wave".

The unkind me might mutter that it was clinging on, desperately trying to up its game, in the same way that two years later I would marvel at Carol Ardern’s business in All Saints on Oxford Road which proclaimed “Carol Ardern Stylist to the Stars”.

At the time  this stretch of Oxford Road corridor was waiting for something to happen.  Chorlton Upon Medlock Town Hall just across the road was still open but had yet to have centuries of soot cleaned from its wall, and many of the buildings surrounding it were old and tired.

Which brings me back to Selene’s on Denmark Road which has the same tired look, but then it must have been doing something right, given that it occupied two plots.

But things were a foot which look to have sealed its fate.  In the collection of images that this is part of we have two very official looking people, one of whom carried a large map.

They appear in other images linked to area about to be cleared and redeveloped, and I suspect the same is on the cards for Selene. 

I have yet to locate where we are.

But given that Denmark Road has been swept clear of its nineteenth and early twentieth century shops and houses I guess these two were the harbingers of bad news for Selene.

But maybe someone will remember the business and put me right.

And just out of curiosity and because  “Carol Ardern Stylist to the Stars” has stuck with me for over half a century I went looking for images of the place.

As it happens I came across a fine coloured picture which was undated.

I guess it is from the 1980s but I couldn't find who took it and with that strict adherence to copyright it can't be used.

Happily there in the City's digital archive is a 1973 image of Carol Ardern sandwiched between a row of period shops which have all vanished.

And what is even better is that it was taken around the time I passed it on the bus.

So we all win.

Location; Denmark Road

Pictures; Denmark Road, 1967, amd Carol Ardern, m04179,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, sadly I cannot find a reference number for the Denmark Road images.

*Mrs Albion You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter, Adrian Henri