Back at that shop on Manchester Road

I wonder how many people remember visiting Whitegg’s the grocer’s shop after its makeover in 1961.

Now I am fairly confident that there will be quite a few people given that yesterday’s story about the shop brought forth a shed full of memories.*

I have long wondered if there was a connection between the Whitelegg family that ran the Bowling Green and another Whitelegg who was the tenant farmer at Red Gates Farm further down Manchester Road.

It was a bit of research I never took further.

But then Andy Robertson sent me two pictures of the building as it looks today and pointed me towards a photograph taken in 1958.

And that was enough to set a story going and as they it is a tale which will run and run because Andy is back with another old picture and a bit of research.

It seems that this picture dating from 1961 was taken during the alterations to the shop and led Andy to ponder on the chap in white.

He suggested I "check out  the man in white coat who looks very grocer-like, could well be Thomas Whitelegg who was born in 1916 and looks just the right in 19161.

His parents were Thomas Whitelegg, Maggie Robertson who were married in 1910 and also ran a grocery and confectionary shop at 17 Hope Road Sale.

Thomas Whitelegg senior was the son of Joseph (1860-1944), a grocer and milk dealer, born Manchester.

And there the continuity breaks down because Joseph’s father and grandfather were cabinet makers from Manchester.”

Of course like all good researchers Andy is careful to point out that he could be wrong but concludes that “it all looks promising.”

Which indeed it does and along the way rules out my theories but offers up some fascinating new lines of inquiry, leaving me only  to quote from my favourite Fu Man Chu film “the world has not heard the last of this.”

Actually he said “the world has not heard the last of me” but that didn’t fit.

So before I get too silly I shall just add that Mr Thomas Whitelegg is listed as the shop keeper in 1969 and so will in all probability be the chap looking on at the conversion and will also be the chap who served so many of those customers who have remembered the place with fondness.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Research; Andy Robertson

Pictures; No 61 alteration of shop front, A H Downes, 1961, m18076, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the shop entrance, 2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson

* In search of Whitelegg's on the corner of Manchester Road and Oswald Lane, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/in-search-of-whiteleggs-on-corner-of.html

Buying your meat from Mr Unsworth of 2 Chorlton Green in 1909 .... Chorlton's corner shop nu 10

The caption on the picture just says “James Unsworth’s butcher shop on the corner of the Green Albermarle Road.  This shop later became and still is a barbers shop. Private photograph, origin unknown.”

Now I remember it as a barber’s shop, regularly visiting it during the 70s and 80s and even taking my eldest.

Bob who had the business when I went there had been born in Chorlton and had plenty of stories about the place.

I can date the picture from sometime after 1903 and before 1911.

This I can be certain of because back in 1903 the terrace of three shops and houses had yet to be built and from at least 1911 this butcher’s shop was run by Mr Mark Glazerbrook who was recorded in the directories from the start of 1911 at no 2 Chorlton Green.

A decade earlier he had been helping his father run the family butcher’s shop in Railway Street in Ardwick, and in 1910 he married Lillian Carr.

So just perhaps this was their first married home.

That said within another ten years he was trading in Reddish all of which points to the high turnover of some of these small family businesses.

Mr Unsworth was at number 2 in 1909 when his neighbours were Ernest Bugler, cycle maker at number 4 and Stanley Moss, grocer at number 6.

Two years later both James and Mr Moss had moved on.

I don’t suppose we should be surprised for back in the early 20th century there were plenty of butchers, grocers and green grocers in close proximity in Chorlton and competition must have been fierce.

Just opposite was Whittaker’s the grocers and up along Beech Road there were more grocery and butchers shops with even more across the green and behind.

And that is about it except to say I got through the story without commenting on the meat on display in the open air, the sand on the shop floor or  Mr Unsworth’s long knife.

On the other hand, here is the shop in 1979, when those of us who wanted a haircut and a good natter would call in at Bob's.

And that really is it.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; of Mr Unsworths' shop circa 1909 from the Lloyd collection and Bobs's in 1979 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Beech Road in the summer of 1932

We are on Beech Road in the summer of 1932.  

Judging by the shadows and the activity it must be sometime in the

morning.

The manager of John Williams and Sons looks on as his assistant sweeps the pavement in front of the shop and beyond him other shop keepers are laying out their produce.

As yet there are few people about and most of those are on bikes are more than likely out on their first delivery rounds.

Most seem oblivious to the camera, except that is for the two by the lampspost who have stopped their conversation to gaze back at the photographer.

The picture perfectly captures Beech Road in the early years of the 1930s.  The stone setts on Wilton Road have yet to be covered and the old railings around the Rec are still in place, otherwise it is not so different from today.

Of course the absence of cars is quite striking as are the shop fronts with their tall windows,  and painted signs.

What is all the more remarkable is that it is a scene which is more familiar to us than to those who walked the road before 1930.

I had always assumed that the row of shops which included John Williams & Sons had been built sometime soon after the beginning of the 20th century.

The site had originally been occupied by Sutton’s Cottage which was a wattle and daub dwelling and may well have been built in the early 1800s and was demolished in 1891.*

So it was reasonable enough to assume that the plot was built over soon afterwards but not so.

The other surprise was that John Williams and Sons were not local traders but in fact owned a chain of grocer shops across the city and beyond which in 1931 accounted for 41 shops of which there were three in Chorlton**, six in Didsbury and

another four in Rusholme.

Now I rather think there is a story here.  Back in 1895 they are listed as John & Sons with five shops in Didsbury abd Fallowfield which by 1911 had become 11 with John Williams described as managing director and the head office at 400 Dickinson Road.

Later still although I can’t date it is a wonderful advert for the company which advertises their ‘“Dainty, Delightful Delicious Tea, [from] John Williams & Sons limited, “The Suburban Grocers”, [at] 28 Victoria Street Manchester Stockport & Branches’.

And looking at the interior of one of their shops sometime in the early 20th century there is more than an element of “class” about the place.

So while the shelves groan with tinned produce and between the potted plants are the familiar posters advertising Californian Apricots at 6½d, and Coffee and other things, it is less cluttered, less in your face and far more discreet.

All of which makes me wonder at what our own shop on Beech Road would have been like, but that like the full story of John Williams and Sons will just have to wait.

Location; Beech Road, Chorlton


Picture; from the Lloyd Collection, 1932

*Sarah Sutton http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/sarah-sutton-life-lived-out-on-row.html

**32 Beech Road, Wilbraham Road, 211 Upper Chorlton Road.

When we had a piano shop on Beech Road

Sometimes a picture captures a moment which with hindsight allows you to see that things were just about to change.

 Here is another of those photographs taken by Tom McGrath in the middle 1980s.

I don’t suppose any of us could have realized that as we walked past the old closed up off license that within a couple of years two out of these three shops would be part of the transformation of Beech Road.

For as long as I can remember Muriel and Richard had run the green grocers in the centre of the parade.  On one side had been the off license which had sold bottled beer since the early years of the 20th century, while on the other the shop had been many things, including in the 50s a grocery store and by the time I washed up here was selling pianos.

But all of that was about to change and Tom’s pictures captures that point of change.

The off license which had struggled on into the 1980s became the Italian deli while the piano shop became a cafe before becoming a series of wine bars and growing its extension.

Only Richard and Muriel’s stayed the course, but were about to have a new and very impressive sign put above the door announcing that they were the Purveyors of fine fruit and vegetables, which they were.

But back in the mid 80s such things just didn’t seem to be done in the same way.  If you wanted fruit and veg, then that is where on Beech Road you went.  Just like if you needed paraffin or the odd nail or screw you went to the ironmongers next to Wilkinson’s the butchers.  Everyone knew them and knew what they sold.

Of course within a few years the old council offices had become the Lead Station, the grocers' beside the barbers' had become Primavera and the Wool Shop was to become Truth.

All of which makes Tom’s picture such a wonderful record of the old Beech Road some of us still remember.  And as if on cue as I was standing outside one of the new shops a couple went past telling their friend about “trendy Beech Road.”

What a lot has changed.

Picture, from the collection of Tom McGrath

A lost sweet shop from Beech Road revisiting a popular story

I won’t be the only one who has memories of buying sweets at the shop which was on  the corner of Beech Road and Claude Road, and there may be others like me who bought things when it sold a mix of almost antique stuff back in the late 1980s.

Not that it was always a shop; back in 1911 soon after it had been built it was the home of Robert and Janet Connell.  They were from Scotland, had been married for 38 years and had two children one of whom was still registered as living at home despite being a ships steward.

It was then an impressive seven roomed house.  If I wanted I could no doubt discover when the property was converted into a shop.  It was certainly selling sweets in the November of 1958 when R.E. Stanley photographed it.

Nor had it changed much when Tom McGrath took his picture almost thirty years later.  And I think the old bill boards were still there in the 1980s advertising the current films showing at the cinema around the corner.

Today it has reverted to a home as have other commercial conversions along Beech Road.

Pictures; Number 1 Beech Road by R.E. Stanley, November 1958, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, m17659, and from the collection of Tom McGrath

Always look up …….. ....... doing the essential walk and making it historic .... no. 22

Andy’s essential walk took him across Stockport this week and as ever it was the bits of buildings others ignore that he found interesting.

And today it was the detail high up on the front of a shop which caught his fancy.

Back when the shop was built, the stone feature with its date were pretty much a standard addition and I guess were produced in their thousands, with variations which conformed to the company’s individual identity.

I went looking for the chain which owned this one, thinking it might have been a co-op, but as yet haven’t identified it.

But someone will, and may even come up with a picture of the shop on opening day in 1913, or soon afterwards.

Today it is still a shop dispensing groceries and much else.

Location; Stockport






Picture; the shop 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Snaps of Chorlton nu 18 .............. back on St Clements Road and tracing the story of one shop

I can’t remember when the shops on this stretch of St Clements Road were converted into purely residential use.

Back in the 1970s when it must have happened I didn’t really take much notice of such things and that is a shame because the corner shop or more technically those little retail outlets which could be found everywhere are passing into history.

A few survive and some new ones have opened up around Chorlton in the last few years, but most have vanished.

They catered to the immediate streets were often “open all hours” and pretty much had everything you wanted.

And in the way of these things some were set up by enterprising individuals, in converted terrace houses and as the tide went out for these shops the house reverted to residential use.

All of which brings me to William Henry Caldwell who was living in that middle property by 1883 and took the bold decision to become a shop keeper in 1887.

He and his wife Hannah were living in Chorlton by 1870 and over the course of the next few decades gave his occupation as “a farm labourer” and “day gardener” and this may be the clue to what he sold and if he was green grocer of sorts than there is a neat bit of continuity here because at the beginning of the last century the shop was still listed as such.

By 1887 he would have been 44 and I guess a future as a farm labourer in an area which was fast becoming urbanised may have seemed precarious and given that by then there were plenty of houses round about it made sense to set up selling food.

Nor was he alone in multi tasking.  Throughout the history of the township plenty of people pursued a number of different trades and in some cases looked to opening a shop as a short term measure to ride out a period of unemployment or just make ends meet.

After 1830 there seems to have been a flurry in opening beer shops some of which had a short lease of life, which might have been down to bad luck poor management or in a rural community the return of full time work on the land.

I doubt we will ever know for sure what Mr Caldwell sold or why in the August of 1891 he moved out and the premises was rented by Mr and Mrs Percival who described themselves as tailors.

Theirs was just a short interregnum in the shops connection with food and by the 1960s it was a grocers shop run by Mr England who has featured already in the story of St Clements Road.

And today look closely and it is possible to see the later alterations which were undertaken to return it to full residential use.

Picture; St Clements Road, 2015 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the shop  sometime in the 1970s, courtesy of Paul England

Chorlton's corner shops number 16 ........those two shops on Crossland Road in 1972

Now I have been meaning to write about those two corner shops on Crossland Road because they were still doing the business when I washed up in Chorlton in the 1970s, and also because of the presence of the laundry just a little further up the road.

This  was the Pasley, later renamed the Queen and Pasley and opened in 1893, when this was still known as Crescent Road  and at one point employed 50 staff.

All the washing machines were belt driven by a huge steam engine and were the first to install the “float-iron system” which consisted of the multiple roller pressing machines. This was 15 feet wide and 15 feet long and
“was a mass production ironing machine, with delicately poised rollers. You could put a shirt with pearl buttons on it and it wouldn’t leave a mark.”

Vans from the laundry would collect the washing and deliver it to the sorting office where each item would be marked, and classified into bins, before the loads were emptied into the ten washing machines.

After being washed the clothes went through stages of being dried before being set out still slightly damp for the ironing and pressing and finally being re-sorted in the packing room and returned in the vans to the customers.

I suspect that many of the staff would at some time or other have called in at the two shops.

And I also know there will be plenty of others who will remember the two.

Pictures; Stanely Grove and Crossland Road, H Milligan, 1972, m18209 and m18207, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

A week and a bit in the history of Beech Road Part 2

Here for no other reason than I have the images are a selection of pictures of Beech Road during the last thirty years.

I don’t claim they are all great photographs, some are just snaps others a bit more but they do chronicle how the place has changed.

All have appeared before at some point on the blog and most have included detailed stories about the buildings and the people who worked or lived in them.

So this time round it will just be the pictures.

And for anyone who mutters darkly that their bit of Chorlton is not here rest assured it will be.

And to make sure we cover all bits here is the appeal for anyone wishing to share their photograpgh of their bit of Chorlton to pass the image over.

It can be any period.

There is no no offer of money of course just the pleasure of seeing your picture on the blog.

I can't say fairer than that.

Oh and of course you will be fully acknowedged.  If you can add anything about the picture so much the better.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Lawrence Beedle

Who remembers this Beech Road?

One of the things I like about collections of street photographs is how you can sometimes follow the photographer down the road.

 In the digital collection of Manchester Libraries there are some fine examples from the 1950s and 60s where the person behind the camera has meticulously recorded collections of houses and shops, property by property.

 They are today a wonderful snap shot of Chorlton fifty years ago.

So here is another of Beech Road from my old friend Tony Walker taken around 1980. One early Sunday morning Tony went out on to Beech Road and took a series of pictures. This is the second of the ones he took that day and judging from the angle of the picture was taken on the corner of Beech and Chequers.

It is a remarkable picture in that so much of what you can see has now gone.

There has been an off license of sorts on the corner since the beginning of the last century and while the shop is now a deli it does still sell wines.

Beyond was the grocery, a hairdresser and jutting out from the alley another grocers shop, Muriel and Richard’s green grocers and the piano shop.

At the bottom was the Oven Door Bakery in what are now numbers 68 and 70 Beech Road while the old Coop building was yet to become the home of the gift shop, Thai restaurant and Whole Food shop and instead much of it was given over to Strippo who stripped doors for under a tenner

Now I remember Joy Seal who ran the chemist. Her husband told me how when they took the shop over in the 1950s they first had to demolish the huge ovens at the back which had been used to bake bread.

It is still the chemists but the butcher to the right, and the Post Office to the left have gone as have the second hand furniture place and J. Johnny’s hard ware shop. J.Johnny's was a wonderful place where you could buy everything from a scredriver to a plank of wood.

What I particularly liked was that with some items you never paid the same price. On three different occassions I paid three different prices for having some knives sharpened, but in the end I came out evens.

I suppose the only concession to the advance of the new Beech Road was the brief appearance of an amusement arcade next to the post office and the gift shop which had been the grocers beside Thresher’s off license. Neither lasted very long but was a hint of what was to come.

In some ways this period was an unhappy time. More and more of the old conventional retail out lets were closing and it was unclear what would take their place.

These traditional shops could not compete with either the supermarket or the growing trend for home freezers.

So while Safeway’s planned to move to bigger premises by Albany Road and the shop in the precinct selling frozen food prospered our shops went through a lean time and the parade began to take on the appearance of a ghost town.

So the arrival of the Lead Station and the restaurant Primavera heralded a change and a renaissance which at times might now be irksome if you want basic things but has at least returned Beech Road to a thriving and buzzing place.

Picture; from the collection of Tony Walker

A week and a bit in the history of Beech Road Part 7

Here for no other reason than I have the images are a selection of pictures of Beech Road during the last thirty years.

I don’t claim they are all great photographs, some are just snaps others a bit more but they do chronicle how the place has changed.

All have appeared before at some point on the blog and most have included detailed stories about the buildings and the people who worked or lived in them.

So this time round it will just be the pictures.

And for anyone who mutters darkly that their bit of Chorlton is not here rest assured it will be.

And to make sure we cover all bits here is the appeal for anyone wishing to share their photograpgh of their bit of Chorlton to pass the image over.  It can be any period.

There is no no offer of money of course just the pleasure of seeing your picture on the blog.

I can't say fairer than that.

Oh and of course you will be fully acknowedged.  If you can add anything about the picture so much the better.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson 

Remembering Slightam's of 105 Manchester Road

Slightam's, circa 1966

Now I have become interested in Slightam’s of 105 Manchester Road.

They ran one of the shops which offered a full range of services from "Newsagents, Stationers, Fancy Goods [and] Tobacconists" but also acted as a “Lending Library [with] over 1000 books.”

I first came across them on the dust cover of a book from one of those lending libraries which had been passed to me by my friend Margaret.

And not long after I posted a story about the book cover which referred to Slightam’s Lorna and David came back with memories of the shop.

Lorna remembered “that was a shop with immense character. It was a newsagent. Mr Slightanm always wore gloves with no fingers in. I don’t think the shop changed for many years, it was like Aladdin’s cave” while Dave added that “I remember, I even delivered papers for him. There was an old fashioned phone kiosk in the back of his shop that took old pennies”

Sowerbutts, 1911

All of which deserves a lot more research, more so because the 1911 directory listed 105 as “Sowerbutt’s Robert, newsagents Telephone Call Office” which not only offers up a wonderful sense of continuity but throws a light on how the telephone system worked in the early 20th century.

And in turn that telephone link helps date my dust cover.

I thought it might be the 1930s and said so but looking again at the advert for Slightam’s the clue is their telephone number which was Chorlton 140 and which in was changed to “now -881-3146.”

Now that change occurred in 1966 and so our hand written correction to the number means that the dust cover and the circulating library from which this book came was still doing the rounds in the 1960s.

Not earth shattering history I grant you but I think it’s fascinating and may well lead to a few more stories about the Slightam’s.

Thank you to Lorna and David.

Picture; advert courtesy of Margaret Connelly.

Chorlton’s corner shops, number 3............

Once the corner shop was a familiar and important feature of most of our towns and cities acting as much as lifeline to the late shopper as a place to pick up the gossip of the street.

Many have gone converted into residential use or left empty waiting for better days.

But those that survive against the competition of the big stores and convenience outlets are well worth recording, so here over the next few days courtesy of Andy’s pictures are some of ours here in Chorlton.



Picture; from the collection of Andrew Robertson, 2014

Chorlton’s corner shops, number 2

Once the corner shop was a familiar and important feature of most of our towns and cities acting as much as lifeline to the late shopper as a place to pick up the gossip of the street.

Many have gone converted into residential use or left empty waiting for better days.

But those that survive against the competition of the big stores and convenience outlets are well worth recording, so here over the next few days courtesy of Andy’s pictures are some of ours here in Chorlton.


Picture; from the collection of Andrew Robertson, 2014

In search of Whitelegg's on the corner of Manchester Road and Oswald Lane

Now I am no nearer discovering the story behind nu 61 Manchester Road which many will remember as Whitelegg’s the grocery shop.

I have a vague memory it was still trading here when I first washed up in Chorlton and was dispensing all things grocery in 1958 when A H Downs caught it on camera.

I did go looking for the story and wondered at the time if the owners were connected to the Whitelegg family who ran the Bowling Green in the 1860s and built Stockton Range on Edge Lane or were distantly related to that other Whitelegg who had rented Redgate Farm which was demolished to make way for the Library.

It was one of those complicated searches which I never had time to take on but I am tempted to do so after Andy Robertson sent me his picture of the building as it looks today.

There will be plenty of people who remember shopping there. My old friend Ida remembers the farm eggs and roast ham her mother bought from Whitelegg’s and I am sure there will be others who can offer up not only their own stories but point me towards discovering more about the family.

What I do know is that back when the parade of shops was new one of its first shop keepers was a Miss Mary C Midgley who in 1903 described herself as a confectioner and who by 1911 had been replaced by Mrs Emma Kaye who also dealt in confectionery.

And the rest setting aside any contributions will be down to a painstaking trawl of the directories.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; corner of Manchester Road and Oswald Lane, 1958, A H Downes, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the same building, 2016, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Revisiting The Vintage Beauty Parlour on Kingshill Road and a lot more history

Now I always planned to revisit that corner shop on Kingshill Road partly because it has history and also because it is back doing what all corner shops should do which is to be interesting and offer something to the community.

It began as a newsagents run by Annie Frazier and continued to sell cigarettes sweets and newspapers after she died in 1911.

I say that but I have still to double check using the directories, but her daughter Ada was there at nu 1 Kingshill until she died in the April of 1923.

At which point I have fallen back on the some of the documents held by the current owners who told me  that “a chap called Bushell died and his estate was sold to a Mrs Farrington, possibly as part of a wider business. 

Whitaker then got the place in 1927.

In the late 60s the shop and house was then owned by the Flanagans, closing in '83.”

Now the Whitaker’s are remembered fondly by many in Chorlton.  Bob Jones emailed me to say that

“I lived at no 12 opposite the shop born and bred so nice to see the shop open again  after many years boarded up

I was an order boy at the Beech Road shop of Charles Whitaker and Jeff his son, happy days.”

And for those who don’t know the Beech Road shop which was the Whitaker’s first business out let was on the corner by the green.

An advert from 1928 proudly announces that T C Whitaker’s had been established in 1896 but a family with the same name were trading along Beech Road as grocers as early as 1851.

Now I haven’t yet found a picture of the Kingshill shop from when it was owned by the Whitaker’s but there is a 2008 google street image of the shop with the faded lettering with their name still visible.

The current owner like me thinks it is a shame that copyright might prevent me from using the picture and recalled that

“I used to live in the house back then and it was freezing, just an empty flooded space, with no floor, you fell straight into the cellar. Then some kids smashed the shop windows, which is why it got boarded up.”

But all is now well and there is no doubting that transformation from a grim and empty retail property to its current use as The Vintage Beauty Parlour

Pictures; Kingshill Road, in 2016 and 2012,  courtesy of The Vintage Beauty Parlour 

*The Vintage Beauty Parlour, http://www.bethanyjanedavies.com/the-vintage-beauty-parlour

A century and a bit of offerring bread and cakes at 127 Oswald Road ..... from James Lawton to the Phoenix Deli

Now I am back on Oswald Road thinking of the house Mr and Mrs Lawton occupied in the January of 1911.

127 Oswald Road, 2012

It was a story I featured a few days ago and had begun with Peter’s painting of the Phoenix Deli.

And as you do I went looking for the history of the site.

I am now pretty sure that Mr and Mrs Lawton were the first residents of 127 Oswald Road and by one of those nice twists they were in the business of baking bread and cakes not so far away from what the Phoenix now does just a century and a bit later.

127 Oswald Road, 2015

In between there were of course a succession of different shops but as Andy’s photograph shows by 2012 Craft Delicious were making cakes and other fancy things to eat.

So what goes round comes round.

Pictures; 127 Oswald Road in December 2012 from the collection of Andy Robertson

The Phoenix Deli, 127 Oswald Road, Manchester M21 9GE, 0161 22 4990

e: :info@thephoenixdeli.co.uk
w: www.thephoenixdeli.co.uk

Opening times Monday-Friday 7.30 - 3 pm Saturday 8.30 - 2.30 pm

Painting; The Phoenix Deli © 2015 Peter Topping

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

The Phoenix Deli and a little bit of history

I went looking for Mr James Lawton today but sadly so far I have only found the one reference to him at 127 Oswald Road in 1911.

Today it is the Phoenix Deli but back then it was Mr Lawton's bakery and I rather think he would have been its first resident because the south side of Oswald Road dates from no earlier than 1909 and just a few doors down there is a stone plaque with the date 1907.

Had Mr Lawton stood on the site of his house just a year earlier he would have had an almost clear view across the fields as far as Longford Hall while just beyond Longford Brook there was the slightly less attractive brick works.

But within just a short time the developers had covered this side of the road with houses which would have offered up lots of new customers for his bread and cakes..

I don't yet know how long it remained a bakery but by 1969 it was listed as Jayvee Ltd, hairdressers' sundries and more recently Eat in 2008 and Craft Delicious four years later.

So the Phoenix Deli comes with a bit of history and a walk down Oswald Road will reveal a mix of the purpose built shops like the Market on the corner of Nicholas Road and other corner retail outlets which may once have been residential but were converted into shops by enterprising individuals.

Now given that Oswald and the long roads of Nicholas, Newport and Longford are just a bit of a walk away from the main shopping parades a convenience store on the next corner makes perfect sense especially if all you want is a pint of milk or a packet of biscuits.

Of course what we nip out for has changed so instead of a tin of corned beef and packet of instant mash it might well be fresh pasta, virgin olive oil and a loaf of ciabatta bread.

But I like the idea that what was once a bakery in 1911 is now a deli which just leaves me to find out all of the businesses that flourished at 127 which according to Shirley who ran it as a hairdressers for 14 years, "there was a dog parlour, arty trinket shop, sandwich shop and then an Asian Craft shop that sold tea."

Most have pretty much gone on unrecorded which is why I am pleased Peter has painted the Phoenix Deli for his series “A Moment in Time” which sets out to record how Chorlton is changing and is unique in that he has chosen to paint pictures rather than take photographs.

Since he began the project in 2010 some of the places have been redecorated, others have changed hands or no longer exist.

And that just leaves me to wish he had been outside 127 back in 1969.

Additional research Andy Robertson

The Phoenix Deli, 127 Oswald Road, Manchester M21 9GE, 0161 22 4990
e: :info@thephoenixdeli.co.uk
w: www.thephoenixdeli.co.uk
Opening times Monday-Friday 7.30 - 3 pm Saturday 8.30 - 2.30 pm

Painting; the Phoenix Deli © 2015 Peter Topping

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

Another story from Tony Goulding ....... St. Annes Road Off-license ( A response to a post of 10th. July 2015)

This shop was built in about 1912 and since then has mostly been an off-license. 

It ceased trading around the time of the turn of the millennium (or slightly earlier) and hasn't re-opened; the signs of the last SALE are still clearly visible in the window, however.

From the early 1930's until at least the 1960's it was run by an Mrs.Bertha Krell. (As recorded in Kelly's directory, 1933).  For some reason Bertha operated under her maiden name as she had already married Bernard Solomon at the South Manchester Synagogue in 1931.

Bertha was born in Cheetham Hill on June 17th. 1905 to Russian born parents, Benjamin and his second wife Fanny (nee Kerman), who kept a shop at 67, Cheetham Hill Road, trading in "earthenware goods” with a partner and fellow Russian émigré' David Zeligman.

By the time of Bertha's wedding the family had re-located to the more affluent area of Withington were they had an ironmongers shop as well as trading in wine and spirits. Dora, Bertha’s younger sister also gave piano lessons from their home at 17, Grove Terrace on Burton Road.

Bernard arrived in Manchester as a "Romanian" refugee when just three years old in the summer of 1901. Bernard's parents were Alter, a tailor's presser and Eva and by 1911 the family had settled at 8, Fairy Lane, off Bury New Road.

There is a record of a Bernard Krell (born 3rd.May, 1898) dying in Manchester in 1971.

It is extremely likely that this man was Bertha's spouse. Perhaps the couple used the less obviously Jewish surname "Krell" to avoid anti-Semitic activity. They were certainly using that surname in 1939, according to the just released "1939 Register".

Further perusals through both the street directories and the electoral rolls has added a little more information on the history of this building prior to, and since its occupation by the Krells.

In the first years of its life it appears to have been a solely residential property having a number of different residents. These included Mr. Nicholas Hennessey in 1915 and a Mr. James Craig in 1925. as yet I have been unable to discover any more about these two individuals.

Following the Krells the premises were occupied by Ronald and Edith Russell from the early 1970's until at least 1984, and possibly also for the final decade of its existence as an operational off-license.

This business may have been the last remaining of the traditional independent off-licenses which existed before the advent of chains such as "Threshers" and "Victoria Wine" which is now they largely confined to history with the proliferation of alcohol sales through supermarkets and convenience stores.

Replaced in some way by specialist wine and beer outlets at one end of the market and discount "booze" stores at the other.

 In the 1960's and 70's I only recall a few other "offies".

The "Feathers" and the "Southern" both had their own dedicated off-sales department with an access from the roadway. Otherwise apart from this one on St, Annes Road there was a tiny one on Beech Road (now San Juan Tapas Bar) where, incidentally, I was last asked my age when buying alcohol - I was in my late 20's at the time! I assume there must have been a few more around but, I suspect, not that many and I certainly don't remember them. Any thoughts?

© Tony Goulding, 2015

Pictures; from the collection, Tony Goulding, 2015
  

Chorlton's corner shops number 15 ........Shopping at Chas Cowsill's on St Clements Road in 1959

I can’t remember if this shop was still doing the business when I washed up in Chorlton in the mid 1970s.

And before I go any further, yes technically it is not a corner shop, but it pretty much still fits the pattern.

They were small, often existed for fairly short periods and sold almost anything.*

Today it seems odd to remember that there were so many of these shops all selling much the same products and surviving.

The street directories are full of them just around Chorlton Green all within a short walk of Beech Road, and the bigger parades on Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Road.

But people really did just shop next door and in an age before most homes had a refrigerator let alone a freezer, daily shopping was essential, made more so by tight incomes.

I cannot remember either my mum or grandparents doing a “big shop.”  Food was what you bought everyday and as for household products these were got only when strictly needed.

So Mr Cowsill’s fruit shop did the business, and like many others the evidence for its existence can still be seen in the brickwork around window.

Picture; 43-47 St Clement’s Road, A E Landers, 1959, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Corner shops, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Corner%20shops