Waiting on platform 12 at Piccadilly for Royal Mail Parcels ........ 1980

I know I shouldn’t be surprised at just how much of the city has changed over forty years.

Part of that is because I just don’t think four decades have whizzed past.

But then that has encompassed nine General Elections, a brace of American Presidents, the birth of our four children and my gentle passage from a man in gainful employment to one who writes and blogs.

Still I was drawn up with a jolt when I uncovered this picture of platforms, 10, 11 and 12 at Piccadilly Station.

So much so that for a brief while I was puzzled as to which station I had been on.

Logic and the other images in the strip of negatives all pointed to Piccadilly, but the scene is worlds away from that moving staircase, brightly painted columns and air of commuter bustle of today.

I even consulted that old railway buff David Harrop, and he confirmed I was where I thought, on Piccadilly Railway Station a full thirty years before its makeover.

So that pretty much is that.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station,1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

London Road …….. January 24th 1959 …………..

This remains one of my all-time favourites from Eddie Johnson’s book on Manchester Railway Termini.*

Until recently I had not got round to asking for permission to reproduce it, but after a nice conversation with Eddie, here it is.

The caption says, "London Road, January 24th, 1959.  This view at London Road presents an almost Christmas card like scene, a splendidly pictorial effect which no doubt had the operating authorities cursing.  The overhead electric catenary reveals this to be the eastern side of the station, at the end of platform 3”.

There is more, but I will leave it at that, and instead just point out for those who do not remember, or never knew, Piccadilly Railway Station was once called London Road.

And the rest is just snow, which at 73 still delights me and makes me a kid again, which of course pictures of steam engines also have the power to do.

Location; London Road, Railway Station, 1959 

Picture; London Road, Railway Station, 1959, M.S. Welch from Manchester Railway Termini

* Manchester Railway Termini, Scenes from the Past: 3 E.M. Johnson, 1987

Steam fun ……….. London Road ……..

This is another one of my all-time favourites from Eddie Johnson’s book on Manchester Railway Termini.*

Until recently I had not got round to asking for permission to reproduce it, but after a nice conversation with Eddie, here it is.

The caption says, “Happy hours spent train spotting are recalled by Bill Johnson’s superb shot of Coronation Class 4-6-2 No. 46256 Sir William A. Stanier F.R.S with steam issuing on all fronts , including the coal pusher, as she backs down to collect her train………  Popularly known as ‘Duchess’ No ”. 46256 was the penultimate  member of her class, being turned out  from Crewe in 1947 ……..”

There is more, but I will leave it at that, and instead just point out for those who do not remember, or never knew, Piccadilly Railway Station was once called London Road.

Location; London Road, Railway Station, 1959, 

Picture; London Road Railway Station, date unknown, W. Johnson from Manchester Railway Termini

* Manchester Railway Termini, Scenes from the Past: 3 E.M. Johnson, 1987

A scene now lost in time ............. looking out from the short lived cafe in Piccadilly Railway Station

Now that I grant you is not the most imaginative title but it does the business for this scene looking out across the city.

It was taken just after the railway station had its makeover.  Back then this space was a cafe and on a warm day I wandered in took a few pictures promised myself I would return only to discover it had become a supermarket.

Such are the ups and downs of the amateur photographer.
And I know I have featured it before and for those wanting to challenge the date I have to say I can’t remember.

Location; Piccadilly Railway Station

Picture; view from Piccadilly Railway Station, circa 2003, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The train now arriving is the 13.20 from 1979

I am well aware it isn’t the most original of titles but it pretty much sums up where we are.

At the back of the 1970s I bought a new camera and later added a dark room.

The pictures were all a bit hit and miss because I was a tad lazy with timings for both the developing and printing.

So while some might stand against anyone’s, others are hazy, lack definition and can either be too light or too dark.

That said they are a record of just what things were like as the 1970s pulled to a close.

And so here I was on Piccadilly Railway Station watching a rain arrive.

I have no idea what type of locomotive it is or even where the train had come from.

During the early part of the decade I had regularly travelled south with British Rail but by 1979 this was less frequent.

More recently I was back on the station and was transfixed by the smooth looking locos of today, so in celebration of what we had and what we've got now, here is one I took over 30 years after the first.

Same station, possibly same platform just separated by the decades.

And thirteen years on from that picture of two Virgin trains ...... taking  the strain from Manchester to London it is now as much a part of the past as the train from 1979.

Location; Piccadilly Railway Station

Pictures; Piccadilly Railway Station, 1979, 2013, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Looking for a glimpse of the 1970s from Piccadilly Railway Station ...... a SELNEC bus, some vanished buildings and a slice of Black Forest gateau ......... nostalgia doesn’t get any better

Now if you are of a certain age this will be a pretty familiar scene.

It is one I saw countless times as I walked down from the station towards Piccadilly Gardens.

At first glance it isn’t that different from today but the old bus in its SELNEC livery and the buildings in the far distance behind the Joshua Hoyle warehouse on the left place us sometime in the 1970s.

And if that wasn’t enough the message on the back firms up the date because it is a request to John Dees at Piccadilly Radio to play a song by John Holt who was a reggae singer from Jamaica.

What I especially like about the photograph is that it is a picture of Manchester which I can instantly relate to.

Unlike all those old faded black and white and sepia images from the beginning of the 20th century this is from my time.

If pushed I could tell you where I had been and where I was going while walking down the station approach and who I was with and even where I was living.

Of course for many looking at it today it is as remote as those old photographs from 1900.

And even for me it is a full forty and something years ago which just about sets a shiver going through me and makes me think of just how things have changed in four decades.

Back them the height of sophistication was the cassette tape, which played discreetly while entertaining friends to a meal which started with prawn cocktails, finished with Black Forest gateau and was accompanied by a bottle of Blue Nun.

The debate on the Picc-Vic underground connection rumbled on, and no one had yet got round to putting some rickety chairs on a street corner, serving up some tapas and over expensive wine and calling it cafe society.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Approach from Piccadilly Railway Station, circa 1970s, from the collection of David Harrop 

When history is just a series of adventures

Now I do take history seriously, both in the research and in the writing but as someone once said “always have a bit of fun everyday”

Sir Robert Peel and friends, 2016

And today in the company of Peter Topping I am off on some historical adventures, collecting the pictures to support  our new tram book.

This will be the fourth in the series, The History of Greater Manchester By Tram.  It is a unique, perhaps quirky way to tell the history of Greater Manchester by using all 99 stops on the eight routes of the tram network.*

The Milk Maid, 1906

I write about the history of each of the stops and the surrounding area, and Peter produces a collection of original paintings of significant places and buildings.

And together they make up a history or the region.

So today we are off to Piccadilly Gardens, the Railway Station and New Islington, pausing to make the pictures which fit the stories.

They include the memorials, the old BBC building, with a look at the new Mayfield Gardens and that nightmare for motorists which is Stoney Brew.

We will even take the train from the Railway Station to the first stop on any of the lines, just to come back and check just how much the skyline behind Piccadilly has changed since I regularly made the journey half a century ago. 

And for those in the know I want to find the exact location of the Milk Maid on Parker Street while Peter wants to stand where students once painted a trail of footsteps from Queen Victoria’s statute to the site of the public lavatories..

So silly adventures in a good cause.

The books are available at £4.99 from Chorlton Bookshop, the shop at Central Ref, St Peter's Square, or from us at  www.pubbooks.co.uk

Location; Piccadilly Gardens, the Railway Station and New Islington

Pictures; Sir Robert Peel and friends, Piccadilly, 2016, and The Milk Maid, from a 1906 picture postcard from Tuck and Son, courtesy of Tuckdb, http://tuckdb.org/about 

*A new book on the History Of Greater Manchester By Tram, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20History%20of%20Greater%20Manchester%20by%20Tram

So ......how did they change Piccadilly Railway Station approach?

Now if you are curious to know what happened to the buildings to the left of the British Railways tower you need do no more than look down at its companion picture.

Location; Piccadilly Railway Station approach

Picture Piccadilly Railway Station approach, 1963, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY and in 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Manchester Piccadilly...... a new station for a new generation

I have to say that when I first went into the newly designed and refurbished concourse of Piccadilly railway station I was impressed.

Its bold open and light design seemed a world away from the drab and increasingly run down old concourse which had been opened in 1962.

And yet I think that if I had walked into that 1960s entrance with the memories of its Victorian predecessor I might well have been equally impressed.

Now I know the new concourse has its detractors, some of which have said to me it is too much like an airport and could in a different place be the entrance to a supermarket or one of those academy schools.

And perhaps there is something in that comment along with the assertion by one of my friends that  it won't go the full forty years.

But I do have a soft spot for both and increasingly for the original which I never knew and have only seen in pictures.

Those Victorian Stations may have seemed old fashioned and not fit for purpose, but for me the entrance to Manchester Victoria or that of  Charing Cross in London have elegance that can't be matched by Euston.

To which, John Anthony Hewitt has added, "Andrew Simpson Please add a sentence or two that will separate the three different stations that have been London Road / Piccadilly. At the moment, the discussion of the two modern stations seems to suggest that both the architect's design and the present day photo are one and the same concourse".

Location;  Manchester

Picture; Poster British Railways (London Midland Region), Manchester’s New Station by Claude Buckle, 1960, and the entrance of the 2002 makeover from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Summer in the city ..... July 2018 no. 3 ..... waiting to go

Location; Manchester

Picture; Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Summer in the city ..... July 2018 no. 5 .... Shapes

Now the S bend building remains a favourite of mine.

Purists will respond with its correct name, and point out the practical reasons for why it has the shape.

I just like it's bold no nonsense sweep, and think its a bit of fun.

It has had a make over with the addition of a hotel since I took the picture in 2018, and I believe we would have lost it if the HS2 project had won through and come from Birmingham into the city, as this spot would have been the new railway station for the line.

So to celebrate it's survival I took another this week.

Location; Manchester





Picture; Outside Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station, 2018 and in 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Summer in the city ..... July 2018 no. 4 .... railway traffic

Location; Manchester











Picture; Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Summer in the city ..... July 2018 no. 2 .... where to go?

Location; Manchester

Picture; Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Ten minutes in a railway station .............. Piccadilly July 14 2015 ..... timetables and questions of destinations

Now I like railway stations which are only bettered by airports.

It is that mix of bustle and purposeful determination on the part of the passengers passing through and of course the promise of adventures yet to come.

Added to which you just know that there are a whole lot of stories unravelling in front of you.

They start with those sitting patiently on the seats, waiting for their connection, working out the train time or just catching up on the last chapter of the book bought at Euston the day before.

And then there are all those hellos and goodbyes.

Some do it in style in those special rooms given over to priority ticket holders while others just catch a quick coffee, snatching a hurried conversation and worrying about the train time, the connection at Birmingham or just sad at leaving after just a short stay.

And amongst all the travellers there will be the confident ones who planned ahead, know to the minute when the train will depart and will have reserved their seats.

Others will be less sure checking the overhead notices twice and may be seeking extra confirmation from the staff in the small office on the platform.

I always like to think I am one of the former and but all too often I leave it to the last moment and then of course it costs more.

Or having pre-booked I still get to the station an hour before I need to, constantly  check my ticket against the ever changing train information and get through all the papers I bought for the journey.

But at least I am secure in the knowledge that no traffic jam or tram delay will make miss the train.

And then long before I need to I make my way to the

platform, patiently wait as my train is cleaned, and  restocked and then happily board fully aware that there will still be acres of time before we leave.

Today there will also be free internet connection and a socket for any of the electrical appliances I might take with me and above all a table.

All of which is so different from that last age of steam travel, but that I think is for another time.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Ten minutes in a railway station .............. Piccadilly July 14 2015 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Ten minutes in a railway station .............. Piccadilly July 14 2015 ....... leaving

Now I like railway stations which are only bettered by airports.

But unlike airports there is no air side which is really the mark of when the holiday begins.

Until then you have the hassle of the taxi, worrying that you have the right terminal and that your bags are the right size, the right weight and above all don’t show you up later on the carrousel at your destination.

So having smiled at the UK security officers who don’t smile back, once you are on air side that is petty much it and you can fell the holiday starting.

But trains are different, walking from the concourse on to the platform can’t be judged “as going airside.”

That said there is still that bit of excitement as you mount the train, find your seat and wait for it to pull out of the station slowly gathering speed.

And then in what seems just minutes bits of inner city Manchester whizz past and the adventure has started.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Ten minutes in a railway station .............. Piccadilly July 14 2015, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Ten minutes in a railway station .............. Piccadilly July 14 2015 ..... waiting and looking

Now I like railway stations which are only bettered by airports.

It is that mix of bustle and purposeful determination on the part of the passengers passing through and of course the promise of adventures yet to come.

Added to which you just know that there are a whole lot of stories unravelling in front of you.

They start with those sitting patiently on the seats, waiting for their connection, working out the train time or just catching up on the last chapter of the book bought at Euston the day before.

And then there are the earnest and very pleasant charity workers whose forcefulness is mixed with a steely determination to engage their listeners in the campaign to “beat cancer.”

On any one day there will be so much going on from the long distance traveller to the suburban commuter heading home.

And just occasionally  some one  like me who was just there because it seemed a a good place to be on a wet Tuesday morning.

I could have wandered off into the Northern Quarter and down towards Castlefield but the weather was against me and so trains, passengers and charity workers won out.



Location; Manchester


Picture; Ten minutes in a railway station, Piccadilly July 14 2015 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

On missing the Airport train in Manchester Piccadilly ....... the sunlight story

Now I like railway stations and I have lots of favourites in the collection.

Of the Manchester ones, Piccadilly stands out.  It may not have the sweeping grandeur of Victoria or the iconic Armadillo roof of Oxford Road but it was where I first came into Manchester from London 49 years ago and I like building.

Some friends decry the new forecourt arguing it looks too much like an airport which it does, but it also does the business, and is streets better than the tired 1960s makeover which had become quite shabby.

By comparison the new one is bright, busy and offers a window out onto the city.

But I also like the carriage shed, and especially the brickwork on either side of the platforms.

On a bright sunny spring day the place is magnificent.

And that is a lead in to the fact that on Bank Holiday Monday I missed the train for the airport, and with time on my hands I wandered about, watching as people whizzed past me in expectation of the journey to come or waited patiently for the arrival of their connection.

There is also plenty to see, including the war memorial to the men of the old railway company who served in the Great War, and out on those annexe platforms you get good views of the city.

All of which I visited, but the frequency of the Airport trains is such that I didn’t have long to wait and had a choice of platforms.

So that is about it.

Location Piccadilly Railway Station


Pictures on a Bank Holiday in a railway station, 2018 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Leaving the city ............ adventures and the promise of something new.

Now railway stations pretty much have it over airports.  

True you can’t travel as far and the duty free doesn’t exist but still they have been magical places since the first train from Liverpool pulled into Manchester in 1830.

Now one Sunday we patiently waited for the train for Sheffield, which I grant you isn’t as swanky as London or Edinburgh but it has a nice railway station with an interesting water feature and on the way there is some stunning countryside.

Of course even at Piccadilly there can be hiccups.  So having waited patiently on platform six for 20 minutes we had to move quickly to nu 10 because of “a platform alteration.” 

Nor was that all because despite having bought a ticket there were no seats and I stood all the way.

The guard apologised for the “usual overcrowding” and did so again on the return journey.

So in the case of that rail operator ..... less adventure and little promise of something new.

But that was a year ago, and perhaps all will be different next time.

Location; Piccadilly Railway Station

Picture Piccadilly Railway Station, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Tales from the Ordsall Chord ...... part 1 ..... always plan the adventure

Now l have never been one to plan an adventure other than to pack a bottle of pop and assorted sandwiches.

And that was my undoing when l decided to take a trip on the Ordsall Chord which is of course the much hyped rail link between Piccadilly Railway Station and Victoria.

It should have been a breeze beginning with the tram from Chorlton to the railway station, which as everyone knows entailed changing at St Peter’s Square and then on the short trip across town to Victoria station, with an option on a return journey.

All seemed well, and just outside the metro stop at Castlefield Deansgate I got a fine picture of the new bridge away in the distance.

At which point I pondered on whether to alight at Castlefield and wander over to the railway station at Knott Mill, confident that this would be on the route between the two railways stations.

Alas the adventure was not to happen, because the service won’t start till later in December.

A lesson l think in forward planning.

But it did allow me a bit more time to admire the wonderful glass and iron roof at Piccadilly, so a trip not completely wasted.

And no sooner after the story went live Paul Sherlock commented that, "new timetables come into effect next weekend, so hopefully we'll see if anything is going across the link then. My understanding of the advanced hype is that it should be operative on 10th December. Meanwhile my carton of orange juice remains in the cupboard". 

And that also seems a plan.

Location; Manchester

Picture; the Ordsall Chord bridge, and Piccadilly Railway Station, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Scenes from a railway station part 2 Manchester Piccadilly

I could have lapsed into some profound commentary on the juxtaposition of this single figure on the concourse during a busy day at Piccadilly.  

But he seemed to know what he was doing and only needed the destination board to sort out the time and platform.  It took him just a few minutes and then he was gone.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson