Is that an apple tree Mr. Grace? ….. fruit …. flowers ….. and a heap of bushes in Hulme

Now I grant you the greening of Hulme may seem tad bit of an exaggeration but there is no doubt that chunks of the place are very green.

Coffee, cake and flowers the Hulme Community Garden 2023

And I don’t mean those huge expanses of open grass underneath which are the remnants of the deck access properties and Crescents of the and are now stretches of land waiting for something to happen.

More Community Garden, 2023

No I mean those pockets of trees, shrubs and wild flowers which have been left to grow  wild, like the small patch off Old Birley Street beside the Brooks Building and MMU campus, or the fruit trees outside Kim’s Kitchen.

True these bits of green are nothing compared to the fields which stretched south from Cornbrook down to the rural outposts of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Didsbury.

They were all still there in 1819 when Mr. Johnson drew up his superior map of Manchester and the surrounding areas, but within 30 years everything from The Duke’s Canal, down over Stretford Road was filling up, although past what is now Rolls Crescent was still open land.

Open fields through Hulme Moss Side and on to Withington, 1819

But already the comfortably well off were building their fine “surburban” homes with large gardens as far as Moss Side and by the 1890s both Hulme and its neighbours were full of terraced housing with their grid like streets.

And even more Community Garden, 2023

So, now with the third development of Hulme it is fitting that places like HulmeGarden Centre should be offering up an oasis of plants where you can go and sit, enjoying a meal at the café or coming away with some much-loved plants.

Location; Hulme

Pictures; Hulme Garden Centre, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and a detail from Johnson’s map of Manchester, 1819, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/  

*Hulme Community Garden Centre, https://hulmegardencentre.org.uk/

Who buried Mr. Birley in an open space in Hulme?

I should say that it’s not just who buried him but it’s who then found him.

What was lost is found, 2023

At which point I should point out that it is not Mr. Birley as such but the memorial stone commemorating the opening of Manchester’s first Board School in the June of 1874.

It is a story I have already visited but always promised myself a second go. *

I had thought I would crawl over the newspaper accounts of the opening, featuring the speeches of the good and worthy and their observations on the importance of education and in particular the features of Board School No. 1.

The school, 1962

These included a basement kitchen “with all appliances for tea parties”, “large places for storing fuel, with convenient shoots from the street above, so that all the rooms are warmed by open fireplaces and are thoroughly well ventilated”. 

Added to which the Manchester Guardian reported “The walls are faced to a certain height with glazed bricks, which can be easily cleaned, and on which writing or other defacement is impossible. 

Round both school rooms run bands of encaustic tile, bearing Shakespearean mottos”.**

But one Victorian worthy’s speeches on the value of education are pretty much like another so instead my thought turned to how the stone got there and who decided it should see the light of day again.

Walking to the Brooks Building 2023

Manchester Board School No.1 or Vine Street School as it became was situated close by and so it is entirely possible that when the school was demolished the memorial stone was just part of heaps of building spoil.  Just a little distance away developers found the original sunken baths of the Leaf Street Swimming Baths which were back filled after the walls of the building had been knocked down.

Or it may have been carefully stored away ready for the moment when a new educational institution was built in Hulme close to the old school.***

Someone one will know, and perhaps also reveal who decided to put it on display in a small area of land left to grow wild.

We shall see.

Location; off Old Birley Street, Hulme

 Pictures, memorial stone of Board School No 1, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the school, 1962, H. Milligan, m64822, , courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  

*The lost Hulme School ……, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-lost-hulme-school.html

**The First Board School in Manchester, Manchester Guardian, June 12th 1874

***The Brooks Building, part of the MMU.

Levenshulme Library

Now it easy to forget that that parts of south Manchester elected to join the city having spent a big chunk of time as self governing local authorities.

Levenshulme Library, 2012

So it was that Burnage ,Chorlton, Didsbury and Withington who voted to join Manchester in 1904 and Levenshulme five years later.

It was a decision that for  many rate payers was a decision too good to turn down and included the promise of better provision, and cheaper rates and utility bills.

As far as the 1904 "4" were concerned this included the building of new public libraries.

But in the case of Levenshulme they already had one, which has been opened in 1904.

The Levenshulme Urban District Council had successfully gained a grant from the Carnegie Foundation to build the library which cost £2,500 and according to the Manchester Guardian had “two special features worthy of mention. 

There is a room set apart for juveniles, in which, besides papers and periodicals, such games as chess, draughts and dominoes may be enjoyed.  

Adjoining the main reading-room and reached through a vestibule door is along veranda where people may sit and read in fine weather.”

And that is about all except to say I think Peter's painting captures it perfectly.

Location;Levenshulme

Painting;Levenshulme Library, © 2012 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Walking through Levenshulme’s history part 3 ............. the railway and the Town Hall

This is one of those images I wish I had taken.

We are on the on the railway line and behind the row of houses is the old Town Hall.

I could say more but I think the picture does it all.


Picture; Levenshulme July 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Walking through Levenshulme’s history part 2 ............. a police station, and some Victorian antique lace

Now somewhere I should be able to find the name of the architect who designed the police station in Levenshulme and with a bit of digging discover the exact date it was built.

I have passed it loads of times but it has taken Andy Robertson’s picture to focus my attention on the place.

It resembles pretty much the one on Beech Road which was built in 1885 and I guess will have been part of Lancashire Constabulary’s push to modernise its police stations.

The answer will lie in the archives of the Greater Manchester Police of the Lancashire County Archives, which will also offer up a date for when it closed.

That said there will be someone out there who knows and I hope supplies the answer.

For now it is just another of those buildings in Levenshulme which have long since become something else.

It’s neighbour the imposing old Town Hall deals in all manner of antiques and the bits and bobs that once were popular, then became unpopular and are again much sought after.

I should know on many a wet Saturday in the winter we have wandered through its many rooms.

For Tina who is Italian much of the stuff is fascinating and attractive, while for me the items bring back a shedful of memories and a realisation that what was once banal or commonplace has achieved collector’s status.

Who knows perhaps buried deep inside the cellars of the old police station will be some treasures as yet undiscovered.

Pictures; Levenshulme Police Station, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the station in 1959, H Milligan, m39759, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Walking through Levenshulme’s history part 1 ............. a railway station

Now there is a lot in Levenshulme that I have missed over the years so here is a short series focusing on the bits that have gone, the bits that may soon go and a lot more that is still there if you know where to look.

And that is where Andy Robertson comes in because on a grey and very unpromising July day he set off to record a place he knows well.

I could have started with any one of the four-eight images he recorded but given our joint fascination for all things railway, here is Levenshulme Station and associated pictures, and because someone has done its history far better than I here also is a little bit about when the railway arrived.*

The station which many will remember as Levenshulme South was originally just called Levenshulme and was opened by the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway on May 2nd 1892 and was on the Fallowfield Loop line.

And for those of us living in Chorlton it would have been just a few minutes down the line, but alas the station was closed as a passenger service in 1958.

Freight traffic continued to be handled until June 1965 when the station was downgraded to a coal depot only.

The building is still there and you can now walk the walk where once trains thundered past.

We have yest to do this bit of the loop but will do in time.

And that I think is where I shall stop for today, but as Levenshulme is a place I never lived and my knowledge of railway history is sketchy I shall await the experts to add more to the story of the station and the surrounding area.

And no sooner had the story been posted and  Anthony commented, "just a quick comment Andrew, although Levenshulme South closed to passengers in 1958, the line remained in passenger use, I think until the closure of Manchester Central in 1969. Liverpool Central - Manchester Central - Harwich Parkeston Quay boat trains had been routed via Levenshulme and Guide Bridge to Sheffield Victoria. In 1957-61 generally hauled by B1 class steam locos, with 61002 'Impala' and 61161 making regular appearances."

Which was followed up by Cedric who wrote, "so sad to see it today. I have a distant memory of catching a train at Levy south but I can't have been more than 3 years old at the time. 

I remember playing on the platform after the station closed, you had to be careful as there was broken glass everywhere after the vandals finished off the station buildings. 

The KK cash and carry shown in the photos was a hardware merchants after the station closed and I remember there was a shoe repairers next door who had the necessary leather working tools to restitch my school satchel when it started to come apart. 

Do kids still have satchels? I guess not." 

And I shall finish with a correction, Brian who runs that excellent facebook site,Greater Manchester History, Architecture, Faces and Places  added "Oh and Andrew, the loop was opened throughout on 2.5.1892, but it had been opened from Chorlton Junction to Fallowfield on 1.10.1891."

Now that is how I like my history, local, instant and full of new things to learn.

Next; that cinema

Pictures; of Levenshulme Station and more July 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Disused Stations, http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/levenshulme_south/index.shtml