Hough End Hall …… from the unseen collection of Chorlton pictures

It is easy to miss Hough End Hall.

It is partially hidden by two rather ugly office blocks, has a school and carpark to the rear and can only be glimpsed from the main road which nearly caused its destruction.

Many people will automatically assume it is part of Chorlton, and it does lookout on Chorlton Park, but it was once the home of the Lords of Withington, it’s inhabitants were listed in the census returns for Withington and it was built by an Elizabethan businessmen who had bought up into the connection with Withington.

The hall was built in 1596 by Sir Nicholas Mosley, passed into the estate of the Egerton family in the 18th century, and from then on was variously a farmhouse, restaurant, set of offices, and after an uncertain period when it was empty and waiting a buyer, it became an Islamic Centre.

All of which brings me to the picture postcard, which is one of six, dating from sometime in the 1930s, and were marketed by the Rapid Art Photography Company.

The Hall in the picture is in its last phase as a farmhouse, and by the time the photograph was taken, the land around the farmhouse had shrunk from 250 acres in the 1850s down to just three.

By 1940, the tenancy passed to the Bailey family who were just across the road and worked the three acres in conjunction with their own farm.

In the 1960s, the bailey’s sold the hall and plot to a developer. And later in the century it became a restaurant.

Since the beginning of the 20th century the hall, has seen off plans to demolish it for a road widening scheme, been the centre of a series of creative idea to transform it into an art gallery and community hub and is now an owned by an Islamic group.

What I like about the picture, is not only the image of the hall, but the surrounding detail, like the farm cart casually left in the garden, the outhouses and the glimpse of the fields in the distance.

Which just leaves me to close with the book on the hall, which I wrote with Peter Topping back in 2015.

It tells the story from when Sir Nicholas splashed out some of his money made in London to replace a much older family home, which was no longer to adequate to showcase the family's success.

The book covers the tops turvey history of the Mosley family, its time as a farmhouse, spanning 250 years and its time as a restaurant, containing many old black and white photographs, a series of original paintings by Peter, and contemporary accounts as well as my stories.

Location; Hough End Hall






Picture; Hough End Hall, circa 1930s, from a picture postcard, courtesy of Jennie Brooks

*Hough End Hall The Story Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping, 2015

What a difference 40 years can make, Wilmlsow Road in 1930

I can’t be exactly sure of the date but sometime in the late September of 1969 I stood on almost the same spot and looked down Wilmslow Road towards the library.

And in many ways what I saw was pretty much what the photographer captured in 1930.  

Once you eliminate the tram lines and their overhead cables it is only the odd looking cars which really date the scene.

I don’t remember what the shop was on the right but the White Lion on the left and the Scala Cinema were places I visited regularly during the three years I lived in Withington.

Thinking back the pub, the picture house and the library were pretty much where I spent my time during my student days along with the odd Sunday visit to the launderette when my flat mate was “entertaining.”

Both the White Lion and the Scala attempted to move with the times.  In the case of the pub this constituted turning the cellar into a dive bar and decorating the walls with posters from the brewery, which in a forlorn attempt to market Watney’s Red Barrel had hit on the idea of using lookalikes for dead leaders of the Soviet Union posing with pints of beer.

I suspect it was all very tacky but suited me down to the ground.   Likewise the cinema experience at the Scala was hardly ever likely to be on a par with the Gaumont or Odeon in town.  But there was something in the fact that the seats were cheap and the pub next door.

I only wish I had paid more attention to the surroundings.  This was after all one of our oldest surviving cinemas having been opened in 1912.

As it was the Scala screened films that were not far from their original release date, so in the November of 1970* the programme offered Secret of Santa Vittoria  with Anthony Quin. Ulysses starring Milo O‘Shea, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.

And the programme is itself a wonderful piece of history.  Many of the advertisers were local businesses, like Sandra Williams, Hair stylist, Rhona’s “Ladies Separates, Baby and Children Wear, Stockist of Aristic, Kayber, Ballitto, Stockleigh Hosiery and Tights, Goslin Electric “For all Your Electrical Radio and TV  Requirements” along with the usual collection garages, schools of motoring and food shops.

It is a world long gone squeezed out by the large supermarkets and online shopping.

And once again I have to conclude it’s a world that would have been equally familiar to my parents and one that comes no wherenear  the experiences of my children.

So if I stand on the self same spot today the White Lion is a supermarket, there and a new building has taken the place of the Scala.

But by some odd stroke, the railings outside the pub survived.

Pictures; Wilmlow Road, 1930, m41845, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, and the Scala in 2004 before demolition, Graham Squires, his image, which was originally posted to Flickr.com, was uploaded to Wkipedia Commons

*Scala Cinema Programme, November 1970, Scala Cinema, http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alscot1/CinemaProg.htm

Its official ..... there will be no more choc ices and Carry on films in Withington

Wilmslow Road, 1930

There will be many, many people who remember the Scala in Withington with fond memories.

I know I do, although like many I gave up on it a long time ago and felt a mix of guilt and regret when it finally closed in 2001.

It began as the Scala Electric Palace had 500 seats and was owned by the Scala Electric Palace (Withington), Ltd and ended its day as Cine City.

In a more simpler age it was what stood for entertainment in the suburbs, but the steady advance of the television followed by the multiplex cinema did it for the Scala

I had all but forgotten the place, but then Andy Robertson decided today to slip down and look at what had become a hole in the ground and was recorded the new development.

Wilmslow Road, 2017

Look closely at the wooden fence and there is an artist’s picture of the completed building.

And not content with one scene of dereliction turned new development he came on the remains of wall directly opposite which he tells me is the “land vacated by a cafe/restaurant which always seemed to me to be a temporary add-on which became semi-permanent if that makes sense.”

Which it does, more so because I can vaguely remember having a meal there possibly back in the early 1990s.

All that is left of that cafe/restaurant

Sadly that is the extent of my memory, but there will be someone with chapter and verse, who no doubt can also fill us all in with the details of the Scala.

Well we shall see, but I hope so.

Location; Withington,








Pictures; Wilmlow Road, 1930, m41845, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,  http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and the cinema site today and the land opposite, 2017 from the collection of Andy Robertson

Andy's new hole in the ground

*The Kinematograph Year Book Program Diary and Directory, 1914, page 347

What was Mrs Lomax doing in Hough End Hall in 1931?

Now I wonder what Mrs Lomax was doing in Hough End Hall when this picture was taken in 1931?

By then she was 68, a widow, and had another nine full years ahead.

The Hall had been a farmhouse from the late 18th century and her family had run the farm and lived at Hough End Hall since the 1840s.

And she was still working although the farm had shrunk from 220 acres employing 13 labourers to just over 3 acres.

A decade or so before she had advertised for a young lad to live in and help with the milk round and after her death those 3 acres along with the Hall were rented out to the Bailey family who continued to work the land.

I like this picture which comes courtesy of my friend Sally from the City Council’s Annual Review which is a cornucopia of hidden treasures.

In the fullness of time I will ask Sally if there was a story attached to the picture, but for now I will leave you with the hall in 1932 at a moment when it still looked as it had done for a century.

Picture; Hough End Hall in 1931 from Manchester City Council’s Annual Review, 1932, courtesy of Sally Dervan

Looking for a pint and a film on Wilmslow Road, a lost pub and a vanished cinema

What was the White Lion, today in May 2014

Now when Andy posted his most recent set of pictures he warned me I would be upset.

They are of Withington and in particular the old White Lion where I spent many happy hours in the early 1970s.

Back then I was less interested in this fine old building with its period features, and more with the dark slightly claustrophobic dive bar which was just the old beer cellar.

In a desperate attempt to sell more Watneys’ Red Barrel someone in advertising at the brewery had come up with a campaign based on revolutionary leaders and some catchy phrase based on red and revolution.

But it didn’t quite work for while there was Fidel Castro or it might have been Che Guevara there was also Khrushchev a figure who most people would not link with turning the world upside down even if you are a keen follower of the 20th Party Congress.

But enough of this and back to Andy’s comment which was more to do with the hole in the ground next to the pub.

When there was beer and films on the corner, 1930

This as many will know was once the Scala Cinema, which was one of our oldest surviving cinemas having been opened in 1912.

Here you could see the films you had missed in the city centre and at a fraction of the cost with the bonus that you didn’t have far to go to get a drink afterwards.

Sadly I cannot remember the interior at all or anything that I saw there and now it has gone.

There were grand ideas about keeping it open and for what would replace it.

None of these came to pass and yes Andy is right I am a tad upset mainly because like many of my generation I grew up with the cinema.

It started with Saturday Morning Pictures ran on with the big film you went to with your parents and then bit by bit it included the mucky films with your mates and the all to special trips with a girl friend.

The Scala cinema site, 2014

And it was value for money, two films, a newsreel along with some pretty dodgy adverts for Sid’s Second hand car business and the Shining Pearl Chinese Restaurant.

At which point someone will mutter “oh get with the times” and I suppose I am in danger of slipping into nostalgic tosh, so I shall leave you with these images and a promise of some iconic Withington pubs with long histories, all taken by Andy Robertson.

Pictures; Wilmlow Road, 1930, m41845, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the rest by Andy Robertson