Going to the Art Gallery in Piccadilly Gardens in 1929 ........ the one we never got

Now what do you do with a big hole in the ground in the centre of Manchester?

Today of course it would be sold for development and pretty soon a tall less than elegant tower would fill the spot “offering a mix of commercial and residential opportunities for our times.”

But not so in the early decades of the last century when the Corporation decided to do something bold and innovative with the hole that was the Manchester Infirmary and is now Piccadilly Gardens.

There were plenty of suggestions including plans for an art gallery these never happened.

I must admit I never followed up on the art gallery project so I was pleased when my friend Neil Simpson sent me a picture of the proposed new gallery along with a description from How Manchester is Managed which were issued yearly by the City Council and described what they did.

The books are a wonderful resource for anyone interested in the history of the City.   I plundered them back in the early 1970s but had since pretty much forgotten about them.

So Neil’s discovery reunited me with an old set of friends and in the 1935 edition was this article on the new proposed art gallery.

The Corporation was well aware that “the space available in the Central Gallery had become overcrowded and great difficulty was experienced in finding accommodation for displaying the treasures to advantage,”*

And so having purchased the old Infirmary site in 1918 the “City Council concurred in the views expressed by the Art Gallery Committee that the site was the best place for the New Gallery.”

In 1925 after an open competition had been launched the design by Mr. E. Berry Webber was selected.  He was “29 years old, has designed a building which in all essentials admirably fulfil its functions as a Gallery and Museum of Applied Art and will at the same time , be a building in which the public can see what is to be seen easily and methodically. “

It was to be a building “in which clarity of design is essential [and one which] with its simple and dignified elevation and its freedom from irrelevant ornament will look what it is namely a, a place for the exhibition and study of Art.”

But it never happened.

The financial crash in 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression meant that on grounds of economy the City Council took the decision in 1931 to defer its construction for five years.

Picture; the proposed new Art Gallery, 1935 from How Manchester is Managed, Manchester City Council, 1935, page 73

*How Manchester is Managed, Manchester City Council, 1935, pages 72-73

Two pictures …. a memory …… and a lost landscape

 Memories fade and eventually are lost and so these two images of Manchester on August 1st, 1957, are a powerful reminder of what the city was once like.

Two for one, a panorama of destruction, 1957

Both pictures were taken from the old BBC Building in Piccadilly and look out across the Gardens towards the Town Hall and the business sector.

Looking towards Portland Street, 1957

I would arrive just twelve years later, and Manchester had already shed many of those temporary car parks which were former bomb sites, replacing them with new builds of concrete and glass.

And while I was born and grew up in London, I can remember similar scenes.  

As kids we played on bomb sites and occasionally came across lost treasures pulled from the ground. 

Those open spaces would soon be home to cars and later still towering blocks of offices.

All of which makes me think my generation will be the last to remember that time when the last war transformed our cities and towns leaving acres of prime development sites.

But also, had created those gaps between houses where a single bomb had obliterated a home. In some cases, giant timbers were still in place shoring up the properties on either side, or the remaining houses had been given a skim of cement.

And so back to the two pictures.  

Piccadilly Gardens, the bus terminus and the future  hotel site, 1957

It is fascinating now to view the sheer scale of the devastation in just one part of the City and likewise what appears to be the random nature of the bombing, and what survived.

I won’t be alone in seeing pictures published in the early 1970s of the bits of Back Piccadilly ablaze from end to end which back in 1940 the censors deemed likely to undermine morale.

Now some I know will focus on the soot clad surviving buildings or wax lyrically about the former Piccadilly Gardens which is OK but detracts from pondering on the scale of the war damage, and the relative speed of the rebuild.  Added to which there is that very personal elephant in the room which for me is that simple observation that if you can remember such scenes, you are indeed very old.

Ah well such is the dichotomy from being a baby boomer with one foot in the late 1940s and early 1950s and the exciting and changing times of the decade to come.

Location; Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, 1959

Pictures; Piccadilly from the BBC Building, August 1st, 1957, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Just how much we forget …………….. Manchester ……. 1964

When you live in a place, it is easy to miss how it is changing.

This is Piccadilly in 1964, and I can remember going in all of those shops and standing at that bus stop.

More than half a century on, I can’t now tell you where we were going from that  bus shelter, or just when the buildings and their occupants changed, or for that matter whether I prefer the scene now or then.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Manchester Piccadilly, 1964, 1964-0386 "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection"

A park bench, a Radio Station and a reggae singer ............. Piccadilly Gardens sometime in the 1970s

Now as soon as you post a picture of Piccadilly Gardens you can be confident there will be a deluge of comments.

Most favour the old layout and I have to say I am one of them.  In my case it is a mix of nostalgia and a preference for a more formal set of displays.

All of which I know in these cash strapped times is hard to maintain but the present expanse of grass flanked by the concrete slab does little for me.

We will all our own vivid memories.

One of my most vivid ones is walking through the gardens on a summer’s morning.

A few people had taken up a bench but they were there for just a few minutes before going on to work.  The air was still fresh, and the cool morning air had the promise of a hot day to follow.

Fast forward a few hours and the place would have been full of lunchtime visitors, grabbing an hour in the sun with a set of sandwiches and catching up on the gossip with friends.

All of that is old hat so instead I shall finish with the message on the back which was sent to John Dees at Piccadilly Radio.

It was one of two that he received from our sender who left no name but again was writing about John Holt the reggae singer.

Now I know from an earlier picture postcard that he was her favourite artist.

There is no date or postmark on the reverse of the car, but I think it will have been taken earlier perhaps in the 1960s.

Location; Piccadilly Gardens


Picture; Piccadilly Gardens, circa 1960s, from the collection of David Harrop

Smoke across Manchester …………1963

Any picture today looking out across the city’s skyline will reveal a forest of cranes.

Back in 1963 there were not so many, but they were there, building a brave new Manchester, some of which arose from bomb sites and others from areas whose Victorian and Edwardian buildings were judged old and beyond their sell by date.

So, here is what became Piccadilly Hotel and its neigbouring buildings boldly climbing into the sky.

But look more closely and for cranes, read tall factory chimneys, marching off into the distance, all still delivering tons of smoke.

Location; Manchester

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

Unpicking the clues of a postcard, .... Piccadilly sometime in the early 20th

This is one of those photographs I keep coming back to because there is so much going on.

We are in Piccadilly and Queen Victoria dominates the picture.  And according the Judge catalogue the image was added to the collection in 1913.
 

It was one of seven in a series on Manchester and included Albert Square, the Town Hall, Market Street, the Cathedral and the University and yes you guessed there is study group who may be able to date the series.*

But leaving aside the date it is the sheer amount of detail which makes the card such a treasure.  Sitting on the steps of the Queen’s statute are two boy scouts.  Now I can’t be certain but it looks like they may just have some cleaning implements at their feet which could link them to Good Turn Day which was introduced in 1914 and morphed into Bob a Job Week in 1949.

All of which takes me back to a date.

But there is so much more to see.  There is the man who is casually leaning against the lamp post and the pile of discarded rubbish in the litter bin.  Like others in the picture he is wearing one of the straw hats which seems to remain in fashion into the 1920s.

We must be sometime in the summer given the presence of women in blouses and our scouts without their coats.

The long line of trams reminds us that this was a busy part of the town with most of them destined to head down Market Street which  would also be thronged with pedestrians on route down to St Mary's Gate or visiting the many shops and offices which ran its length.

And judging by the number of passengers on the upper decks of the open trams plenty of people have chosen to take in the fine weather on this summers day.

My own favourite detail is the horse drawn cab, number 382.  As it waits for a fare the horse is feeding from its feed bag.

Now I doubt it will  be possible to check out the name of the cab driver which as they say would be a whole new story to tell.

Picture; from the collection of Alan Brown

* JUDGES POSTCARD STUDY GROUP  

One milkmaid ….. 14 telephone boxes …. heaps of pigeons .... and some flower beds ……… Piccadilly Gardens

 Everyone will have their bit of Piccadilly.

Deckchairs, and flower beds in the sun, circa 1955

For most it will be the sunken gardens with the rows of wooden benches, stunning floral beds and of course the pigeons.

To which you could add afternoom musical performances, the lunchtime invasion of office workers and the banks of telephone kiosks which stood guard on three of the fours sides of the Gardens.

Mine is sitting in the Milk Maid looking out onto the bus station with the gardens beyond.

It specialized in milk shakes, along with frothy coffee and sweet things.

The bar was light, spacious and had a figure of a milk maid picked out on the tiled side wall.

A Milk Maid, 1906

I doubt many others will remember the place.

Or so I thought but over the last few days people have messaged me with their own fond memories.  “Pancakes”, “frothy coffee” and “wonderful ice creams”, seem to be uppermost in what many remember, along with calling in after shopping or waiting to get the bus home. 

And for one it was “tomato soup with a swirl of cream followed by a cake” which characterized the place.

We frequented it in the early 1970s, usually after a day at the College of Knowledge on Aytoun Street.  What we had is lost in time, but I guess it would have been during my frothy coffee period.

Piccadilly Gardens, 1963

I do remember the tiled figure of a giant milk maid on one of the walls.

Just when it opened and when it closed I have yet to discover and I still travel in hopes that someone will have a picture.

And that image will form part of the chapter on our next book in the series, "The History of Greater Manchester By Tram” which tells the story of our city region, using the 99 stop along the eight routes of the Metro tram network.*

Books one and two began in the suburbs of south Manchester, rolled into the heart of the city and finished at Exchange Square.  Book three picked up the stories and explored the route from Market Street via Shudehill to Victoria Railway Station.

The next crosses the city out from Piccadilly Gardens to Piccadilly Railway Station, New Islington, and Holt Town finishing at the Etihad Stadium.

And this is  the one I am currently engaged in, which will also feature Piccadilly Radio, the wartime allotments, the YMCA building along with the library, and the grand plans which were floated to use the site after the hospital had been demolished.

Piccadilly, 2024

Not forgetting the bus station, Lewis’s, and the destruction brought by the Manchester Blitz, which in turn left the area full of car parks till the arrival Piccadilly Plaza.

All of which will just be in that first chapter, leaving plenty of history to uncover about the railway station, Ancoats, Holt Town and that area which is now home to a football team but which for a year was where we lived, surrounded by the remains of Bradford Colliery, Clyton Aniline and assorted workshops.

But for today it is the Milk Maid, and another request for memories, pictures and perhaps even a souvenir menu, taken and saved in a cupboard.

Location; Piccadilly

Pictures; Piccadilly on a sunny day in the 1950s, from the cpllection of Suzanne Morehead, The Milk Maid, from a 1906 picture opostcard from Tuck and Son, courtesy of Tuckdb, http://tuckdb.org/about  Piccadilly Gardens from Leisure and Pleasure in the Open Air, Parks Committee, Manchester Corporation 1963, Piccadilly, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

**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

Thirteen buses….. a collection of shoppers ….. and a day in June 1978

I say a day in June 1978, but I can’t be sure.

That said it will have been in “my snap period” when armed with my first camera I wandered the city getting to know how to take pictures.

The camera was a modest one and the snaps were really colour slides which have sat in the cellar for four decades before coming out into the light again.

And the pictures confirm that simple observation that nothing dates more than pictures from the recent past.

The images are familiar but also so distant from what we know today, like looking through a dirty window..... you can make out something you recognise but the rest is indistinct.

All of which makes them a neat piece of history, even if their quality is a bit iffy.

Location; Piccadilly Bus Station, and Market Street

Pictures;Piccadilly Bus Station, and Market Street, 1978, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

At the bus stop in Piccadilly in 1961

It is 5 pm on a sunny afternoon in 1961 and the rush hour is in full swing.

And if you lived in great chunks of Manchester it would be the bus which would be taking you home.

Now it would be a full eight years before I washed up in the city but W.Higham’s picture perfectly captures the bus station I remember.

It is of course a scene that has vanished.  The old glass and steel shelters went a long time ago and the building behind on Portland Street was another of those that I remember but its demolition passed me by.

Behind the bus shelter and the line of commuters the sunken gardens fare better, lasting into this century before they too succumbed to change which I still have doubts about.

Every time I gaze on that great concrete slab I wonder if a more sympathetic device could have been created to screen the busy transport hub from the open spaces of the new gardens. And whether the gardens could just have been tidied up and left as they were rather than creating that wet windswept expanse of tired grass and water feature.

All of which I know opens me up to the criticism that I am wallowing in nostalgia but not so.  The gardens were a pleasant place offering a degree of peace in the heart of the city and a welcome lunchtime break.*

And by extension for those who wanted to miss the rush hour torture they were a pretty good place to sit it out till the buses were half empty.

And that couple of hours between the day time people leaving and the night crowd coming in is still a magical time.

The city seemed to get a wee bit quieter and a little calmer, but you knew it was just a lull before the business of fun took over from that workaday atmosphere.

The gardens were a particularly good place to observe it as were the city centre pubs.  Stay long enough in one of the pubs and you could watch as tired office workers and shop assistants slid away after a few drinks having discussed their day and were replaced by a more energetic and optimistic crowd whose enthusiasm for the night ahead grew as the rounds were bought.

So I still wonder at how many of those at that bus stop waiting in the late afternoon sunshine decided that tea in Chorlton and an evening with Coronation Street, Dick Emery and the Avengers might be less attractive than the call of a few drinks and a film at the Odeon.

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/distant-memories-of-manchester-parks.html

Picture; Piccadilly Bus Station at 5pm, W. Higham, 1961, m56932, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

Snaps of Manchester number 4 Piccadilly in the late 1920s

Now I can’t be sure but I think we are looking at Piccadilly sometime before 1932.

It is difficult to be sure but I don’t think that the Ryland’s Building which is now Debenhams’s is there near the centre of our picture and if that is the case then this can be no later than 1932 and possibly sometime in the 1920s.

Like all the images in this collection owned by Sandra Hapgood there is much in the clothes and the vehicles to suggest this is the time frame.

Of course I might have missed some vital clue which can pin point the date and prove me wrong.

Either way it is one of those snaps of Manchester that I have been featuring.  Each of them is not by a professional and all of them were I think taken quickly while on the move and as with so  many snaps they are very personal, meant as a reminder of a day out or to share with family and friends.

And that is both their charm and their value because all of them are not the usual scenes of the city.  Instead they are shot from odd angles or concentrate on places seldom visited by the professional.

Picture; from the collection of Sandra Hapgood.

Over the roof tops to the future ………….

Well …….. if you have to have a title this one pretty much does it for me.

The year is 1963, and we are looking across the tops of assorted Victorian and Edward buildings to the construction of the new build which included Sunley Tower,  Bernard House, and the Piccadilly Hotel.

More recently the complex has undergone a makeover.

Bernard House has lost its distinctive roof design and Sunley House has become City Tower.



Location; Piccadilly

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

Trenches in Piccadilly ............ a New Use for the Old Infirmary Site June 1917

Looking across to the old Infirmary site, date unknown

Now Piccadilly Gardens continues to excite a wealth of feelings from those who miss the old sunken gardens and have no love for that concrete slab to those who dwell on the seedy last days of the old park and point out that in these cost cutting days the present space is pretty low maintenance.

Of course before 1914 there were no gardens just the site of the Royal Infirmary which when it was demolished left a debate on what to do with the site.

It took a few years before the Corporation decided that this was a perfect place for a park in one of the busiest parts of the city.

This much I knew but what I didn’t know was that in the June of 1917 according to the Manchester Evening News the Red Cross “found a practical use for the old Infirmary site in Piccadilly ....[turning] it into a miniature sector of the Western Front.

Manchester Evening News, June 1917

The front line trenches and their equipment are said to be perfect in every detail.  There are grim touches of realism here and there, - like the torn and tattered heap of clothing nearthe terrible barbed wire entanglements to represent a dead Boche.  Some rare and valuable war relics may also be seen, including some fine specimens of enemy guns.

With infinite labour the trench diggers who were the convalescent soldiers from Heaton Park, have passed right through the heavy masonry and substantial brickwork of the old Infirmary foundations.”

There is no record of what the "convalescent soldiers from Heaton Park" thought of the task and I have yet to dig deeper to discover what the public made of the “miniature sector of the Western Front” in the heart of the city.

But once they had explored the trenches they could go on to visit the adjoining museum which “was wonderfully interesting.”

All of which just begs the question of why the display was produced.

Given that it had been produced by the Special Effects Committee of the East Lancashire branch of the Red Cross I suspect that along with its propaganda value it was linked to the organisation’s campaign for volunteers and funds.

I do know that Heaton Park had had its on set of trenches which were open to the public and no doubt so did other parts of the country.

Pictures; the site of the Infirmary, date unknown from the collection of Rita Bishop and Trenches in Piccadilly ............ a New Use for the Old Infirmary Site June 1917,  the Manchester Evening News from Sally Dervan

*Now I know what Father was doing in the Great War ...... trenches in Heaton Park in 1916, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/now-i-know-what-father-was-doing-in.html

Passing through Piccadilly in 1966

Now, sometimes it is best just to leave the story to the picture.

So this is Piccadilly in 1966, and the rest is down to the memories it will set running, and for others  set off a fascination for how the place looked 54 years ago.











Location; Piccadilly, Manchester

Picture; Piccadilly, 1966, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY

On discovering all that is left of the old Piccadilly Gardens …………

Now any story on Piccadilly Gardens is guaranteed to bring forth memories of the old sunken gardens, along with plenty of comments on what replaced it, many of which will be less than complimentary.

I know, because I have poured out my own memories and feelings over the years.

But, today I want just to reflect on what I suspect is all that is left of old Gardens.

And it comes in the shape of the low stone wall and its iron railings which separates the tram track from the pavement and Gardens

You could easily miss the wall and the railings, and I guess many who pass them, just assume they were put there to act as safety barrier.

And I suppose that now is their primary function, but they were and remain a reminder of what many of us thought was a fine place to go and sit, enjoying the floral displays and watching the occasional musical performance.

And the story took another historical turn when David Bailey commented "I think this wall is even older than the gardens we remember. It could have been the perimeter of the Manchester Royal Infirmary and Mental Asylum buildings that occupied the site until around 1908".

Location; Piccadilly

Picture; the wall, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

“having my tonsils out” ……….. rare pictures of Manchester Royal Infirmary

Manchester Royal Infirmary has served the city’s population well, since it was opened in 1752.

And according to these picture postcards were still doing so in 1905, when Gert wrote to her friend that she was “having my tonsils out on Thursday night at 7 o’ clock”, and “think of me”.

Her only concern was that her friend might not get the postcard “as I have forgotten when you said you were going away”.

And as it was the card was forwarded on from Lloyd Street, Greenheys to Glen Esk Westby Road, St Anne’s on Sea.

Just what her friend thought of the news is lost, but the house is still there on Lloyd Street.

That said the MRI had just five more years on its site in Piccadilly, and having closed, was demolished by the April of 1910.

All of which brings me to the second postcard, which shows the final stages of its demolition.

Now David Harrop who owns both picture postcards, comments that he has “not come across many cards showing the MRI being knocked down".

So that is a first for the blog.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Manchester Royal Infirmary, circa 1905, and 1910, courtesy of David Harrop

In Piccadilly before the last tram ran

Now this is another of those how to date a picture stories where either dear reader you sit back in awed wonder at my detective skills or just mutter tedious big head and move to the bottom of the page for the answer. 

So I shall begin with the working out.

It could be anytime in the year but no later than spring  judging by the number of people in overcoats.

And the flowers are out in the gardens to our left and the whole place seems bathed in that sharp sunlight which opens everything up but does little to warm the city.

I guess it might be sometime in the 1930's into the 40's.

In the absence of any wartime hints I think we are in the years of peace before 1939 or in those last four years before the last of our trams ran in 1949.

And it must be after 1932 when that great slab of a white building with its radio mast was opened.

This was the Rylands Building which back in the 1930s was the largest wholesale textile warehouse in the city.

At this point I have to confess that I had to rewrite the post in the light of a very helpful set of comments from Jane Campbell who is the research cataloguer and database administrator for the Photographic Collections held at the University of St Andrews, which I trust dear reader will make you ponder on the lengths I will go for a good story.

St Andrews has an extensive collection of postcards produced by Valentine and Sons of Dundee and our picture was one of theirs, so as you do I contacted them and Jane kindly replied with a possible date. But before I reveal that I should point out that there are a few obstacles in the way.  As Jane says,

"with Valentine care needs to be taken when using the registration date for dating their images – these registration dates refer to when the title was written into the register and was not necessarily when the photograph/view was taken.  

They sometimes would replace the original image with a newer photograph (updating the scene but using the same title) and in the earliest numbers the photograph could have been taken sometime (even years) earlier than the registration date.  As for the actual date of the postcard that you hold that would depend on when it was printed.

It is an interesting photograph not least because most in the collection date to a time before the 1920's but as ever the place is busy.

I especially like the glass and iron shelters which run down in front of the statutes.

And that reminds me that sometime in 1970 someone had painted a set of foot prints leading from Queen Victoria’s statute to the public lavatories.

I suspect she would not have been amused.

I guess there will not be that many who remember this view of Piccadilly and the northern section of the gardens.

Picture; from the collection of Alan Brown

And for those who want to follow up on Valentine & Son, the link to the University is Valentine Collections available via our new website at
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/imu/imu.php?request=home

Scenes of Piccadilly sometime in the early 20th century

It’s one of those pictures I have found difficult to date, but I bet there is someone who can tell me.

The fashions would suggest sometime before the Great War, but that car in the corner just confuses me a little.

But what a wonderful photograph it is, perfectly capturing Piccadilly at one of its busiest times.

Forcing ther way through the crowds are trams heading out to Belle Vue, Denton and Sale and plenty more whose destination I can only guess at.

And in the absence of much more to say I thought I would isolate little scenes from the big picture and just let your interest and imagination do the rest.

Picture; Car 346 in Piccadilly, from the collection of Alan Brown

After the Infirmary and before the Gardens Piccadilly circa 1914

Well there are postcards and there are postcards and on a scale of one to ten this ranks pretty low on the quality level.

All of which is a shame because it dates from sometime after 1914, when the Royal Infirmary was demolished.

In the distance is the temporary building which houses Manchester Central Library from 1912, which was the old Infirmary Accident and Out-patients department and still had carved in the stone above the doorway the word "Dispensary". They are there at the far end on the right, looking like some half timbered building.

But there is plenty to see.  The old hospital site is still just a site, and it would be some years before it became our largest open space in the city centre.

And most of the traffic consists of trams horse drawn vehicles and even a hand cart with a set of ladders.

Picture; from the collection of Rita Bishop, courtesy of Davis Bishop