Mornings at Manchester Jewish Museum …..

The Manchester Jewish Museum* is one of my favourite places and has been since it opened in 1984 and is a place I regularly write about.**

Almost soon after that opening I signed up to be a “Friend” and while the scheme has changed its name, I remain happy to support its work which as it says is “a registered charity (charity no. 1154353) and accredited museum (no. 179). 

We connect Jewish stories to the world and to our society, in order to explore both our differences and similarities, and to celebrate that which makes people unique and that which connects us all.

As well as preserving and presenting the history of Jewish Manchester, our programme helps us bring communities together to understand and share experiences. 

Delivering meaningful and sustainable engagement projects with our diverse communities. [which it does through] “schools activities educating future generations about Jewish history and traditions”.

All of which is done in the “Grade II* Listed Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, which holds a fascinating collection documenting Manchester’s rich and diverse Jewish heritage.

And that is how I first came across the Museum in the 1980s when I was researching and delivering history courses on Jewish Manchester to school students.

Back then the museum was very helpful in lending material I could use.

More recently following a £6 million redevelopment the museum now has a new purpose built gallery to display our collection, which is presented  in three themes, Journeys, Communities and Identities.

All the stories told on gallery are Jewish but by framing them within these universal themes they hopefully feel relevant to all of our audiences, Jewish and non-Jewish.

Our Journeys Gallery tells the story of the different motivations that brought Jewish people to Manchester: looking for opportunity, escaping hardship, poverty or persecution, and ‘landsleit’ – the move to join existing communities that reflect your own identity. 

From 18th Century pedlars to 20th Century refugees and Holocaust Survivors, the collection reflects each wave of Jewish migration into Manchester.

Our Journeys Gallery also includes a newly commissioned 4-screen immersive film produced by Heritage Interactive and directed by Dan Lusby. Heritage Interactive produced all the digital creative content in our gallery including this film, our sliding digital panels on our organisations wall, and the Jewish identity tablets in our Identities Gallery”. 

The museum hosts a whole variety of events from cultural to comic, along special exhibitions and has an interesting policy towards those who live in the area which encourages local residents to become “one of our Museum M8s and get free admission to the museum all year round for you and your family”.

I took a trip up from Chorlton last week and was not disappointed.

Location; Manchester Jewish Museum, Cheetham Hill Road

Pictures; Thursday at the museum, 2026 & 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Manchester Jewish Museum, https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

**Manchester Jewish Museum, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Manchester%20Jewish%20Museum

Synagogues ….. churches …… an Ice Rink and plenty more …. on the trail of Cheetham Hill Road

I never knew that old Cheetham Hill Road with its mix of synagogues, churches, densely packed houses, as well, schools, shops, and the Ice Rink.

Looking up Cheetham Hill Road, 1935

And despite having washed up in the city in 1969 it wouldn’t be till the mid-1980s that I wandered up Ducie Street and on to Cheetham Hill Road taking in bits of Redbank and Strangeways.

Since then, I have been back a few times, and the place remains a busy place.

True there are plenty of empty spaces which have been taken over by car parks, but in between there are heaps of small businesses, occupying some of the surviving old properties as well as specially designed single storey buildings.

You can take your pick of garment manufactures and retailers as well as garages, restaurants and offices.

Walking up Lord Street, 2025

Step off the main road and it is much the same story, but 21st regeneration is creeping up from the River Irk.

Looking down Cheetham Hill Road, 2025

So, Redbank is now the Green Quarter and where crummy houses squeezed between warehouses and factories, tall new residential properties are reaching up to the sky with manicured lawns and open spaces, with new street names.

And now there are plans for something new for Strangeways.

In March of 2025 Manchester City Council released details of a joint development plan with Salford City Council for “a programme of investment which could see up to 7,000 new homes across seven distinct ‘neighbourhood’ areas, [with] increased commercial floorspace of around 1.75m sq ft, [which] could support an additional 4,500 jobs”.*

Bent Street, 2025

It looks exciting and is in line with the last two decades of development which have seen many parts of the twin cities transformed with new residential, and commercial properties which have drastically altered the skyline.

I did rather great carried away with the bold plan and described Strangways as a place waiting for something to happen.

And that was a bit unfair given just how much is going on already, and just how varied and quirky are the businesses occupying the area.

So not more than a few minutes away from Big Image which is really a small garment business on Empire Street there is the Yard at Bent Street,  which is “A space where music and art thrive, and where creative industry start-ups and established pros can shake off the tired and let go of the expected*”*.

Empire Street, fashions, 2025

And close by the Brewery of Joseph Holt.

Watching, Cheetham Hill Road, 2025

Added to these there are bits of the past, from that Ice Rink, the former New Synagogue, Jewish Soup Kitchen and the Torah School which is now home to the Yard.

All of which suggests more walks looking for the historic Strangeways.

Location; off Cheetham Hill Road

Pictures; walking the streets of Strangeways, 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Cheetham Hill Road, 1935, m16264, , courtesy of Manchester Archives and Local History Library, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Manchester City Council, Manchester and Salford present draft proposals for major Strangeways and Cambridge regeneration, March 2025, https://www.manchester.gov.uk/news/article/9657/manchester_and_salford_present_draft_proposals_for_major_strangeways_and_cambridge_regeneration

The former New Synagogue, Cheetham Hill Road, 2025

** The Yard, https://www.theyardmcr.com/