Waiting for the off.......... Manchester Corporation trams lined up in the Princess Road Car shed, 1926

Sometimes the image says it all.

And for anyone who was born after the last of the old trams rumbled their way through our streets and for that matter those who can just remember them, here is a magic picture.

It was taken in 1926 in the Princess Tram depot.

Within two decades and a bit these majestic vehicles had stopped running and now even the garage has gone.

So here they are as stately and magnificent with the sun shining down through the big glass roof.

Now I don’t think it is romantic tosh to say you get a real feel of just how impressive these trams were all lined up and waiting to go.

No wonder they still have the power to call up memories and draw new generations in.

Picture; the Princess Road Car shed, 1926 from the collection of Sally Dervan

Down on Princess Road ......... sixteen months on

February 2014

Now it’s been a year and a bit since Andy wandered along Princess Road.

Back then he captured that block of shops just before it went for ever.

And it set me off on a whole set of stories about the businesses that traded from this spot including the pawnbrokers who in their time owned a chain of shops and were still trading in Stockport last year.

The series set off a shedful of memories of shopping along this stretch in the 1950s and 60s so just maybe these new ones of Andy’s will do the same.

June 2015

And who knows might bring forth a collection of old snaps which have lain half forgotten in an album or cupboard.

Now there are plans for the site which have been approved, but if you want to know what they are you will have to follow the link back to the earlier stories.

Alternatively you can visit the City's on line planning permission site which I regularly consult, often in response to one of Andy's pictures showing the end of a once proud house or set of shops.

I do have to say it amazes me how long it can take from the approval of a plan to redevelop to the moment Derek the demolition man with his chum Barry Bulldozer get going and sometimes even longer before the ground is broken and work begins on something new.

Which is pretty much where we are with this bit of as yet non development.

Still the flowers are nice.


Pictures; Princess Road February 2014, and June 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Princess Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Princess%20Road

"Going, going almost gone" from the camera of Andy Robertson marking the end of a little bit of Princess Road

The corner of Princess Road, on a wey August day, 2014

I am impressed by Andy Robertson’s determination to record the way that Chorlton is changing and not just Chorlton.

In the last six months he has wandered across south Manchester, into the city centre and over the border into Salford.

Each set of pictures is followed up by research and in many cases a personalized comment drawn from his own memory.

The same spot in February, 2014

So here we are on Princess Road and a set of buildings which Andy has been visiting since February.

Back then they were all still standing although all were closed and waiting the inevitable.

Both of us were drawn to the corner shop with its huge ghost sign which in turn led me to uncover the story of James Bowes Ltd established in 1880 and still going strong in Stockport.

Now Andy is not alone in watching the progress of these properties, for many people have fond memories of living and shopping there and have posted both their own pictures and memories on social networking sites.

And by Monday even this will have gone

But the buildings have all but gone, and I suspect Andy’s photographs will pretty much be the last.

All of which should remind us of the importance of recording what is passing.

Pictures; Princess Road August 2014, from the collection of Andy Robertson

35-53 Princess Road, a demolition ball and a tale of L S Lowry

Now the friends of Princess Road have been reminiscing recently which has been brought on by the demolition of numbers 35-53 Princess Road.

They were on their last legs back in February when Andy Robertson took a series of pictures of the properties.

He like me was fascinated by the ghost sign for James Bowes which had been hidden for decades.

That in turn led to a short set of stories about the sign, the Bowes family and their trading empire.

Now the buildings have gone but memories are powerful things and in the course of an hour quite a few people posted comments about one or other of the different shops including James Bowles, Pawnbrokers and Jewellers since 1880.  Anthony Petrie wrote that “I bought a ring which was a present from my mum for my 18th birthday from this shop. It was 18ct gold and second hand cost £12 in 1974.”

But even more fascinating was Ken’s story from “my brother in law Alan  who told me a tale about the sweet shop that was next door to Barries' on Princess Road.

He worked there as a Saturday lad in the early sixties when he was about 12, and he reckons L S Lowry displayed some of his work in the shop, if the owner sold one he was on a commission for the sale of it, he said to Alan ‘I don’t think We will ever sell one they look like a kids done them!“

Alan is adamant he is not telling porkies and I do remember paintings being displayed on the higher shelves!”

All of which just goes to show there are stories everywhere.

Picture; 35-53 Princess Road, February 2014, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*A ghost sign, a pawnbrokers and a row of abandoned properties, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/a-ghost-sign-pawnbrokers-and-row-of.html
from the series, James Bowes, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/James%20Bowes%20Ltd

A ghost sign, a pawnbrokers and a row of abandoned properties

Well I have to say that numbers 35-53 Princess Road have seen better days.

Back in 1911 here could be found the usual collection of shops and businesses, including the London City & Midland Bank, an undertakers, a tailor, some sweet shops, a butcher, grocer, milliner and a host more.

As late as 1967 they were a thriving mix of shops offering up everything from dry cleaning to office equipment and that similar range which had been there 50 years before.

And between Barry’s the outfitters and Seymour & Storey on the corner of Moss Lane East and Alexandra Road was the cinema which in 1967 was showing Don’t Lose your Head with Sid James and Kenneth Williams.**

Now there was a planning application to demolish the lot.  The application was made in November 2013 and the City Council indicated that “prior approval to undertake the demolition is not required [because] the demolition works will not have a significant impact on the environment.”*

All of which is a prelude to the ghost sign on the side of the wall running down Raby Street.

It proudly advertises JAMES BOWES LTD, PAWNBROKERS & JEWELLERS, ESTABLISHED 1880.

And as you do I was drawn into the story of James Bowes.  In 1883 he was trading from 284 Oldham Road, Newton Heath and just three years later had expanded into the neighbouring shop.

By the first decade of the 20th century he was also operating a shop in Chorlton on Medlock and sometime after 1967 made the move to the corner of Alexandra Road and Raby Street.

I rather think this was a canny move given that in 1967 the premises was already a Jeweller and Pawnbroker’s operated by H.A.Toulmin and had a prominent position at the end of parade of shops.

Nor is that quite all because the company is still trading, having moved to Stockport town centre about twenty years ago.

Their ghost sign on the side of their old shop is an impressive one but I guess it  will soon be lost when the building is demolished.

All of which is a nice reminder yet again of the need to snap away and record our history before it goes.

And in the meantime you can always visit the digital archive of Manchester Libraries and follow D Wilgoose who in 1967 took a stroll down Alexandra Road photographing each of the shops from Raby Street to Moss lane East and lots more as well.***

Now I rather think in the fullness of time there will be more stories this parade of shops, and I certainly have not forgotten the cinema.

And James Bowes Ltd will I suspect draw me in to follow the story of a business which begins in Newton Heath and by degree crosses the city and out again all the way to Stockport.

But all of that is for another time.

Pictures; numbers 35-53 Princess Road, formerly Alexandra Road, 2014, Andy Robertson, Moss Side, Princess Road, east side, from Raby Street to Moss Lane east Creator Wildgoose, D, m38431, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

*Application No 104253/DEM/2013/S1, Manchester City Council online planning http://www.publicaccess.manchester.gov.uk/associateddocs/MCCList1.aspx?104253/DEM/2013/S1

** Don't Lose Your Head was the thirteenth in the series of Carry On films to be made. It featured regular team members Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims. It was released in 1966 and was set in France and England in 1789 during the French Revolution.

***Manchester Local Image Collection, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass