The 42 from the Refuge Building …..a furniture shop, Wimpy Bar, and a shed load more …..1967

Now, with the passage of a full half century, it is the detail you forget.

I stood at the bus stops outside the old Refuge Building for years, and never gave much thought to the building opposite.

Back then it was just a furniture shop, and as I was a first year student on a grant, living in a series of drab and worn out  bed sits I gave Shaw’s Furniture shop scant attention.

And likewise I don’t think I ever went in the cinema round the corner, or took a train from Oxford Road Railway Station, and gave no attention to the features of the Refuge Building behind me.

It would be years before I went in to the former furniture shop, and only after it had become the Cornerhouse which was an art gallery, cinema, bookshop, bar and café, with superb views up Oxford Street, and some pretty interesting films which you would never see at the Odeon.

Likewise my discovery of the railway station with its wonderful 60s entrance would be delayed for a few years, and instead I fastened on the Oxford Road Corridor from town to Withington.

Which also meant that the hospital opposite Shaw’s, along with the kiosk which announced “You Are Safe With The Oxford Rubber Goods” was just a blur from the window of the 42.

Nor do I think I ever went in the Wimpy, which has over the decades changed its name and the food on offer.

And now, Shaw’s is No. 70, the Refuge Building is a hotel, and the kiosk became Euronews, although last time I passed it all seemed closed up.

But I still use Oxford Road Station and marvel at that entrance.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Shaw’s, and the Wimpy, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY,  and Oxford Road Railway Station, 2009 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A bold new station for Manchester and the film Hell is A City

This has to be one of my favourite Manchester stations. It is Oxford Road Railway Station.

The original station dates from 1849 and in 1960  was replaced by this one which was listed in 1995 and described by English Heritage as a "building of outstanding architectural quality and technological interest; one of the most dramatic stations in England.”*

I do have to agree with them.  Its glass and laminated wood entrance soars into the sky and on a sunny evening the reflection of the Refuge Building is captured in those high windows.

Now its predecessor was a much more modest affair.  It too was made of wood but was workman like and lacked style and presence.

There are a few pictures of this older station but not many and until recently I had not really given it much thought.

Until I came across a still from the film Hell is a City which was set in Manchester starred Stanley Baker and focuses on the search for a violent criminal.

It was made in 1960 just nine years before I arrived in the city and much of the location shots are ones that I remember well.

And there as Stanley Baker confronts the criminal on the roof tops of the Refuge Building is Oxford Road Station, both the Armadillo roof of the new station, the sweeping concrete wall of the car park and the old station.

It stands at right angles to the new station entrance which was something of a surprise but is logical.

Of course you would have to be over 50 and more likely 60 to have any vivid memories of this building and I doubt that there are that many pictures of the two standing together.

And like all such things the new station has undergone change.

That sweeping concrete wall and the car park it protected has gone.  In its place has come a tall steel structure with stone steps, which on a sunny day are occuppied by those waiting for a train or those catching a bit of sun along with their sandwiches.

And it remains a very busy place both inside and outside the rush hour.








Pictures;Oxford Road Station in 2008 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, still from Hell is a City, 1960, from Graham Gill,

That unusual railway station ....... hidden behind Oxford Road

Now I have a soft spot for Oxford Road Railway  Station and like plenty of others I have taken more than a few pictures of that reflection of the Refuge Building.

I can’t remember exactly when or why I was there but I managed to get the photograph on one of those quiet moments.

The original station dates from 1849 and in 1960  was replaced by this one which was listed in 1995 and described by English Heritage as a "building of outstanding architectural quality and technological interest; one of the most dramatic stations in England.”

I do have to agree with them.  

Its glass and laminated wood entrance soars into the sky and on a sunny evening the reflection of the Refuge Building is captured in those high windows.

Now its predecessor was a much more modest affair.  It too was made of wood but was workman like and lacked style and presence.

Of the two I prefer the present railway station which is always busy, so trying to catch a picture without including people is always a tad difficult.

But then that is one of the reasons I like the place.

Location; Oxford Road Railway Station

Pictures; Oxford Road Railway Station, 2008, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The new Manchester .......... the less intrusive tower

It is just possible to argue that the tower block in Andy’s picture is less intrusive thatn the new developments taking place across the city.

That said from this angle it does rather dominate the scene.

Location; Manchester

Picture; from the collection of Andy Robertson, 2017

Wandering the city in July .......... nu 7 urban living

It was the one day last July when the weather was just about OK.

And that really is all there is to say.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Oxford Road Railway Statuin, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Wandering the city in July .......... nu 4 waiting for the train

It was the one day last July when the weather was just about OK.

And that really is all there is to say.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Oxford Road Railway Station, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Waiting for a train

Oxford Road Station May 2009

I had just seen one of the lad's off on an adventure and with a bit of time to spare I tarried on the platform watching the ebb and flow of passengers in the rush hour.

Here were all you might expect at a busy station in the early evening.

Two were waiting for an airport train, another with that resigned and world weary expression of a seasoned traveller accpeted she had just missed her train and opened a book.

The rest stared expectantly ahead as the Buxton train was announced but steadfastly failed to make an appearance.

Location; Manchester

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Scenes from a railway station part 1

Now I enjoyed the railway posts and so with no pretence that they are great photographs I have decided features scenes of crowded railway stations.

This was  Oxford Road during the early evening rush hour.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Oxford Road Station, places I like

Well yes, it looks like another series of stories and all because I fell across some old pictures of the new Piccadilly Railway Station, and so it’s on to more.

The old front of Oxford Road Station hardly inspired you or lifted the heart that you were about to take off on an adventure.  It was a wooden and brick construction with wooden boards across the top half of the building and from the pictures I haves seen equally grim inside.

But all that changed in the late 1950s when British Rail rebuilt the exterior of the station.  They retained wood as the medium for construction but produced a stunning design which even now I reckon is pretty impressive.  

Back in 1961 the curve of the “Armadillo” roof was matched by a central car park protected by swirling tall concrete walls and surrounded by a gently curving ramp which took you up to the station.

The car park has gone replaced within a decade of the station’s opening by the mound which now has seats and acts as a pleasant enough spot to sit and watch the life of the place.  I would like to have seen it back when there was a car park but have to say it does look ugly and prevented a clear view of that impressive roof.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson