Taking Eminent Victorians for granted ……. statues

Now the debate on who we continue to commemorate from the last three centuries rolls on and rightly so.

Prince Albert ..... thinking of Victoria? 2019

It is a discussion which gets to the heart of our past as we reflect on Britain’s involvement with the Slave Trade and Slavery, along with those we choose to see as significant and of course on those who made and wrote our history.*

Not that this is new, reinterpretations of historical events, and people goes on all the time, and one of my favourite such revisions is the book Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey published in 1919, which examines the lives, record and reputation of four “Victorian greats”. ** 

James Fraser, looking down on the markets, 2019

They were Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold and General Charles Gordon.  

Today only Florence Nightingale will be familiar to many people, but back at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries the other three were up there on that pedestal of the good and the inspirational.  

And only Florence Nightingale survived Mr. Strachey’s forensic reexamination of their careers, in what at times is a savage, witty and cynical account.  

Just how savage, witty and cynical he could be I leave you to judge, from the end of his chapter on General Gordon, which having surveyed Gordan’s life and the campaign to avenge his death concludes that “General Gordan had always been a contradictious person – even a little off his head, perhaps, though a hero; and besides he was no longer there to contradict .... At any rate it all ended very happily – in a slaughter of twenty thousand Arabs, a vast addition to the British Empire, and a step in the Peerage for Sir Evelyn Baring”.**

There will be those who will turn their gaze on those public statues here in Manchester, and in the fall out from the Colston case Manchester City Council began weighing up the continued justification for  the presence of some of those “worthies” on our streets and square.*

Sir Robert Peel, 2019

And so drawn purely at random from some of the collection I have taken over the years here are three.

I make no judgements and leave it to others to add sound historical comments and only reflect that these long gone worthies are ingored by most, are the subject to occasional paint vandalism and at certain times of the year look down on the Christmas markets.

Pictures; Prince Albert, James Fraser, Bishop of Manchester, and Sir Robert Peel, Manchester, 2019-20, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*On that statue of Mr. Colston …..…and thoughts on Annie Kenney, the Sheffield Women of Steel and Totò, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/06/on-that-statue-of-mr-colston-and.html

**D Day ...... AD 43 .......Portrait Of An Age ..... and the death of General Gordan, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/05/d-day-ad-43-portrait-of-age-and-death.html

*** Eminent Victorians, Lytton Strachey, 1918

Cleaning the Town Hall …….. 1967

Now for anyone who doesn’t remember the Town Hall when it still had nearly a century of Manchester soot and grime, here is the picture.

It was taken in 1967, just three years after the City Council had estimated the cleanup would cost £25,000.

And what I like about the image is the contrast between the dark stone, and the two sections which have been cleaned.

As dramatic as the clock tower looks, I rather think it is the section on Lloyd Street which offers up just what the cleaning had achieved., highlighting the detail in the stonework and lifting the section to the eye.

Why they began with Lloyd Street will be on record somewhere, but I suspect it was the trial, which if it went wrong was down a side street.

Nor is that all that the picture has to offer.

Albert Square was still an island surrounded by traffic, with provision for parking opposite the Town Hall, and the underground Victorian lavatories, with their period features and sturdy iron railings.

And for the particularly observant, there almost in the centre of the square, is the statue of Oliver Heywood, who had already been washed in advance of his neighbour, William Gladstone.

Not sure why he got preferential treatment, but someone will know, and a lot more people will pile in with speculation.

And they will no doubt have theories about just what happened to the lavatories.

Were they stripped of their features, just back filled, or just covered over?

Location; Albert Square

Picture; Town Hall clean up, Albert Square, 1967, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

Lost in memories in Albert Square …..

How easy it is to find and post images of Manchester before now.

But how much better to post an image you took and share it along with the memories of the place at the time.

We are in Albert Square when public lavatories were still a feature of the main island sandwiched between the statues of the great and the good and parking meters ringed this public space.

I think it is 1979 but could be any year up to 1984.  

A clue might well be the construction work on the western side of the square which now houses offices and a restaurant.

Over the years I have sat in the colonnaded space looking out at Prince Albert and the Town Hall beyond and pondered on just when the Victorian urinals vanished under a previous makeover of the Square.

They were not remarkable but were still fine examples of Municipal provision and a century or so after they were laid out as part of the memorial to Prince Albert I remember using them, marvelling at the mix of tiles and polished metal.

Location; Albert Square

Picture; Albert Square, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

In Albert Square with the unusual ..........

Now for anyone born before 1970 there will be nothing odd about a bus stop in Albert Square, or the parked up black cabs.

Equally the presence of two underground public lavatories either side of Albert will be no surprise.

That was just what the square was like, pretty much from its construction to sometime in the 1980s or '90s, when the public lavatories, the taxi rank and the bus stops disappeared.

And like so much modern history I can’t remember exactly when it all happened.

Of course the serious side of me knows that I should go off and find out but I bet someone will know and come back with chapter and verse which is always more fun.

Added to which they, or some else, will also be able to explain what happened to the two public lavatories.

Were the fittings carefully and lovingly taken out, and perhaps placed elsewhere or was the void just back filled?

And if it is the latter that raises fascinating thoughts about the discoveries and theories put forward in future archaeological papers on the “Role and significance of underground public services”.

Still for now, I can’t say I miss the bus stops and take pleasure in just sitting in the square, admiring the Town Hall, and pondering on the plight of those underground public lavatories.

Leaving me only to admit that there is still a taxi rank in the Square and the buses still stop but not not directly outside the Town Hall.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Albert Square, 1978, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Snaps of Manchester number 5 ... in Albert Square with trams and horses

Of all of the snaps of Manchester I have featured this is one of my favourites.

We are in Albert Square sometime between the late 1920s and early 30s and we are at that cross over moment when horse drawn vehicles were about to become just that little less common.

In another decade they would be confined to milk floats and the rag and bone man.

But here they are still in use pulling a cart and a covered wagon.

In other respects it is a scene which I recognise from when I first arrived in the September of 1969.  In fact apart from the trams and their overhead cables and rails it is pretty much as I remember it.

Picture; courtesy of Sandra Hapgood

"I had forgotten how black the town hall was" .......... pictures from Linda

The thing about old picture postcards is that there is usually a story which goes with them.

Albert Square, circa 1960s

Often that story is the message on the back, or the recipient which if you are lucky will lead to more stories.

Most of the ones in the collection have been picked up over the years with no extra information about the person who chose it in preference to another, or anything about them.

So it is a rare treat to be handed two picture postcards, by someone I know and who offered up a bit of back story.

These two are instantly recognizable, and will bring back plenty of memories, with some looking closely at the detail to compare with the same scene today.

Usually I would throw in my own observations, but where would the fun be in that?  Far better that I leave that to you.

Piccadilly Gardens, circa 1960s

Instead I shall close with Linda’s own comments on the postcards.

“As I couldn’t make my monthly trip to Holmfirth yesterday I sorted out some paperwork and came across these two postcards.

The one of Albert square is a Bamforth card with a deckle edge.

Their building near the bus station was sadly derelict for years but has recently been converted into flats and looks so much better.

I had forgotten how black the town hall was. Used to park in the square twice a year when I took my children into town to buy their shoes”.

Location; Manchester

Pictures, Albert Square, and Piccadilly Gardens, circa 1960s/1970s, from the collection of Linda Rigby

A bit of the old Albert Square ….. in Manchester in 1969

One of the things I like about photographs is that quite often there are stories within stories.

So here we are in 1969, with what I take to be a procession from Manchester Town Hall to the law courts, but what interested me more are the buildings in the background.

I suspect you would have to be born before 1980, and possibly even further back to remember them.

I on the other hand do, and mainly because in the long endless hours between lectures at the Commerce of Commerce on Aytoun Street, the choice between going to the library and taking off into the city centre, was an easy one.

From the September of 1969 well into the next two years, I wandered up into Albert Square, down towards Shudehill and on plenty of occasions crossed the river to explore Greengate.

And I remember those tall soot blackened impressive buildings which faced the Town Hall Hall.

They were typical of the sort you could find across Manchester, with shops and restaurants at ground level, and offices above.

I have to confess I don’t know when they came down and were replaced with those modern red brick boxes.

Comparing the two, I have to say I think the new ones do look clean and busines like, and I suspect their predecessors were cold draughty paces which would have needed much tender care and attention.

That said I think if they had received that care and had an exterior clean up, they would have better complimented the Town Hall, Prince Albert and the buildings to the north and south of the square.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Albert Square, 1969, xxxx77 & xxxx79, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Albert welcomes you back to his Square …… Friday in May*

For those in the know and heaps more who just wandered into Albert Square, the place has been progressively reoccupied by office workers, tourists and me.

Our Albert, 2026

The sun was shining and having completed a trip to the Crescent in Salford, the bus deposited me back by the Town Hall.

On Albert's steps, 2026

Sitting below Mr. Heywood, 2026

And as you do, I took a stroll across this much-loved open space which along with the Town Hall went dark while the builders, and restorers got to work.

Sharing the moment, 2026

I can remember the square back in the 1960s when buses and taxis vied with parked cars to dominate what should have been a grand civic statement framed by the Town Hall and shared with two public lavatories, Prince Albert, and four 19th century worthies.

It was busy and not always a place you wanted to linger.

Confused and cluttered, 1979

Passing through, 2026

But judging by the numbers sitting in the sun yesterday that has changed, and it is now becoming popular again and will rival  St Peter’s Square just round the corner.

Mr. Gladstone approves, 2026

Of course, the square by the trams does have one of the only statues to a woman, while Albert shares his spot with Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Heywood, John Bright, and Bishop Fraser.

What we have lost, 1979

Still the fountain will soon be working again leaving me just to reflect that Albert and hs four chums should be pleased with the place they inhabit.

Location; Albert Square

Pictures; Friday in May sharing the square with office workers and tourists, 1979 & 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Ofcourse Eric would dispute that the square is Albert's ... pointing outt that it is and always was a place for everyone.

Bold new plans for four Manchester Squares ………..

It’s just one of those age things that if you can remember cars in St Ann’s Square, you will have had plenty of birthdays.

Today, you can take your pick from a pleasant amble across the square, take in the market stalls which are a frequent feature, or just sit and watch everyone else going about their business.

Just over 40 years ago much of the square was given over to cars, lorries and coaches, and while the pavements were wide this was still a place where you had to be mindful of parked and passing traffic.

There had been moves to pedestrianize the square, and introduce open air cafes in 1962.

But the plans were shelved because of concerns that “congestion would be caused on Market Street and St Mary’s Gate if the square was closed to traffic”.* Four years later the Civic Trust of the North West which had advanced the original plan, tried again with a “New Plan for main squares”.

This proposed “new pedestrian area in four main squares in Manchester,  [suggesting] extra traffic restrictions, so that a new pedestrian route could wind through part of the central shopping area”.

The scheme would have involved changes in St Peter’s Square, Albert Square, St James Square and St Ann’s Square.

In St Peter’s Square, the Cenotaph and cross could be moved and re positioned directly in front of Central Ref, while in Albert Square, the Albert Memorial would “remain in its present place, but other statues would be moved slightly and the lavatories in the square would be removed”.

 A pedestrian route would run from Brazenose Street to connect with St Ann’s Square which would see the church “sit in a pedestrian area as it was originally intended and the whole atmosphere of the square would be changed by the removal of the clutter of cars and parked vehicles and the continuous discordant effect of the traffic slowly meandering through the Square”. 

 Leaving the pavements to be widened on St James Square and “parts of South King Street and King Street would be closed to normal traffic [and] opened only for part of the day for service traffic”.

 

All of which looked a bold plan, but would be a long time coming.

King Street was pedestrianized in1976, and St Ann’s Square in the early 1980s, leaving St Peter’s Square to be transformed in part by the coming of the Metro in the 1990s and fully transformed by the Second City Crossing, which resulted in an enlarged square, the loss of the Peace Garden and the removal of the Cenotaph to a spot outside the entrance to the Town Hall.

And for those wondering where St James Square can be found, it is the narrow street which connects John Dalton Street with South King Street.

With the passage of time it is difficult now to remember  that there was a time when you had to dodge cars.

 Location; Manchester

Picture; St Ann’s Square,2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1960, 1960 – 3107.3, 3107.4, 3107.1, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

 *Manchester shelves plan for St Ann’s Square, Manchester Guardian, December 1962.

 **New Plan for main squares, Manchester Guardian, August 17^th, 1966.

 

We all have our own Albert Square …….

Now Albert Square has always been a favourite place to photograph, even if the position of the Town Hall makes a perfectly posed shot difficult for most of us.

And just like I guess we all have our own chosen picture, depending on when you were growing up which may well determine the Albert Square you prefer.

But there will be no one left alive who can remember the crowds gathering to hear the Lord Mayor standing on the steps of the Town Hall, declaring the news of the end of the Great War.

Likewise those who celebrated V.E. Day around the statue of Prince Albert in May 1945 will be a dwindling band.

All of which brings me to this Albert Square, dating from 1950, when cars took the place of pedestrians, both on the square and all down Princess Street.

Enough said.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Albert Square, 1950, from a series of picture postcards by Tuck and Son, courtesy of Tuck DB, Pictures;  https://tuckdb.org/

When Albert Square looked just a little different

I don’t have a date for the photograph but I rather think we are sometime in the 1950s, although I am quite prepared to be proved wrong.

Either way it is a wonderful picture of Albert Square before the space in front of the Town Hall was made traffic free and the public lavatories just at the bottom of the picture closed and built over.

Now I am not one of those secret tunnel enthusiasts but I would love to know if the gents and ladies were stripped of all of their fittings and filled in or just caped, ready to be reused at some later stage.

It is one of those pictures which is almost the Albert Square we know today but not quite. The memorial and surrounding buildings have yet to have a century and a bit of soot and grime cleaned from their walls, and the road behind the statutes still has its island bus stops and shelter.  They will go in the 1970s along with the buildings to the left of the picture

But there is that is still familiar. Cross Street to the north of the square is pretty much unchanged as are the buildings directly facing us.

I do have to admit I am little curious about the white building in the right hand corner which today is monumental slab with a Starbucks outlet on the ground floor.

Having said all that it does look old fashioned, which I guess it partly because of the quality and colour of the photograph and the odd looking cars and buses.

And here I have to admit the unpalatable.  I am old enough to recognise the scene from the darkened buildings to the layout of the square and above all the red buses.  These belonged to the corporation of Manchester but equally there were green and blue buses operated by neighbouring local authorities who crossed in and out of the city.

Picture; Albert Square from the collection of Rita Bishop, courtesy of David Bishop

Snaps of Manchester number 7 ....... the Town Hall and the Cathedral in the 1920s

Now if you live in Manchester or like me claim it as your adopted city the chances are that you will have taken a picture of the Town Hall.

It was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and finished in 1877, and it remains a splendid building.

 I spent many years from the 1970s in the various state rooms and when meetings ground to tedious repetition and sloganising there was always the paintings, the wallpaper and the ceilings to marvel at.

The outside is no less impressive, but I have never found a good angle at which the to take a picture, and the result is that you  end up somewhere on Cross Street or South Mill Street trying to get all of the building in the frame.

Now I know it is possible to stand directly opposite on Brazenose Street but all too ofteh you have to wait for a clear moment when a bus a taxi or a lorry aren’t passing.

So I am always pleased when someone pulls it off.  In this case the picture comes from the collection of Sandra Hapgood and dates from the early decades of the last century.

It is another of those Snaps of Manchester which are often just as valuable as the carefully composed images taken by a professional.  And although they are often undated and their significance is lost they can be just as interesting.

More so because they are often of places which are unrecorded by the professional or commercial photographer.

Having said that I would like a £ for every image I have seen of the Cathedral.  This one comes from the same collection and will date from the same time.

It was taken from Exchange Station, now long gone, although bits of its railway past are still littered around what is now a car park.

Today the stretch of Victoria Street is closed to traffic which seemed a good idea but I rather think the temporary building in front of the Cathedral however worthy its use detracts from the Cathedral.

Pictures; from the collection of Sandra Hapgood

In Albert Square in June 1932

Now this is not one of the best quality postcards in the collection but it is one of the only ones I have of the Town Hall and Albert Square in the 1930s.

The exact date is a bit in doubt but the image was registered on the catalogue list of Valentine & Sons on June 28th 1932, although it may have been taken earlier.

The company of Valentine & Sons began producing photographic postcards in the early 1860's and continued as an independent company for a century before being taken over in 1963 by John Waddington and later sold on to Hallmark Cards INC of the United States in 1980.*

And as you do I have become more interested in Valentine’s but that is for another time, suffice to say the collection is with the University of St Andrews**

Going back to the Town Hall it is a scene which I pretty much remember from when I arrived in 1969.

Of course the trams had gone, along with the old fashioned taxis and the Town Hall had just been  cleaned up, but otherwise it is a scene that looks familiar enough.

But the space behind Albert was still the taxi rank, and the buildings to the left of the tram were still there, not that I can remember them.

But then I was just 19 and that long old block of grime and smoke covered offices and shops held no special attraction.

Looking back I wish I had taken an interest in them.

Certainly those remaining to the north and south of the square are fine buildings and have adapted well to a new century.

As of course has the Town Hall which is a place I never tire of visiting.

Picture; from the collection of Alan Brown

*University of St Andrews Valentine Collection, University of St Andrews 1999, revised 2010
**http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/imu/imu.php?request=home

All wrapped up ……….

There will be countless pictures of our Town Hall, taken from every angle, and from almost every decade since the place was opened.

But given the relative short history that the building has been closed for renovation I suspect that there will not be that many of its “wrapped up time”.

So here is mine.

Had I more fore thought I might have taken it in the run up to Christmas with a suitable caption including “wrapped up”, "present” and “to open on ........”.

But I didn’t.

So instead, it will join the countless others recording yet another moment in its history.

Location; Albert Square, 

Picture; All wrapped up, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Free ........ James Fraser ........ and the other Albert Square Four

I wonder what James Fraser and his fellow occupants of Albert Square think about being locked up behind those tall walls in front of the Town Hall for another two years?

Mr. James Frazer, 2022

He shares the space with Prince Albert, John Bright, Oliver Heywood and William Gladstone.

And not for the first time I have pondered on the absence of a woman on a pedestal in the square.

Which I know is a cheap jibe, but none the less a pertinent one.

Still there is that one of Mrs. Pankhurst looking out on St Peter’s Square, which I think is more to a scale of memorial I like.

You can go and stand beside her, or better still position yourself just behind and share her gaze across the Square.

Conversely those grand, worthy, and eminent Victorians look down at you with all that lofty self-esteem and try as I can I don’t often get a good picture of them ……. just a crick in the neck.

Now, I know of course that their imprisonment will finish in 2024 when the final touches are put to the restored Town Hall and the enlarged Albert Square.*

Our Albert, 2018

The project should have been finished a year earlier but as everyone knows a mix of Covid and the inevitable surprises that any restoration throw up have delayed things.

Sharing the square with Mrs. Pankhurst, 2022

Still it won’t be long now before the walls come down and I can wander freely across the square renewing my acquaintanceship with the said five and popping into the Town Hall to see what’s been done.

And by all accounts there has been a lot done, bringing our Town Hall into the 21st century while bringing back much that has been lost, hidden and left a tad neglected.

Location; Albert Square and St Peter’s Square.

Pictures; looking across to Mr. Frazer, 2022, Our Albert 2018, and Mrs Pankhurst, 2022 from the collection of Andrew Simpson 

 *Our Town Hall Project - the transformation,https://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500354/our_town_hall/7297/our_town_hall_project_-_the_transformation/1

Celebrating our Municipal Town Halls part 6 .......... Manchester Town Hall*

Well I could hardly leave our own Town Hall out of the collection.*

It is a building I have been fascinated by for nearly half a century, although when I first saw it I was not convinced.  Back then I was still into classical buildings and rather was disdainful of all that Gothic stuff.

Plenty of people would come to its defence including one friend who pointed out that it had just been cleaned as if that would make me like it all the more.

Of course that Gothic prejudice has long vanished and during the 1970s into the 90s I spent many hours in the building and came to fully appreciate it as a fine statement of all that municipal power.

And here I have to mention Mr Tidmarsh whose illustraions have been regularly used by any one wanting to show our city in the last decades of the 19th century.

Many of them can be found in the three volumes of Manchester Old and New by William Arthur Shaw published in 1894.

I noticed a recent auction of the 3 which estimated that they might go for

£30-£40, and there are also paper back versions as well as an e book.

I chose to opt for the Library copies which once ordered up arrived at Chorlton Library in a matter of days, something I am sure would have pleased the Corporation's Library Committee back at the beginning of the last century.









Pictures, Manchester Town Hall, by H.E. Tidmarsh from Manchester Old and New, William Arthur Shaw, 1894

*Our Municipal Town Halls, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Our%20Municipal%20Town%20Halls

Prince Albert inspects progress at the Town Hall

Work on the continued restoration of the Town Hall continues apace.

And yesterday I wandered into Albert Square to look over the progress.

It will be another three years before the planned reopening.

Occasionally little snippets of the work are revealed.

In the meantime, the builder’s boards encompassing the site offer up a cornucopia of interesting information.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Albert Square, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

 

Albert Square in the May of 1963

I am back with that theme of popular Manchester places before the car was banished.

So here we are in Albert Square sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

The postmark on the back gives a date of May 1963, but it will be a little earlier, and will not have changed much at the end of that decade.

In 1969 the traffic still swirled past Albert on his island and the front of the town Hall was still a place to park your car.

Now I could delve deep into the history of the buildings surrounding the square but I won’t, instead I shall just leave you with that thought that like St Ann’s Square, King Street and now the area in front of the Cathedral there was a time when many of our public places were still shared with the car.



Picture; Albert Square, from the series Manchester, Lillywhite, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of TuckDB http://tuckdb.org/history