Doors I have known .............. now that’s a zippy title

Fairfield Street

Now there is nothing original in showing off a collection of doors.

But I was reminded of just how many pictures of doors I have taken over the years after talking to my cousin Marisa in Canada.

She was recently engaged in a project to photograph and record the stories of doors in her home town in Ontario

And as you do I went looking for some of the ones I have come across over the years.

Most are from cities and towns in Italy, Greece and a shed load here in Manchester

Some of them have appeared before along with the history of the people who lived or worked behind them.

So for now I shall just post the pictures of three I like.

Via Nationale

I  don’t pretend they are classic shots but just ones that I have come to know over the years with the promise of more to come.

The first is one of those most of us pass by without a second glance.

It is on that very busy and at times desolate stretch of Fairfield Street by Piccadilly Railway Station.*

And for a big chunk of the 1970s I often caught the 218 out to Grey Mare lane and then when we bought our first house all the way up to Ashton.

The second is on the Via Nationale in Rome and caught my fancy as I waited outside a clothes shop for what seemed a century.  We had done the sightseeing and now it was that other type of activity involving a series of shops which made even the most mundane Roman relic a thing of beauty and fascination.

And that just leaves me with the entrance to J & J Shaw on New Wakefield Street.

New Wakefield Street

I long ago delved into the history of the company and acknowledge others have taken better pictures of the door and tiled surround, but then this at least is mine and not snatched from the internet.

So there you have it ...... three doors three places and I bet lots of stories, as yet untold.

Locations, Fairfield Street, Manchester, Via Nationale, Rome, and New Wakefield Street Manchester





Pictures; different doors, different places 2002-2010, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Alas it has gone

The Hidden History of the Front Door .... on the wireless today

"Join Rachel Hurdley as she opens the front door to step into a story of security, sociability, style and even the supernatural.

St Ann's Street, 2022

The front door may seem to be just a simple way of coming in and out of a house, but it almost always reveals more about the householder than they might expect. 

The style of door, its colour, the letter box, doorbell, even perhaps the house name, are all chosen to present an image to the outside world. In this programme, Rachel reveals how to interpret a front door and how developments in their design and use over the centuries reflect social changes.

Rachel starts at Chepstow Castle, where she admires what’s thought to be the oldest castle door in Europe and finds out why it was built to provide a strong deterrent to intruders. 

At the moated manor house of Baddesley Clinton she discovers how Medieval and Tudor home owners used their doors to ward off evil spirits. 

In Bath she goes back to the time of Jane Austen to hear about the social etiquette of paying a visit; moving forward to the 19th century she learns why the Victorians loved to put a house name on their front door.

And finally she visits the Becontree Estate in East London and sees how the building boom of the 1920s and 30s meant many families had their own front door for the first time.

Princess Street, 2022

Interviewees:

* Sonia Solicari, Director of The Museum of the Home https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/

Via Nationale, 2007

* Jonathan Glancey, Architectural Writer and Historian

* Will Davies, Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Cadw, spoke at Chepstow Castle https://cadw.gov.wales/visit/places-to-visit/chepstow-castle

 James Wright, Buildings Archaeologist, spoke at Baddesley Clinton https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/baddesley-clinton

 Elaine Chalus, Professor of British History at the University of Liverpool, spoke at No. 1 Royal Crescent https://no1royalcrescent.org.uk/

 Laura Wright, Professor of English Language at the University of Cambridge and author of ‘Sunnyside: A History of British House Names’

 Bill Jennings, former resident and Housing Manager, spoke on the Becontree Estate

Presenter: Rachel Hurdley, Producer: Louise Adamson, Executive Producer: Samir Shah"*

Pictures; St Ann's Street & Princess Street, Manchester, 2022, and Via Nationale, Rome, 2007

*The Hidden History of the Front Door, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00180ld

The door …… Beech Road

So, what else do you do on Beech Road at 7 in the morning? ..............

.............. take a picture of a door.

In this case the one that is now Bar San Juan, but which has been the home of many cafes since Chorlton on the Green.

And before that a piano shop, hairdressers, and ironmonger.

Location; Beech Road

Picture No. 60 Beech Road, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Revisiting Marshall Street and the entrance to Marsden Harcombe & Company

Now it’s been a long time since I was down on Marshall Street and so I have no idea if the entrance to the former Marsden Harcombe & Company factory still exists.

Marshall Street, 2015

I knew the building as the Greater Manchester County Records Office which is now in Central Ref and since they moved the place has been empty.

A full year ago I reflected on its future and then as you do forgot about it but Phil Portus has set me off thinking about both the building and Marsden Harcombe & Company again.*

I don’t as yet know when they set up in Marshall Street or when they closed down, but in 1911 James Harcombe, mattress & manufacturer (Marsden, Harcombe & Co) were listed at 19 Highfield Drive Monton” which is a residential property.

So their manufacturing business will have been elsewhere but there is no listing for them on Marshall Street although my eye was caught by The Cosy Workmen’s Home on the corner with Chadderton Street but that will have to wait for another time.

Soap Street, circa 1900

Eventually I tracked the firm to Soap Street which is off Thomas Street and is one of those narrow little places that would not be out of place in a novel by Charles Dickens.

And at some point after 1911 they made that move to Marshall Street but to fasten on the exact date will mean trawling through a pile of directories but I do know that much of the street was still terraced housing at the beginning of the 20th century.

So for now I will just leave you with Phil’s picture and a map of Soap Street from the 1900s . **

And after this was posted, Pauline Sprague Kielty commented that "my Dad and his cousin worked there.maybe in the 30s they made mattresses. Then when Dad was doing the family history 1999 we went there to look up family records as it turned into the records office . Dad noticed the old clocking off clock still attached to the wall."  Magic

Location; Marshall Street, Soap Street, Manchester

Pictures; Marsden Harcombe & Company, Marshall Street, 2015, from the collection of Phil Portus, and Soap Street, 1900, from Goad’s Fire Insurance maps, courtesy of Digital Archive Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Lost Images of our Commercial Past ..... part one ........ down on Marshall Street, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/lost-images-of-our-commercial-past-part.html

**Salford Project, http://www.philportus.co.uk/salford-project/

The Happy Door .......... no. 6 ...... from The Goldsmith Collection

I have no idea what was behind the door.

But I like image, which clearly our Jillian did, because she took the photograph.









Location; Brighton
















Picture; the Happy Door, 2017, from the collection of Jillian Goldsmith

When Andy Robertson walked out ………….. down Chester Road

Pictures of doors remain a fascinating subject for photographers.

And so when Andy sent over this one of those two doors on Chester Road, it just had to be included.

We have already joked that there should be a day when we rename the blog, the Andy Robertson blog, given that over the  years he has contributed some excellent pictures and more importantly has created a series of story lines which have followed the transformation of bits of the city and the surrounding areas.

And he is dedicated and persistent  in his determination to record a chosen site from the time when a property is vacated or has become neglected and run down, to its demolition, followed by the moment when the builder’s break the ground and a new property begins to rise.

In this case it is those two doors, which I have passed countless times, and never given them a second thought.

In time I will go looking for their history, but I am confident someone will come up with chapter and verse, but until then I will leave you with those two doors, and the fun of speculating on the changes that have been made to the houses that share these doors.

Location; Stretford

Picture; two doors …… Chester Road, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Down on New Wakefield Street

Now I could go into the history of New Wakefield Street.

 It is the long twisting street which takes you  down to what was Little Ireland that byword for all that was bad about Manchester in the 1840s.

But I won’t.

I have written about it as have shed loads of historians back to Frederick Engels and Dr Kay.

Instead I shall just repost this picture taken well over a decade ago which I often revisit.

Location; New Wakefield Street, Manchester

Picture New Wakefield Street, 2004 from the collection of Andrew Simpson