Tram jam .............. Oxford Road

Now, somewhere I have a complete collection of press cuttings about Manchester's new road scheme, which resulted in huge rush hour congestion on Oxford Street and Road in 1938.

Tram Jam, 1938

It was a bold plan which was simply called Manchester's No 9 Traffic scheme. 

And it was a one way system that "included Oxford Street, a part of Oxford Road, and Princess Street"*

It had been in operation for eight days, including two Sundays before  "unprecedented congestion of trams in Oxford Street in the morning and the delays later in the day in Princess Street and Grovesnor Street showed showed the necessity  for alterations to the system".

Now the picture has no date, so it may have been taken during the road traffic scheme or was just  a tram jam in the rush hour at some other time in the 1930s.

Manchester's number 9 traffic scheme, 1938

Location Oxford Road

Picture; Oxford Road, circa 1939, from the collection of Allan Brown

*Manchester's One Way Traffic Scheme, The Manchester Guardian, June 13th, 1938

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

Standing on the lost Prichard Street in the summer of 1971 ……… with no thoughts of the future

There will still be some people who remember the close network of streets and houses that stretched back from Oxford Road to the Medlock, and from Charles Street down to Great Street.

Pritchard Street on the cusp of change, 1971

In all there were fourteen streets and countless houses which were all swept away so that the BBC could have a new broadcasting centre here in Manchester.

The lost streets included Pritchard Street, Hesketh, Leigh and Saville Streets and along with the houses there had been a school and a pub.

Planning permission had been granted in 1968 and after a hiccup building began in 1971 was finished in 1975 and the place was home to the BBC until 2011.

And for those wanting to impress a companion, about 800 staff worked there and with the opening of the second studio in 1981 the BBC closed Broadcasting House in Piccadilly which had been there for 52 years.

And now Broadcasting House has gone replaced by Circle Square.

Pritchard Street, 1894

In the meantime, I wonder how many memories of those that lived in that small area can be shared.

After all the buildings only began to be cleared in 1968.

Broadcasting House, 2011

All of which has been prompted by that picture at the top of the page, which must have been taken in the summer of 1971.

We were on Prichard Street with Charles Street and the Lass O’Gowrie in the distance, surrounded by the remains of a warehouse to our right and what had once been a row of back-to-back house.

At the time I doubt we had any idea what the developers had planned, and more than likely we were on our way down to The Eighth Day or to meet up with friends at the Art College on All Saints.

The picture and the memories of that day have lain hidden for over half a century but offer up a little insight into the area off Oxford Road on the cusp of its development.

Lost and forgotten warehouses, 1971

I did wander down during the demolition of the old BBC Broadcasting House, and waited patiently for the site to be redeveloped.

But it seemed an age before the ground was broken and the development began to rise, pretty much eclipsing the surrounding buildings.

Now I don't pretend to be Methuselah, but in the space of that time from the summer of 1971 I have seen the rise of Broadcasting House, its demise and the subsequent rise of Circle Square. 

I guess it is presumptuous to suppose I will be around for the next development/

Well we shall see.

Location; Oxford Road, 1971-2022

Pictures; Prichard Street, 1971,  tall buildings and stairs, Circle Square, Manchester, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpsonand map of the area in 1894, from the OS of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ BBC New Broadcasting House, Oxford Road, 2011, from the collection of Andy Robertson

One Circle Square, 2022

*Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ......... nu 56 the vanished fourteen and the story of the BBC, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2016/10/lost-and-forgotten-streets-of_5.html

For the Friends of Oxford Road .......... part 2 ...... Studios One to a Million

Now, this is one of the pictures I took of a demonstration in the 1980s.

We are on Oxford Road heading towards the railway station, and bits of what you see have gone forever.

Ahead of us, the cream tiled building is now a 21st century hotel, while Studios One to a Million is a Dance Studio.

I say Studios One to a Million, but that does slightly over do the number of cinema screens but it  was a nick name we came to use for the place.

There will be many who remember the cinema as Studios 1 & 2, before its makeover and expansion into five screens.

It hosted late night movies, which began after the pubs closed and which therefore had an atmosphere a little different from matinees.

We saw Easy Rider there and more memorably, the cult horror film ..... Scream, Scream and Scream Again, which involved the harvesting of body parts from an  unwilling donor, and which every so often showed the said man minus another limb.

I doubt that today I would find it as riveting as I did back in 1971, but then I had had a large number of pints in the Red Lion before we paid our money over.

All of which just leaves me to point out that today opposite the former cinema is brand new building which has risen from what had once been the site of the BBC building, which was under construction when we did our late night picture visits. 

In between those two points, the site had become the BBC Building but that is a tale for another time.

Manchester Guardian, September 12 1930

At which point I have to confess to making a mistake which was pointed out by Gordon Howe.  I wrongly assumed the cinema had started with just one screen.  But Gordon commented, "I always believed that the cinema was originally built with two screens, because my Mum (who lived in Manchester from the 1920s to the late 1940s) always referred to it as the Regal Twins".

And a quick look at the wonderful site cinema Treasures revealed that it was "originally opened as the Twin Regal Kinemas on 20th September 1930. The cinemas, which had separate entrances and foyers, were on the second floor and shared a single projection room. Neither had a balcony and each seated 800.

Although it’s common place now, these two cinemas often presented the same film albeit at different times. Each had a barrel vaulted ceiling and elaborate Art Deco plasterwork down the side walls depicting folds of cloth.

In 1960, they were bought by the Star Cinemas group and renamed Romulus and Remus which lasted just two years before they became known as Studios 1 & 2.*

Never let a mistake get in the way of accuracy, so thank you Gordon and keep checking my stories!

Location; Oxford Road, sometime in the 1980s

Picture; Oxford Road, sometime in the 1980s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson.

*cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2679

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ......... nu 93 that chunk of Oxford Road

Now, I know we haven’t lost Oxford Road, but bits of it have been so transformed that it is as if it never existed.

The stretch in question ran from Charles Street almost down to the fly over and backed on to Upper Brook Street.

In all there were fourteen streets and countless houses which were all swept away so that the BBC could have a new broadcasting centre here in Manchester.

The lost streets included Pritchard Street, Hesketh, Leigh and Saville Streets and along with the houses there had been a school and a pub.

Planning permission had been granted in 1968 and after a hiccup building began in 1971 was finished in 1975 and the place was home to the BBC until 2011.

I first wrote about the vanished community three years ago, and at the time residents responded with their memories, but back then all I had to fall back on were old maps, street directories and census records.

Happily all that has changed, and these two pictures offer up a view as it looked in 1963.

It is one that I never knew and I bet many other people will be surprised at just how different it was.

In the background there is no mistaking the Refuge Building and Central Ref, but what fascinates me is the range of shops and residential property so close to the city centre, including a UCP café and snack bar, along with Ash of Ancoats, with its old fashioned shop displays which appear to have worked on that old maxim of “pile them high and sell them cheap”.

I could go on, but the detail is there to see, from the Didsbury bound bus to the woman wearing a university scarf, back in the days when students wore such things.




Location; Oxford Road,

Pictures; Oxford Road, 1963,  "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection",
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

*Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ......... nu 56 the vanished fourteen and the story of the BBC, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2016/10/lost-and-forgotten-streets-of_5.html

University Green …….the place I discovered this week

University Green is that space off Oxford Road which on a warm sunny day is the perfect place to take in a drink with a friend or just watch people.

Meeting up, 2025

All of which I did this week as the heat wave continued to make many of us seek a bit of shelter and something to sip.

And while I was there, I pondered on why I had never sat here before which of course I had.

Bright, colorful and light, 2025

It’s just that the Green looked very different and was really just an open space with an ascending walkway which gave access to the red brick building which   was occupied by a bank, a café and some shops with the covered in bridge crossing Oxford Road.

It always struck me as a bit of a sad place, with few people and precious few customers in the shops. It was really just a place to sit waiting to meet someone, although we did once book a Greek Holiday in Delta Travel and I can remember eating something greasy in the café.

And then that red brick building was redeveloped with new interesting places offering real beer, supermarket stuff and much more.

The transition began around 2016 and was dramatic enough for me to have forgotten there was that older place.

All of which is how on Wednesday afternoon I came to take a series of pictures on a warm sunny day with heaps of people taking in a drink with a friend or just watching people.

And the history?  

The Precinct 1971

Inside the Precinct, waiting for the shops to arrive, 1972

That is the continuing evolution of this bit of Oxford Road, and like many I can remember the clearing of the old 19th century properties, the building of the big red precinct its transformation and the new University Green. 

I may of course be unfair on the Precinct, after all it was all that the dawning 1970s thought was modern and utilitarian, but now has vanished like so many of those brave new bits of public building.

On the Green, 2025

At which point l won't mention that dark half dismal  pub called the Phoenix  which occupied a ground floor spot on the the other side of the red brick building.

ut others will.

The Phoenix, 1973

Location; University Green

Pictures; taking in the sun, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, The Precint from Oxford Road, 1971, M04135, Inside the Precinct, 1972, M04155, and the Phoenix, M50221, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Taking in the sun, 2025

Welcome to the new Student’s Union and a few surprises …………. 1963

For anyone who regularly travels along the Oxford Road corridor this building will be very familiar.

It is home to the University’s Student’s Union, and looks what it is, ……… a big  slab of a building.

It was opened in 1957, boasting a debating hall which could be turned into a cinema, a common room, three refreshment bars, a billiard room with eight tables, as well as a table tennis room, three photographic dark rooms, and a barber’s shop.

The Manchester Guardian reported that its opening would “clearly play an integral part in Manchester University life, for 80% of the 5,000 students live in lodgings, flats or at home, and the need for a common meeting place had become most pressing”.*

But as modern as it seemed, it was still divided with the women’s union occupying the right half of the building the men’s union the left, with lounges and other rooms which are shared in the centre.

That said by the time I passed through twelve years on an invitation from a friend, that division had disappeared.

What really strikes me about the building is the detail of the area directly behind and to the sides, which today are part of the campus, but back in 1963, were taken up rows of terraced houses, consisting of Blossom Avenue, and Leamington Avenue to the rear, and slightly more up market properties, fronting Oxford Road down to Ducie Street.

Location; Oxford Road,

Pictures; The Student’s Union and a bit more,1963,  "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY


*Ceremony at University Union, Manchester Guardian, Nov 2nd, 1957

Happiness is a sign on a University Building …………

Now I have taken this golden sign for granted across the decades.

But today I stopped and snapped away.

It’s the Williamson Research Centre, “which houses a range of research laboratories and equipment for investigating our environment and the effect of human behaviour upon environmental systems”.*

And that is about it.

Location Oxford Road

Pictures; the Williamson Research Centre, Manchester 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Williamson Research Centre, https://www.ees.manchester.ac.uk/wrc/about/

Messages from Le Harve ..... a woman called Gertie ....... and an address on Oxford Road

 I like this picture postcard which was sent from Le Harve in the August of 1915.

And what I particularly like is the way the name has been adapted to include pictures of the town.

Now my Wikipedia tells me that Le Harve “is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine” *

So, it is not surprising that many of the individual photographs inside the letters are of ships, the port, and the sea.

And it reminds me of the images that were produced in the 1960s which are a bold mix of lettering with an imaginative way of showing off the images of the town.

In fact, when I first saw it, I assumed it was from that “swinging decade” and here lies an interesting observation in what attracts us to such a picture post card.  For me it was that 1960s connection but for David Harrop who recently acquired it I suspect it will be the Manchester address, which was 1 to 3a Oxford Road.

David has a fine collection of picture postcards, and many are linked to the city.

So having clocked that link I went looking for what I could about 1 to 3 Oxford Road, and the firm Parkinson’s where the card was sent.

Given that the sender omitted his surname I wondered if I could discover his identity by looking for clues to the firm.  

It followed that if Stanley was a serviceman, then he might well have enlisted at the start of the war and could just possibly get a mention in the Book of Honour which was a list of the men who volunteered for the Manchester Pal’s Regiments in 1914.

The book records the men, the companies, battalions and regiments they were assigned to and has a list of the businesses for which they had worked.

Alas Parkinson’s is not there and nor is it listed on Oxford Road in 1911.

All of which leaves me with Gertie Whitehead who was the recipient of the card.

There was a Gertie Whitehead on the 1921 census who was a "Children’s Costume Finisher" employed by Clarkson and Hurst Children’s Costume Manufacturer.

A decade before the firm were based at 43a Granby Row and she was living on Rochdale Road, who ten years earlier had been a boarder in a house in Chorlton Medlock.

There are other Gertie’s but she seems closet to the fit.

Leaving me just to continue to look for Parkinson’s which if it was in anyway connected to the garment trade may fix our Miss Whitehead.

And that is about it.

In 1922 aged 28 she was living with her family on Rochdale Road, while ten years earlier she had been a boarder in a house in Chorlton Medlock.

As for Stanley he remains an enigma.  His message to Gertie spoke of fine weather and the expectation of a letter from her, and was signed “Love Stanley X”

But I doubt that we can read too much into that.

Location, Le Harve and Manchester

Pictures; from the Le Harve picture postcard, 1915 courtesy of David Harrop.

*Le Harve, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Havre

Loons, lava lamps and growing up ............ the 1970's

Larva lamps I have known

Now it is odd the way that some decades get the thumbs up and others are relegated to the dustbin of history.

So the 1960's will always be the “Swinging 60’s, the 1890's will remain the “Gay 90's” and the 1920’s will be forever the “Roaring 20s”

And by contrast the following decade which began with a world depression and ended with a world war will never be remembered for the advances in technology, much that was innovative in design and culture and a growing prosperity in some parts of the country.

All of which brings me to the 1970's much berated by  journalists and second rate historians who are content to fall back on the lazy stereo types of striking workers, questionable fashions and larva lamps.

Of course those shallow titles, often coined on a slow day in a newsroom do contain much that is true of a period.

For my generation the 1960's was an exciting time in all sorts of ways while for my mother the 30's would always be the Means Test, mass unemployment and the slow slide to war.

Still a student, 1970

And any history of the 1970s does have to take in the three day week, the widespread industrial conflict and plenty of very grim wars from Vietnam and Cambodia, to southern Africa and the Middle East.

But nasty wars and equally nasty dictators along with strikes, tasteless design and awful fashions can be found in any decade during the last two centuries.

So it’s not that I make a special defence of the 1970's but just that like any time in history it was a mix of the good and bad and the happy and sad added to which it was the decade I passed from being a student into the world of work and along the way got married and bought a house.

All of which are reckoned to be pretty big stages in anyone’s growing up.

And set against the dismal days of the three day week and later the bin dispute there was the legislation to address equal pay and some aspects of discrimination in the workplace, a determination to challenge racist attitudes and a whole range of exciting new ideas in fashion and popular culture.

Down at the eight day loolkng for loons and strawberry perfume, 1973

At which point someone will cite the underlying issues of our economic decline, the continuation of the huge disparity in wealth, the persistence of racism and sexism and some very dodgy TV programmes.

But all of these could be found in the 60s and in the decade that followed but alas tend to be ignored.

So with this in mind I rather think I will set off on a new series exploring the 1970s and include a few of the things that were special to me including the lava lamp which despite everything my kids will say I still think was pretty neat.

Pictures; lava lamp, 2007, Saltmiser, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States license., Andrew Simpson, 1970, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and ; On the Eighth Day, 111 Oxford Street, in April 1973, m00173, y H. Milligan, H.,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

The Chorlton billiard hall …. St Mary’s Hospital …… and that much loved night spot

I am back with that forgotten billiard hall on Wilbraham Road and a series of twisty turney paths that reinforce that old idea that history is messy.

The front of the former billiard hall, 2024

First, the billiard hall which stands behind the two shops, Admiral, and Royal Cod.

I can date the hall back to 1929 and may be able to push that back into the 1920s.

Just when it closed its doors is as yet unclear, but in 1929 it belonged to W.R. Bridgens and Co.

And a William Roy Bridgen and his wife Winnie were living at 163 Barlow Moor Road rom at least 1927 through to 1931, and there are references to him in various newspapers in the early 1830s competing in golf competitions.

Alas so far that is it except for an obituary recording the death of Winnie in 1955.

But it’s early days I am confident he and Winnie will come out of the shadows with more research.

And already I know that in 1931 he was renting and paying rates for rooms at 64 Oxford Street, three doors up from St Mary’s Hospital.

Acropolis Restaurant and the  Palace Snack Bar and Continental Club, 1974

Now by 1964 numbers 66 and 64 were the Acropolis Restaurant and the  Palace Snack Bar and Continental Club.

And the name the Continental Club or “Conti” will immediately chime a chord with anyone of a certain age who liked late night drinking with a bit of dancing and questionable food.

Sadly, I missed going there, because it closed before I arrived in Manchester, but like Lazarus the club rose again in the basement of an old building in Harter Street, taking the name of the “New Conti” and so was born a place I inhabited for a great chunk of the 1970s.

A friend we introduced to the place could only mutter “a bus shelter with beer”, but it was more than that, and a favourite dive of doctors, nurses, teachers and plenty more.

It must be 40 more years since I last went and it has gone, although just when I have no idea.

Acropolis Restaurant, 1974

But there are plenty of stories out there of both clubs and a slight dispute about whether the old closed before the new opened.  I have no idea, but trying to answer that question falls into that comment about the 1960s, “if you can remember the 60s you weren’t there”.

But there will be more, because my friend Antony whose aunt owned the Acropolis Restaurant is digging deeper into the story as I write.

So, there will be more linking one social club in Chorlton those far more memorable venues which were the Old and New Cont.

Location, Chorlton and Town

Pictures, the front of our old billiard Hall, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson  the Old Conti Club, 1974, Acc No. 113181 and a similar shot, 1974,  Acc No. 113181. and the hall in 1959 by A.H. Downes, m17486, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass*

 The Billiard hall in 1959 

*And here there seems a possible hiccup, because both images have the same accession 

Walking the University ……… on an October morning two years ago

It will be a full half century and more since I regularly passed the University buildings on Oxford Road.

And even then, it was just a passing whizz on the bus which took me on to what was still the College of Commerce on Aytoun Street, or as we called it the College of Knowledge.

The 42 Corpy Red which passed the University at 8.30 was a tad too early for most of the students, but it didn’t stop the bus conductor shouting out “Lazy bones school” “loafers paradise" and other slightly more derogatory comments.

Fast forward 50 years and settle on midday and I was amazed at just how many students were walking in a purposeful way in both directions along Oxford Road.

Not one seemed over bothered by the twin towers of the Contact Theatre, and many were drawn to the food stalls along the way managing to mix breakfast and lunch into the same meal.

I toyed with exploring the history of the University and the Contact but both have been done and done better than I elsewhere.

So that is it.

Location; Oxford Road

Pictures; the Contact, breakfast and getting away from the crowds, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

For the Friends of Oxford Road ............. of these are memories made part 1

Now, this is one of the pictures I took of a demonstration in the 1980s.

We are on Oxford Road just a little down from All Saints and it is a landscape we have lost forever.

To our right is an open bit of land which was beside the old Chorlton on Medlock Town Hall, while across the road that space is now inhabited by the Manchester Aquatics Centre and a office modern block.

In the distance the bridge that spans Oxford Road and connected the two big red brick buildings has gone as has one half of that complex, and  the tall Maths Tower.

For as long as I can remember those bits of open space were the gathering spot for demonstrations.  The first I went on was the anti Apartheid protest during the South African Rugby Tour in November 1969.

All that now remains of those open spaces is a car park to the north of the swimming baths.

But once stretching back in to the late 19th century, this stretch of Oxford Road was home to rows of shops running down from the Grosvenor cinema and on towards Rusholme.

Makes you wonder what is next.

Location; Oxford Road, sometime in the 1980s

Picture; Oxford Road, sometime in the 1980s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Ghost signs from a long ago conflict

The caption is less than revealing and merely states that it’s Oxford Road, Site of Students Union.

.Now I am a little puzzled because the student’s union building on Oxford Road was put up in 1958, and opened by Harold Macmillan, all of which is a little confusing but will no doubt be sorted out by someone who knows more than me.

My interest lies elsewhere and it is in the buildings themselves.  First I have to say they were grand looking houses, and back in the 19th century were the homes of the comfortably well off.  But I guess by the 1950s had seen their best, although perhaps with some tender care and attention they would have “come up nice.”

For me, toady it is the hand painted sign n the wall that has attracted my attention.

EWS stood for Emergency Water Supply and is a reminder that during the last war an air raid might not just destroy buildings but punch big holes in the roads underneath which were carried the utilities, including water.

And the loss of a water main during an aerial attack could be the difference between containing fires and just watching them burn.

These signs were still very much in evidence when I was growing up but it’s now sixty-eight years since the end of the war, and most of the buildings that carried that EWS have been pulled down, and even where that’s not the case the signs will have long since faded and joined the many other ghost signs whose stories have all but vanished.

Picture; Students Union Oxford Road, 1960, m03829 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

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/