Chorlton Office, a pair of boots and a bus stop ................

This is one of my favourite pictures of Chorlton in the 1960s which comes from  George Cieslik’s collection.

I do like those images of the not so distant past, when much of what you can see is almost like today, but not quite.

And this one is no exception.

There in the distance is the old cinema, and in front, the building which over the years has had many different uses, from doctors’ surgery to a café, an antique shop and more recently a DIY centre and discount store.

Back in the 1940s it was still a residential property and out of the blue a few years ago someone contacted me with the story of when they lived there.

The keen observer will spot that the church on the corner of Barlow Moor Road and Sandy Lane had yet to be demolished, while the parade of shops opposite the cinema had yet to lose their stone ornaments.

But for me it is the very little details that make this photograph so fascinating.

It starts with the building which is now the home of diving club but back then was still the Chorlton Office and looks little different from when it was opened in 1915 as part of the terminus for the Corporation trams.

And that raises the question of just when the cast iron and glass veranda was spirited away.

And then for me there are the tiny personal things, starting with the old bus stop sign, with the Corporation logo, which was still in use when I washed up in Manchester in 1969 and the boots the woman beside the lamp post is wearing. 

They will have had a zip up the front, were made of felt with rubber soles, and an imitation fur lining, and were the bees’ knees back in 1962.

Others of my generation will single different things out, from the Belisha Beacons to the Morris Minors, and some like me will remember how the cab of the white lorry looked so modern when compared to others on the road.

And that is, other than to thank George for another slice of 1960s Chorlton.

Location; Barlow Moor Road

Picture; Barlow Moor Road, circa 1962 from the collection of George Cieslik

Following the 81 bus on a winter’s day along Upper Chorlton Road ……. now that’s a zippy title

I am the first to admit that following the 81 Corporation bus along Upper Chorlton Road on a winter’s day sometime in the early 1960s might seem a little dull.  

But not so, and I am indebted to George Cieslik who posted his picture a while ago and gave me permission to add it to the collection and tell its story.

We  are heading towards town and this is the bus stop just before Wood Road, and for those who know the stretch the block of flats to our right still exist, but pretty much everything else on either side has gone.

That starts with the large house, pocking out of the trees,  behind its impressive brick wall on the corner of Wood Road and Upper Chorlton Road .

While the even grander house close to the bus stop, and marked only by the stone gate posts, had only a few more years.

It had once been the residence of Mr. Demosthenos Tchaoussoglou, who was a shipping merchant, from the Ottoman Empire.  He had applied and was granted naturalization in 1905 and in 1911 was living in the house, with his wife, Helene and three children along with a cook, housemaid and “nursery governess”.

Mr. and Mrs., Tchaoussoglou, had married in 1906, and their first child was born the following year.

Theirs was a large house which in 1911 had thirteen rooms which I suppose made it perfect as the home of the Allied Libraries Ltd.

Just when the company moved into the property is yet to be discovered.

It had grown as a chain of rental libraries in the years after the last world war and at its peak in March 1962 it hired out 362, 000 books through 1,489 bookshops.

Just when it closed is also yet to be discovered, but I do know it was still there in 1969.

Look more closely and there beyond Mr. and Mrs.Tchaoussoglou's, home is Carlton Terrace, which had been built in 1871 and has recently been renovated and redeveloped into modern apartments.

Location; Upper Chorlton Road

Picture; following the 81 along Upper Chorlton Road, circa early 1960s, from the collection of George Cieslik

George Cieslik‎’s Manchester ……… the coming of the tram .... part 3

It is easy now to forget that there was a time before the tram ........unless of course you can remember the old stately towering Corporation ones which disappeared at the end of the 1940s.

So here over the next few days are some of George Cieslik's pictures of the construction of the tram way.

Location; Manchester





Picture; the lost square, circa 1980s, from the collection of George Cieslik

George Cieslik‎’s Manchester ……… the coming of the tram .... part 2

It is easy now to forget that there was a time before the tram ........unless of course you can remember the old stately towering Corporation ones which disappeared at the end of the 1940s.

So here over the next few days are some of George Cieslik's pictures of the construction of the tram way.

Location; Manchester


Picture; the lost square, circa 1980s, from the collection of George Cieslik

George Cieslik‎’s Manchester ……… the coming of the tram .... part 1

It is easy now to forget that there was a time before the tram ........unless of course you can remember the old stately towering Corporation ones which disappeared at the end of the 1940s.

So here over the next few days are some of George Cieslik's pictures of the construction of the tram way.


Location; Manchester




Picture; the lost square, circa 1980s, from the collection of George Cieslik

Back with the 81 …….

Now this is another of those pictures of the 81 Corporation bus, which  George Cieslik, has given me permission to use.

We are on Barlow Moor Road, sometime in the early 1960s, and it perfectly captures a world I remember very well.

There is a distinct period feel to the picture, which is partly that it is in black and white, and because of the now old-fashioned looking clothes people are wearing and the equally dated appearance of the bus and cars.

All of which is to state the obvious, but there is more.

Over to the right is the old Palaise De Luxe cinema, which had opened in 1914, changed its name to the Palace in 1946, and closed in 1957, with Jack Palance in "The Lonely Man" and Fernando Lamas in "Lost Treasure of the Amazon"*

It is a cinema I often write about, and I know plenty of people who remember it with fondness.

It became a Tesco supermarket and later was a Hanbury’s before becoming a Co-op, and now has an uncertain future as the Co-op has decided not to renew its lease.

But its post cinema life was even more varied because in the early 1960s it was the service centre for Radio Rentals, which was a chapter in the cinema’s history which until recently I was not aware.

And I have a confession, which is that I got the date the picture house  opened wrong.

I had always assumed it dated from 1915, but it appears it first threw open its doors in the May of 1914.  Such is the continuing unfolding of scholarship!

Leaving me just to note the old-fashioned bus stop with its route display, listing 11 bus numbers and carrying the logo of the Manchester Corporation, the original cast iron and glass shop canopy, and over in the distance the bus office.

Finally there are those tall cast iron poles which feature on both side of the road, and which at first I thought were the old support pillars which carried the cables powering the trams which had finally vanished in 1949.

But I rather think these would have been dismantled and what we have here are disused street lamps.

To which I leave that last thought to be shot down by an expert.

Location; Barlow Moor Road

Picture; the 81 on Barlow Moor Road, circa early 1960s, from the collection of George Cieslik

*Palace Cinema, Kevin Roe, cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/33844

George Cieslik‎’s Manchester ……….. Market Street in 1965

Now this is how I remember Market Street, when it had yet to be turned into a pedestrian haven, the Arndale was just an idea on a developer’s plan, and there was still a wide-open space at St Mary’s Gate.

The year is 1965 and these two pictures are taken from George Cieslik‎’s collection of Manchester, which prompted the title.

George posted them on social media a few days ago and reflected on how once Sunday was still a day off from shopping which meant that Market Street was not only free of people, but also traffic.

But all of us see something different in an image, so while for George it was the impact of Sunday closing, for me it was the absence of any buildings bar one old Victorian property on the stretch down to the river, behind Marks and Spencer.

Added to which it, the scene of Market Street pre-Arndale.

And for anyone born after the IRA bomb it may also be the distinctive canopy of the old Marks and Spencer store, along with the still grimy Royal Exchange which housed Boots the Chemist in the basement and The Danish Food Centre which was a little way along Cross Street, and was a revelation to a boy from south east London.

What makes George’s pictures very special, is that the age of the professional photographer working for the picture postcard companies was all but over.  In their heyday in the late 19th century and well into the next they captured our streets, providing historians and the interested with a wealth of historical detail.

But the decades after the last war see fewer staged images, and we become more reliant on those taken by newspapers and by people like George who I am pleased is happy to share them with us all.

Location; Manchester

Pictures, Market Street on April 4th 1965, from the collection of George Cieslik

George Cieslik‎’s Manchester ……… the lost square

I always came to think that the small square behind Marks and Spencer which shared the old Shambles with a Safeway was a planner's after thougt, thrown in once the Arndale had been completed.

Of course without looking at the plans that is what it felt.

It was not I thought the best way to show off the historic buildings of Manchester, and with the redevelopment of the are after the IRA bomb it was cleared away.

Location; Manchester


Picture; the lost square, circa 1980s, from the collection of George Cieslik