Till & Kennedy's on Cavendish Street ........... or if you prefer Mr Righton's Drapery Emporium and the Student's Union

Now this is one or those buildings which will mean many things to many people.

Righton's Buildings in 2015

For some it will be the old show rooms and for me and some of my generation Manchester Polytechnic’s first proper Student Union.

Before then the three colleges pretty much did their own thing with their own bars.

The College of Commerce on Aytoun Street where I went was known for some pretty spectacular Saturday nights with big bands, the Art College may have done the same but I doubt that much happened down at John Dalton

Detail including Mr Righton's name, 2015

All of which is outrageously  biased but fits with someone who wasn’t even aware of the other two sites until sometime in late 1970 almost a year after I begun at the “college of knowledge.”

Nor can I be fully sure when the Till Kennedy Building opened for pints, bands and much more.

One source has it throwing back its doors in 1969, before which it had been Till & Kennedy’s the ironmongers.

Righton's in 1958

It was built in 1905 for William Righton whose name appears above the main entrance.

He was a draper and the building offers up plenty of clues to its origins as a drapers shop.

The spacious ground floor was perfect for accommodating a vast range of fabrics while the large windows allowed the maximum amount of daylight into the building, a feature complimented by the top-lit gallery with the cutaway floor providing extra light to penetrate down into the main shop.

Now this had always puzzled me as had the benching around the gallery and only now have I discovered that these benches were where “the cloth was measured.”*

Righton's in 2015

It had a short life as a student’s union and has been used by various faculties of the Poly and the MMU.

I remember visiting it to look at the collection of taped memories of life in Manchester in the first half of the last century but as much as I tried my mind wandered to disco nights and of a particularly magic evening with Osibisa.

Added to which there were those endless student general meetings where our own version of politics was played, all of which was I suspect a long way from Mr Righton’s bolt of blue cloth or Till and Kennedy’s taps and assorted iron ware.

Pictures; the Righton Building, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson and in 1958, H.W.Beaumont, m19060, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Manchester An architectural history, John K Parkinson-Bailey, 2000, Page 317

When your life comes packaged in just eight pages…….

 It’s a silly title really but it sprang to mind after seeing Michael Kay’s post featuring the brochure for Manchester Polytechnic.

It is dated 1970 and must have been produced just a few months after I washed up in the city to do an Arts degree at the College of Knowledge on Aytoun Street.*

I had arrived in the September of the previous year, with a suitcase, an address for a bed sit and no idea what was ahead of me.

Indeed, as a lad from southeast London Manchester was only the second city I had ever experienced.

And pretty much soon after I arrived, I embraced the place spending the hours when I should have been in the library wandering the city centre, which gave me a fascination for the buildings, and the history. 

Along the way I made some lasting friendships and many more which have dropped away over the years.

As for the degree, well I learned a few things, but like others not as much as I had done during A levels.

But the three years also introduced me to the other two faculties that made up the Poly, and while I did visit John Dalton the science place, it was the Art College, All Saints and the old Till Kennedy Building which were a second home.

The three faculties of Art, Commerce and Science had been separate educational institutions and mine betrayed its origin with the title of Commerce which offered many vocational courses, making it an odd mix of students.

Till Kennedy, Student's Union, 2015

Over the years I have written about the famous Saturday nights which hosted a pile of groups which straddled the late 60s and early 70s, along with equally memorable times at the Students Union which to many of us will always just be the Till Kennedy Building.*

It was built in 1905 for William Righton whose name appears above the main entrance.

He was a draper and the building offers up plenty of clues to its origins as a drapers shop.

The spacious ground floor was perfect for accommodating a vast range of fabrics while the large windows allowed the maximum amount of daylight into the building, a feature complimented by the top-lit gallery with the cutaway floor providing extra light to penetrate down into the main shop.

The Art College, 2024

Now this had always puzzled me as had the benching around the gallery and only now have I discovered that these benches were where “the cloth was measured.”***

The College of Knowledge, 1969

Over the years I have explored the history not only of the College of Commerce but also the Art College with its links to many of the artist I admire, as well as Mr. Dalton.

Much of which came flooding back with the brochure with its images of the city and its optimistic take on Manchester in the 1970s.

And what is remarkable is that a full fifty-six years after it was published many of the buildings and places it featured are still there.

Sadly, my own College was found wanting and now is at the centre of a residential complex, while On the Eight Day has moved slightly further up Oxford Road and now inhabits a new build, while Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station was transformed by a make over at the start of this century.

Still the eight pages make for an interesting read, but not a nostalgic one, after all I never left the city and so took the changes in my stride.

That said I do remember that two years after the Poly came into existence, its entire collection of student accommodation comprised six flats for six married couples in the former Fireman’s block of the Mill Street Police Station off Grey Mare Lane.

We had married in the December of 1972 and moved in a few months later as one of the first six couples.  

For all of us living in east Manchester was a tad different from the south of the city but perfectly fitted with how we saw ourselves.

Leaving me just to thank for posting and giving me permission to use the pictures.

Location; Manchester in 1970

Pictures; Manchester Poly brochure, courtesy of Michael Kay, The College of Commerce, 1969, Butterworth Street, Luft M 1991, m55776, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, The Art College, 2024, and the former College of Commerce, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the former Till Kennedy Building, 2015 courtesy of Andy Robertson

The College of knowledge in 2023

*The College of Commerce.

The entire student accomodation in 1972

**Manchester Polytechnic, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Manchester%20Polytechnic

****Manchester An architectural history, John K Parkinson-Bailey, 2000, Page 317

The canal, some lost buildings and a moment from 1978

 This is Canal Street in 1978, and for me and those friends who went to the old College of Commerce it is  familiar scene.

Canal Street and the Rochdale Canal, 1978

Now the blog doesn’t do nostalgia, it is a pernicious and deceptive trick, where the sun always shone, Wagon Wheels were always big, and people left the doors unlocked.

The fact is that there was never  a perfect golden time, and if people did leave their doors unlocked it was simply because there was nothing in the house worth stealing.

The canal, 1955

That said, the picture does conjure up nostalgic memories.  By 1978, my student days at the College were six years in the past, I was gainfully employed, and still finding lots of time to wander the streets of the city, with a camera and heaps of historical curiosity.

But perhaps because I walked Canal Street so many times I don’t think I ever photographed the canal from this angle.

David Ward-naden did, and it is a perfect piece of history.  Beyond the bridge and to the right the buildings which fronted London Road and have long gone, as has the cark park of the college which was behind that white wall.

David reminded me that this has once been an arm of the Rochdale Canal which serviced a series of warehouses, one of which in the early 1970s was converted into the library of the college.

And that in turn led me back to a series of stories I did of that spot, and in particular of Back Canal Street and Little David Street which ran parallel to Camp Street.  

Only Little David Street still exists and it is now just an alley which at present id fenced off.  Back in the early 19th century the two streets which ran off Chorlton Street terminated at the edge of the canal arm.*

In 1841, 81 people lived in 22 of the 28 back to back properties which had been built as one up one downs at the beginning of the 19th century.

The area, 1955

Here lived a mix of families who earned their living as labourers, textile workers with the odd craftsmen.

The properties were swept away and replaced by a new commercial building, but as late as the 1950s, the canal arm was still in use, and the site was not cleared until the middle of the next decade when the College of Commerce was built.

That too has now gone, with the old tower block redeveloped for residential purposes, and a new block standing on the site of the old car park.

Such is the passage of time over 40 or so years.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Canal Street and the Rochdale Calana, 1978, from the collection of David Ward-naden British Waterways narrow boats, proceeding to Hassall's Warehouse, Ducie Street, leaving Chorlton Street Lock, 1955, m54248, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .... nu 64 Little David Street, a lost canal a cafe and a plan, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Little+David+Street

Osibisa, the old Till & Kenendy Building and a memory

Now for no particular reason I played Woyaya by Osibisa.

Osibisa and Mr. Righton

The LP has sat on the shelf with a shed load of other vinyl which I treasure but seldom play.

And within the time it takes for the music to roll around the room I was back in the 1970s.

It was one of those records that we played late in the night, usually accompanied by the all pervading smell of joss sticks and was pretty much the sound track to a very happy time.

We knew we had grown up a bit, not because we were living in our first house but by the purchase of the sound system which of course following the times was a mix of different bits and pieces.  The speakers were Wharfdales, the record deck was a Pioneer and the tuner was that odd shaped model from Sony with a large dial which took up all of the wooden cabinet.

I have often wondered what our neighbour made of us and the music, but she was always pleasant and made us mince pies at Christmas and so perhaps she too was a fan, despite the fact that she had been born 1900 and had never moved more than half a mile from Raynham Street off Whiteacre Road in Ashton.

And here is the thing, I am still trying to work out whether we heard Osibisa live.  If we did it would have been in the old Till & Kennedy building which by then had become the student’s union of the Manchester Polytechnic.

But even by 1971/2 I think they were successful enough to have regarded a student’s union as small beer.

That said we all know the story of Paul and Linda McCartney with the rest of Wings turning up on a Saturday afternoon offering to play at a student’s bar.

And just a few years earlier the College of Commerce on Aytoun Street had hosted a impressive line up of musicians from Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues and Barclay James harvest, along with Roy Harper, the Edgar Broughton Band and Canned Heat.

So you never know. It maybe I was right and if so I would love the memory confirmed.

Pictures; the Righton Building, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson 

Memories of John Stuart Mill, John Donne and city centre living

Now I make no value judgement, other than this was where I spent three years from 1969 to 72 crawling over the history of 19th century Britain with a side look at John Donne, assorted metaphysical poets, and the boring bits of D H Lawrence.

Added to which those in charge decided us Arts students should also do two hours a week compulsory science and technology, the logic of which I can now appreciate, but bitterly resented back then.

This was the College of Commerce, or as the nerds called it, ColCom and some of us referred to as the College of Knowledge.

This was part of the new designated Manchester Poly but still seemed an individual entity.

From there it became the MMU and when no longer fit for purpose was sold on and is part of a residential complex.

And that is all I have to say.

Location; Aytoun Street

Pictures; the College of Commerce, 1969, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?, and now, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

All Saints on a sunny April Saturday ….. with a heap of history

Now All Saints on Oxford Road has been one of my haunts for over half a century and it is somewhere I still regularly return to.

Grosvenor Building, 2022 formerly Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall 

The park which is the centre piece of the place is bounded on three sides by Manchester Metropolitan University, which when I first attended as a student was the newly formed Manchester Polytechnic.

Back then the Poly consisted of the Manchester School of Art, John Dalton College of Technology and the College of Commerce and was later joined by College of Education in Didsbury, and along the way it has picked up other educational establishments.

When I first wandered the area, I had no idea of its history or that there had been a church and burial ground on the site of the present park. Its main attraction was that here was the student’s union houses in the old Righton Building which we knew as Till Kennedy, after a later occupant.

Manchester School of Art, 2022

Subsequently I learned that here was the Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall and Dispensary which I remember as a soot blackened building whose interior looked to be in need of much tender care and attention.  

Grosvenor Square, formerly All Saints Burial Ground, 2022

It was built during 1830-31 and is best remembered as the venue in 1945 for the Fifth Pan African Congress which was It was attended by 90 delegates, 26 from Africa.*

They included many scholars, intellectuals and political activists who would later go on to become influential leaders in various African independence movements and the American civil rights movement, including the Kenyan independence leader Jomo Kenyatta, American activist and academic W. E. B. Du Bois, Malawi's Hastings Banda, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, prominent Jamaican barrister Dudley Thompson and Obafemi Awolowo and Jaja Wachuku from Nigeria. 

It also led partially to the creation of the Pan-African Federation, founded in 1946 by Nkrumah and Kenyatta.

Beside the former Town Hall is the Art School, and the Righton Building, while close by is the Ormond Building which was the offices of the Chorlton Union which administered the Poor Law from the late 1830s through till the mid-20th century.  

Bellhouse Building, 2022

The building dates from 1881 became the offices the Manchester Poly in 1970 and was briefly occupied by us students sometime in the following year during a protest over library cutbacks.  

I still reflect that a few years earlier students across the West had taken over university buildings as a stand against the Vietnam War, the perceived “class based” nature of education and the “elitist control of universities”, while we spent three nights sleeping on the floor of the Poly’s offices because of a few less books.

That said the loss of a few less books was an important issue to make a stand on, even if it also allowed my girlfriend and I an opportunity to be together.

Beyond the Ormond Building, is the delightful looking Bellhouse Building which was once the town house of the Bellhouse family which my Pevsner, tells me was built in 1831 for the Bellhouse’s who “were the most successful building contractors in Manchester of the day.  Only the façade is original.  …. It was converted around 1910 for the Manchester Eye Hospital but became offices in 1987".**

All Saints, 1950, OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1950

Leaving me just to add that there is a wonderful short historical description of the area by Steve Marland.***

Location; All Saints

Pictures; walking around All Saints, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* All Saints in the snow, 1958, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/12/all-saints-in-snow-1958.html

**Manchester, Clare Hartwell, 2222, Pevsner Architectural Guides, pp 130-33

***All Saints – Grosvenor Square Manchester, MODERN MOOCH,December 5, 2018, https://modernmooch.com/2018/12/05/all-saints-grosvenor-square-manchester/

 

Inside an 18th century house in Didsbury

Looking back to 2014 ...... before that development.

This is the Pump House.  It has served as an educational institution of sorts since it became a boarding school around 1812.

Later it was turned into a theological college and later still into teacher training college.

And before that was a private residence dating back to about 1744.

The stone cladding to what was originally a brick building was added by the Wesleyans when they took it over in 1841.

They also added the wings at either side and that is what generations of people from Didsbury have seen as they pass by.

I remember it as the admin block when it was the Didsbury College of Education and it was where I attended meetings with teaching staff.

But soon it will all change again as the M.M.U. relocates to Birley Fields.

So for all of those who like me have not been inside since they graduated and for all those who just pass by and wonder what the inside is like, here are a few images from my old friend Pierre who works there and never ceases to enjoy both the place and his role as a teacher.

Something of the grandeur of the building is still there from when it was a private residence and home to the Broome family during the 18th century.

So there you have it, a bit of the building's history and some fine photographs.

And now its time as a college is almost over and as the staff begin to pack up I guess all sorts of records and historical information will be unearthed.

Now as a historian I am fascinated by what might turn up.

After all almost 70 years will have gone past since the college became a teacher training establishment and there will be plenty of stories which might emerge from those records.

This I know because just fourteen years ago my old school merged with another and in the process of sifting and eliminating more than a half century of material many fascinating glimpses of the schools past came to light.

And if any one wants to know a little about the college and its place in the history of Didsbury I shall draw your attention to the book Didsbury Through Time which chronicles the changes to the area over the last century mixing old images of the place with new photographs and paintings and focusing on some of the people who lived behind the doors of the buildings featured in the book.

The book was published in December 2013, and is available at Chorlton Bookshop and in Didsbury from Morten’s Bookshop on Warburton Street, Didsbury, as well of course as other bookshops.



Pictures; of the Pump House courtesy of Pierre Grace, 2014.

A little bit of my history and a lot more on the walls of the common room in the Faculty of Education in Didsbury

Now I know that somewhere in a dusty set of filing cabinets or in some long forgotten book on the history of Manchester’s education service there will be a record of the different colleges which over the last century and a bit have offered training to those who wanted to become teachers.

But there is a short cut and here it is in the form of a poster in the common room of MMU’s Faculty of Education in Didsbury.

My friend Pierre kindly sent me the image of the poster after a conversation yesterday about the imminent move of the faculty from Didsbury to Hulme.

Mindful of the rich history of teacher training at the former Methodist College there are moves to discover what priceless documents may lie at the bottom of a filing cabinet or at the back of a cupboard.

In the past institutions have been all too quick to discard their history in the interests of rationalization, saving space and just starting a new.

In some cases just because there was no one interested in collecting the material and once thrown into a skip of burnt it is lost forever.

So I am intrigued at the plaque, which was “placed for safekeeping in the former Manchester College of Higher Education and City of Manchester College of Higher Education” recording “the students of the former Manchester Municipal Day Training College (1910-24) who gave their lives in the First World War.”

All the more fitting given that soon we shall be marking the centenary of the outbreak of the Great  War.

And during this time when we focus on the sacrifice made I would like to dig deep into the records of the young men who went through the Municipal Day Training College and see what can be discovered of their lives.

But for me it is also that here is a little of my history covering my years at the old College of Commerce which merged to form Manchester Polytechnic, absorbed Didsbury Training College and became the M.M.U.

So  I suppose you could say a little bit of me has been preserved on the wall of the common room along with that long line of former colleges all the way back to 1857.

I just hope it makes the move safely to Birley.

Picture; courtesy of Pierre Grace, 2014

Goodbye to that College in Didsbury part 6 .......another wall plaque to the Rev Archibald Walter Harrison

As the last few months of the College at Didsbury tick away and all things are made ready for the shift to Hulme I am back with one of those bits of its history that has spent the last 70 or so years on a wall.

It reminds us that college began as theological training centre  from 1842 till 1942 and included in this story is the Rev Archibald Walter Harrison.

He was at his death the President of the Methodist Conference and had a long record in the service of the Wesleyan faith.

Born in 1882, he trained for the ministry at Didsbury where he studied for three years “completing his B.Sc degree and passing the Intermediate examination in Divinity before becoming Assistant Tutor.”*

From there he moved across the country as a minister, wrote extensively on church history, was awarded the Military Cross in the Great War, and was variously Vice Principal and then Principal of the Westminster Training College from 1921-1940.

“Methodism was in his bones and in his blood; he understood its peculiar genius, loved its hymnology, served it with splendid loyalty and gave his life to serve it to the uttermost.”**

So I am just left wondering when the wooden plaque was placed in the library and if the Manchester Education Committee made a contribution.

In the meantime it is a nice reminder of the long history of college and thanks again to Pierre for sending it to me.

* W F Howard, Wesleyan Historical Studies, 1946

**ibid, W F Howard

Picture; of the plaque, courtesy of Pierre Grace 
Didsbury, Didsbury College of Education, Goodbye to that College in Didsbury, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Polytechnic, My Manchester, Rev Archibald Walter Harrison

Goodbye to that College in Didsbury part three .......a wall plaque and the Rev Archibald Walter Harrison

The plaque

I don’t think I ever noticed the wooden plaque in the library showing the crests of the old Methodist College and Didsbury Training College, along with the name of the Rev Archibald Walter Harrison.

And when the MMU vacates the site later this year I hope it will be displayed somewhere in the new building at Birley in Hulme.

Now the Methodist College which provided theological training from 1842 till 1942 deserves a post all of its own as does Didsbury Training College which can trace its history back 1946 when the Board of Education rented the building as an Emergency Training College and on to its purchase in 1950 by the Manchester Education Committee.

Likewise the Rev Archibald Walter Harrison should not just be dismissed as an obscure name on a wooden board.

The Library in 1911

He was at his death the President of the Methodist Conference and had a long record in the service of the Wesleyan faith.

Born in 1882, he trained for the ministry at Didsbury where he studied for three years “completing his B.Sc degree and passing the Intermediate examination in Divinity before becoming Assistant Tutor.”*

From there he moved across the country as a minister, wrote extensively on church history, was awarded the Military Cross in the Great War, and was variously Vice Principal and then Principal of the Westminster Training College from 1921-1940.

“Methodism was in his bones and in his blood; he understood its peculiar genius, loved its hymnology, served it with splendid loyalty and gave his life to serve it to the uttermost.”**

So I am just left wondering when the wooden plaque was placed in the library and if the Manchester Education Committee made a contribution.

In the meantime it is a nice reminder of the long history of college and thanks again to Pierre for sending it to me.

* W F Howard, Wesleyan Historical Studies, 1946

**ibid, W F Howard

Picture; of the plaque, courtesy of Pierre Grace and the college Library in 1911

Goodbye to that College in Didsbury part 1 ........ thanks for all the teachers

The admin building in 2012

The M.M.U. is leaving Didsbury and so will end nearly 200 years of students on the site opposite the village green

It began with a school in what had once been the home of William Broome, became a theological school in 1841 and from 1946 a centre for training teachers.

So the departure of the Faculty of Education in July marks a very big moment in the story of the site and I suppose Didsbury itself.

There will be fewer students and as a result  I think the area will lose a little something, but no doubt there will be some residents who welcome the change.

Offiically the Faculty will close on July 18th and the buildings and the campus will go quiet awaiting its future development.

Meanwhile the staff and students will relocate to Hulme in what was recently known as Birely Fields but I am told will now just be called Birley.

Inside the admin building once a private residence

Now anyone who has been involved in such a move will know just how traumatic it can be and the very real danger that bits of the priceless history of the site will get lost, overlooked or just thrown away.

So I am pleased that my friend Pierre who works there has begun sending me photographs of some of its history ranging from wall plaques to posters and a lot more.

And by way of a start I have decided to represent some of the pictures he took  of the admin block which dates from about 1744.*

Sometimes referred to as the Pump House this was William Broome’s home till his death in 1810 when it was sold later became a boarding school run by a Miss Meek.**

In 1841 the Methodists who purchased the property for a college, clad the exterior in stone extended the building and built a chapel nearby.

Inside the Pump House

And since then thousands of young people have passed through the building starting with those theological students and on to all those who were to become teachers.

I was there for a year in 1973 dong a post grad course and since then I have met and worked with many who also went through its doors.

So goodbye to the college and thanks for all the teachers.










Pictures; of the admin block of the Faculty of Education, Didsbury, courtesy of Pierre Grace.

*Inside an 18th century house in Didsbury, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/inside-18th-century-house-in-didsbury.html

**A New History of Didsbury, E.France & T.F. Woodall, 1976