Andrew Simpson

I have to admit it is a scene which is very familiar and like all good pictures from the past I seem to remember it as monochrome. O...

I won’t be alone in remembering these buildings. We are at the top of Oxford Street where it joins St Peter’s Square, and of the four ...

It’s just one of those age things that if you can remember cars in St Ann’s Square, you will have had plenty of birthdays. Today, you can t...

Yesterday there was a demonstration and a counter demonstration in the city. Today social media teams with pictures, videos, commentaries an...

Now this is one of the scenes of St Peter’s Square which has gradually changed over time. I can’t be sure when the picture was taken bu...

We are in St Peter’s Square on a Sunday.   Now I can be certain of that because the picture is dated August 8th 1937 which was a Sunda...

Now you have to be of a certain age to remember the Ceylon Tea Centre, or its equally enticing rival the Danish Food Centre. An exotic ...

Now I always maintain that it is often some of the most recent photographs of the city which look outdated and somehow out of place. I ...

This was taken from the Central Ref, sometime in 1962.   A little over 5 years later I would be looking out from the same windows, and the ...

  As picture postcards go this one of the Midland Hotel wouldn’t win any prizes. It maybe that the quality w as poor to begin with or that r...

 There are plenty of reasons to visit the Central Reference Library in St Peter’s Square. Leaving aside the books, there is architecture, ra...

One day in the Ref. Location; Central Reference Library, St Peter's Square, Manchester Picture; It's all in the windows, 2023, from ...

My association with Central Ref stretches back 54 years and across that half century and more I have always pondered on those steps through ...

Now, I know that line from Star Trek, by Dr McCoy about life but not as know it, and that seemed a fine start to reflect on this imag...

Location St Peter’s Square Pictures; one day …. two pictures, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The publication of our first book in the new series on The History of Great Manchester By Tram has stirred the pot with plenty of people com...

It is a decade since the Central Reference Library reopened after its magnificent make over, and ninety years since it first opened its door...