Chorlton’s first cinema, a Molotov cocktail and a shed load of new stories

The story of Chorlton has just started a new chapter and it is all down to a phone call from Mr Hollinworth.

We all know that you can never close a book on the history of a place because there will always be a fresh discovery, a new set of memories and an unseen batch of photographs which add to the picture and even contradict what we all held to be the truth.

Looking at the petrol station, 1961

So until recently I had no idea that during the Great War there had been two Red Cross hospitals operating in Chorlton or that our first cinema had originally been a variety hall situated on Wilbraham Road.

And now there is the promise of a lot more from Mr Hollinworth who phoned me today after having read the blog.

He was born in Chorlton in 1928 and lived on Silverdale Road until 1951, and has a vivid set of memories of the area.

These include the Manchester Blitz, the bomb that fell behind the air raid shelter on Wilbraham Road and the bomb crater which for a day became a venue for a man with a piano and an impromptu choir to see patriotic songs as a gesture of defiance.

And it is these small bits of history which in their way are as revealing as any academic account of the war and of course are the ones that often get lost.

Our first cinema, circa 1906

So I was intrigued when Edward also told me of the Molotov cocktails that were stored behind the advertising hoardings on the railway bridge which he and his friends were determined to use if German tanks ever rumbled along Wilbraham Road.

But the jewel in the conversation was the story of his father’s garage on the corner of Wilbraham and Buckingham Roads.*

Today this is the site of the shiny new Morrison’s petrol station but once it was home to our first cinema.

This was the Pavilion which had been the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens which opened in 1904 and became part of H D Moorhouse chain of picture houses three years later.

It offered that usual mix of exciting silent movies from the comedies of Chaplin and Keaton to the daring exploits of Tom Mix and stories of the place have yet to fade from living memory.

That said those memories are second hand because the cinema closed in the 1920s in the face of stiff competition from the newly built Palais de Luxe on Barlow Moor Road and the even newer and far grander picture house on Manchester Road.

Building the new petrol station, 2014

But the actual date of its closure remained unclear until now.

I now know that it had gone by 1924 to make way for the garage and petrol station owned by Edward’s father who had lost a leg aged just 20 in the Great War.

Along with the petrol station there were a set of lock up garages running along the railway fronting Buckingham Road and both the lockups and the petrol station had been built by Edward’s grandfather.

The business was sold in 1951 but the original 1920s building was still there eleven years later and looking at that 1962 picture it is possible to pick out evidence of the old theatre which judging from more recent photographs was a very substantial building.

So there you have it, a chance phone call and a whole new set of stories have been set in motion.

Pictures; the petrol station in 1962 by A Landers, m18047, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pas the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, later the Pavilion 1910 from the Lloyd collection, and the construction of the new Morrison’s petrol station, 2014 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The story of a garage, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20garage

Additional information Edward Hollinworth

On Wilbraham Road with a couple of litres of diesel, a bag of crisps and the ghost of Tom Mix, the Whips and garages dating back to the 1960s

It is one of those things that within a few years no one will ever remember the history of the site that now boasts Morrison’s new petrol station.

So when Peter painted his picture the place was almost open for business, and by now as the petrol flows and the early morning commuters stop for a bag of crisps and bottle of water I doubt they will give a seconds thought to the previous garages stretching back to the 1950s or for that matter that once here stood our first cinema and variety theatre.

Of course that story has been carefully recorded on the blog along with Andy Robertson’s portfolio of photographs which document the changes over the last year to the site and some vintage pictures dating back to 1904.*

There are those who can remember family stories of seeing the Whips variety troupe and Tom Mix performing at the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens and a few more who will have bought the odd can of petrol from the first garage back in 1960 and I bet soon a few more will be posted.**

Yep, the blog has got it all.

Painting;  Morrisons Petrol Station, Wilbraham Road  © 2015 Peter Topping

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompicture

*The story of a garage, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20garage

**Tom Mix, memories of cowboy films and the Holmfirth Picturedrome, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Tom%20Mix

A year and a bit of the story of that petrol station on Wilbraham Road

It began back in March of last year with a picture of that closed petrol station on Wilbraham Road, became a series of stories featuring  our first variety theatre and cinema which opened soon after the death of the old Queen and went on to encompass other garages on the same site.

And running through all of them was a set of photographs by Andy Robertson recording the demolition of one petrol station, the building of another and finally today the new one.

Taken together the images are a wonderful story of how one bit of Chorlton changed in just over a year and brought out of the shadows an early bit of our history.

Picture; the Morrisons Petrol Station on Wilbraham Road, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The story of a garage, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20garage

Coming soon that new petrol station on Wilbraham Road

Now we must surely be entering almost the end of that story of the garage on Wilbraham Road which Andy Robertson has been recording for the last year.*

There has been a petrol station on this spot for over half a century I rather think for much longer.

And before that it was the home of our first cinema and variety theatre which takes us to the very beginning of the last century and also connects us to one of the most important cinema chains operating in and around Manchester.**

And the final bit of the story is almost upon us.

I notice that what look like the pump machines have arrived, all the signs are up and it can’t be long before the first customers are filling up.

All of which means that fairly soon the story of the previous two garages, along with the theatre and cinema will not be much more than a tiny footnote in the history of Chorlton.


Pictures; that garage on Wilbraham Road, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The story of a garage, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20garage

**H.D.Moorhouse, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/H.D.%20Moorhouse

Possibly almost the end of the story of that garage on Wilbraham Road

This may well be one of the last pictures posted in the story of that garage on Wilbraham Road and so Andy Robertson will soon sign off on his project of recording the site from the demolition of the old petrol station to the opening of the new.*

And for those who have been following the year long record will  know that this was not only the site of an even earlier garage but the home of our own Variety theatre and first cinema.

The new station breaks with the past and has been re-orientated east west instead of the other old north south.

Of course Andy I know will be back when it finally opens and perhaps he should approach Morrison’s with a suggestion that his unique record goes on show in the shop, after all the company already have displayed my story of the supermarket along with Peter Topping’s paintings in the store.

But that is for another blog.

Pictures; the petrol station on Wilbraham Road 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The story of a garage, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20garage

Watching that garage on Wilbraham Road move closer to completion

Now anyone who has been following the progress of that garage on the corner of Wilbraham and Buckingham Roads will like me be pleased that Andy Robertson has been including the work in his collection of photographs of changing Chorlton.

He has already documented the construction of the new school building at Oswald Road, keeps going back to the developments on Darley Avenue and had chronicled all that has gone on with the old Masonic Hall in Edge Lane.

But like him I have been fascinated by the garage.

It was once our variety theatre, and first cinema, and was transformed into a petrol station and shop, modernised in the 1970s and here is undergoing a new transformation.

When it and Andy have finished we will have a unique record of how a little bit of where we live was made over.







Pictures; the new petrol station and garage on Wilbraham Road courtesy of Andy Robertson

*The story of a garage, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20garage

What is stirring on Wilbraham Road ........ home to our first cinema?

Now if local history is about anything it is in part about recording the changes to where we live no matter how small.

So here is another from the camera of Andy Robertson who is doing a great job in capturing what was, what will be and all the in between bits.

We are back at that petrol station on Wilbraham Road.

Once the site was home to our own variety theatre which became our first cinema and then a petrol station, garage, and shop.

The full story including his pictures are here on the blog ........ so be the first today to get back to 1904 and the Whips performing at the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens before it caught the age and became the Pavilion showing Tome Mix and much more.*

*The story of a garage, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20garage

The mystery of the hole in the ground on Wilbraham Road, and the continuing story of a garage

Well the holidays are over and we are back with that garage on Wilbraham Road.

It is a place I have been revisiting every so often courtesy of Andy Robertson’s pictures, and this one was taken just before Christmas.*

In the space of a few short weeks there has been lots of progress and Andy remarked that the “tanks are now in place. I assume they must be deeper than they are wide and we now know what that big hole was for.”

All very different from the old petrol stop that occupied the site in the 1960s and the even earlier cinema and variety theatre which stood here from the early 20th century.

Picture; the garage on Wilbraham Road, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The story of a garage, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20garage

That hole on Wilbraham Road ............the story of one garage in Chorlton

Now I do like the way stories begin to take shape and take off.

So it is with the old garage on the corner of Wilbraham and Buckingham Roads.

For years I took it for granted and now it has gone.

While it was still selling petrol, chocolate bars and bags of wood I was more interested in the old cinema and variety hall that had stood on the site from the beginning of the 20th century and survived into the 1930s.

It was replaced by a simple petrol station which I think used some of the old cinema which inturn made way for the one that we have all been familiar with.

It too has now gone and as Andy Robertson’s picture reveals the site is just a hole in the ground but in time will again sell petrol and much more.

Now one of Andy’s earlier pictures revealed a few secrets and that pretty much has continued to ignite my interest in this bit of Chorlton.

So in the fullness of time I will return courtesy of Andy’s photographs which are a unique record of how Chorlton is changing.

Picture; another hole in the ground, 2014, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The story of a garage, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20garage

A little mystery down at the corner of Wilbraham and Buckingham Roads

There has been a petrol station on the corner of Wilbraham Road and Buckingham Road for a long time and now it’s gone, but in the fullness of time there will be one there again.*

The demolition of the old one will be followed by the erection of a new one with the addition of a little bit more.

The planning application was made in December of last year and granted in the March of this year and as ever Andy Robertson has been there to record the story of the site.**

And in the fullness of time I know Andy will be back to photograph what happens next.

But for me I am more intrigued by that old building which in turn replaced what had been our own variety hall and for a while Chorlton’s first cinema.

It is a place I have regularly written about and will do so again especially now that I know something about one of Variety acts who were performing there.***

These were the Whips who were performing there in June 1910 at about the time that the place was doubling as a cinema.

All of which takes me back to this picture of the demolition.  I had never really studied the side of the petrol station and I doubt few others have done so either, partly because it was not easy to see and also just because it was so familiar.

I had always just assumed that when the old theatre had been cleared away and the petrol station built the brick structure had formed part of that development.

But part at least of the old theatre became the sales room for the petrol station which was there by the 1962.

And that rather ugly replacement which has now just been demolished used that earlier building as a base.

So I wonder what the inside of the lower story contained.  The blocked up windows suggest there were rooms which may have been the changing rooms for the old theatre or possibly a restaurant and storage area.

And it does mean revising the earlier ideas that the theatre was just a temporary wooden building because behind the smaller structure was a much bigger one which I have totally ignored.

The theatre shows up on both the 1907 and 1934 OS maps and on the street directories up to 1911, and with a bit of digging we should be able to push that to the mid 1930s, when it closed.

Now that is how I like my history, a story which sets you off on fresh roads of discovery, all of which I will attempt to explore and in the meantime continue to feature Andy’s pictures of the developments down on the corner of Wilbraham and Buckingham Roads.

I can not think that there will be any one around who remembers the site as a cinema although my friend Ann has told me that her dad went there.

I suspect also that I would be hard pressed to get many memories of the petrol station as it appeared in 1962 but I travel in hope.

So I shall close with another from Andy when its successor had also been swept away.

Pictures, the changing site in 2014 from the collection of Andy Robertson, The Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, later the Pavilion 1910 from the Lloyd collection and the petrol station in 1962 by A Landers, m18047, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pas

*The old cinema by the metro stop and a closed petrol station, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-old-cinema-by-metro-stop-and-closed.html

**04424/FO/2013/S1 | Demolition of existing petrol filling station (PFS) and redevelopment to provide a new petrol filling station facility comprising of canopy/forecourt, ancillary sales building with ATM, underground storage tanks, associated parking and other ancillary works.  http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=externalDocuments&keyVal=MXKZLUBC6K000

***When Tom Mix played at the Pavilion, our first picture house, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/when-tom-mix-played-at-pavilion-our.html

The old cinema by the metro stop and a closed petrol station

Wilbraham Road and a thriving cinema in 1909

There will be no one now still alive who went to the old Pavilion cinema on the corner of Wilbraham Road and Buckingham Road.

It was thrilling picture goers from the early decades of the last century and soldiered on into the 1930s despite stiff competition from our two new purpose built state of the art cinemas on Barlow Moor Road and Manchester Road.

That said my friend Ann remembers her dad fondly talking about the place and the films of Tom Mix and there will be others who in the space of two generations memories can transport us back to the wooden seats of the old picture place sharing the noise of the adventures on the screen with that of the trains arriving at the station next door.

Wilbraham Road and a closed petrol station in 2014

And I was reminded of the old Pavilion which became the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens with the news from Andy that the garage and petrol station that now sits on the site is closed.

Of course it might just be a temporary thing, but garages no less than pubs are going through a lean time.

It was not so long ago that there were two almost facing each other on Barlow Moor Road and now one of these has gone.

But in the case of this one it will become a Morrison's petrol station.*

Wilbraham Road in  1962

So I shall confine myself with looking for when the first filling station popped up on that corner and thank Andy again for being in the right place at the right time.

And he has already done some research and found this image of the corner in 1962 by which time the site has already become a petrol station.

The building housing the office rather fascinates me because there are similarities between it and the Pavilion.

Both were made of wood  and stand almost in the same spot.

Now that makes sense and gives a continuity to the site stretching back to the beginning of the 20th century.

And there is much more including some of the railings that once ran alongside the railway line.

What also fascinates me is the way that bits of our history suddenly pop to the surface when you least expect it.  So while I knew a bit about the cinema and wondered about when the petrol station arrived I put researching it to one side.
Then along came Andy's picture and his research and another tiny bit of the jig saw has fallen into place.

Picture; of the filling station on Wilbraham Road 2014 courtesy of Andy Robertson, and the Pavilion later the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, 1909 from the Lloyd collection and the petrol station in 1962 by A landers, m18047, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*04424/FO/2013/S1 | Demolition of existing petrol filling station (PFS) and redevelopment to provide a new petrol filling station facility comprising of canopy/forecourt, ancillary sales building with ATM, underground storage tanks, associated parking and other ancillary works.  http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=externalDocuments&keyVal=MXKZLUBC6K000