All you might ever want to know about Withington Baths …. and more

It’s perhaps a bold statement by me but having just read the draft of “The story of an Edwardian public swimming baths in south Manchester”, by David Rydeheard I think it’s justified.

The varied roof-scape of Withington Baths

So, to use a line from an old advert “its got the lot” with chapters covering its history from 1904 to its proposed closure in 2013, the campaign to save it  and its renewal under the stewardship of “Love Withington Baths”, which has a dual status as a private limited company and a charity.

There is a fascinating chapter on its engineering history and another by Simon Green on the restoration of the building, as well as a section which describes other swimming baths in the area and has an extensive set of references.

But for me as a social historian I was drawn to the chapter on the place of the baths in Withington community which includes the memories of people who used the place, as well as period newspaper reports and photographs with pictures of the restored bits from tiles to windows and the original 1910 design plans.

The chimney of the Baths, 2025

David tells me that the book “will be going to the printers this coming week, and will then be available for purchase, online at Withington Civic Society (contact@withingtoncivicsociety.org.uk) or at our outlets, including Withington Library.

Withington Walls, Details from a mural by Skeg, at the rear of the Baths

So, that is it.  

Looking forward to its publication and the offical launch of the book which will be  at the 10th birthday party of the new Baths managmement, over the weekend of the 14th-15th June.

Location; Withington Swimming Baths

Pictures; from the collection of David Rydeheard

On Lapwing Lane with a ghost bank

Now here is one of those buildings that I have never given much thought to.

It is the former bank on Lapwing Lane and I must have passed it countless times, and on occasion stared at it from the window of the restaurant opposite.

I did once try to take some pictures but the light was wrong and I gave up which is a shame because I might have been inspired to dig down in to the history of The Mercantile Bank of Lancashire.

Instead I have had to wait till Andy Robertson wandered past took these pictures and set me going.

As yet I haven’t found out much other than it merged with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank in 1904 which merged with the Bank of Liverpool and Martin in 1927 which subsequently changed its name to Martins and in turn merged with Barclays in 1969.

But there will be someone out there who knows all about the bank and in time will be in touch.

In the meantime I know that our building dates from 1903, which means it had a brief existence as the Mercantile Bank.

Such are the exciting times of the banking world.

And since I posted this Richard has dug deeper and discovered that the Mercantile Bank Of Lancashire Ltd was "founded in 1890 with a head office at temporary premises in Guardian Buildings, Cross Street, Manchester, with capital of £1m, its early growth reflected the continuing industrial prosperity of Manchester. 

The completion of the Manchester Ship Canal resulted in over 200 new accounts, and on 30 June 1891 the bank reported a net profit of £2,806. 

Several branches were opened in the Manchester area, as well as others across Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire. 

In 1900 branches were acquired on the Isle of Man by amalgamation with the Manx Bank. 

Soon after, however, the Mercantile Bank began to run into difficulty, partly due to the effect of the Boer War on investments. 

The board of directors saw that as a relatively small bank, they could only survive by further amalgamation. 

In the early part of 1904, several meetings were held with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, and on 1 July the business of the Mercantile Bank was transferred to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank."*

And in turn the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank merged with he Bank of Liverpool and Martin in 1927.

Pictures; former Mercantile Bank of Lancashire, 1903, courtesy of Andy Robertson, 2015

*Barclays Bank PLC, https://www.archive.barclays.com/items/show/5305

Withington’s wall history ……

The two are just a few minutes’ walk apart.

Both are on Wilmslow Road.

The first adorns the wall of the former St Paul’s school and the second on the building that is Withington’s Fire Station.

Location; Withington

Pictures; Withington’s wall history, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Uncovering a murky event at the Red Lion

Now when Andy Robertson sent over this picture of the Red Lion I knew it had to feature on the blog. 

Like a lot of people the “Red” has been one of those pubs which just keeps sliding back into my life.

As a student in the early 70s it was one of those places I haunted regularly when the dive bar of the White Lion became oppressive and I had had enough of Watney’s Red Barrel.

Then through the 1980’s it was where we went after meetings of the Withington CLP and where Keith, Tom and I passed the evening with Roy Grainger and others.

But for all sorts of reasons I stopped going and it was not until a few years ago that I reawakened my interest in the place after discovering it was the venue for the inquest into the murder of Mary Moore, who came from Chorlton, worked for the Chorlton family of Dog House farm and was murdered in Whalley Range on her way home from the Manchester Markets in 1838.

Pubs like the “Red” were often used for inquests.  They were after all public places and were often better suited to such occasions than the local church or school.

In Chorlton the Horse and Jockey was used for the inquest into the murder of Francis Deakin in 1847 and two infanticide cases and I suspect more.  And a little later in the century the Lloyd’s Hotel on Wilbraham Road hosted the Home Office inquiry into the “Great Chorlton Burial Scandal.”**

All of which means it is time to revisit the “Red” and look for stories from its past.

Location; The Red Lion, Withington

Pictures; the Red Lion, 2016, from the collection of Andy Robertson

* The murder of Mary Moore from Chorlton out in Whalley Range and an inquest in Withington, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-murder-of-mary-moore-from-chorlton.html

** The Great Burial Scandal, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-great-burial-scandal.html

That set of buildings called Oak Bank in Withington

Now as my friend Andy says we seldom look up at the buildings we pass.

It is of course something we are all guilty of and so assisted with more of his pictures and a few from my collection here over the next few weeks are the tops of buildings we don’t often clock.

The shops, 2014

We are in the heart of Withington on Wilmlsow Road looking at the Oak Bank parade of shops.

I remember them well and what is now an estate agents was in the early 1970s a newsagents from where I bought a double LP of the Kinks.

It was going cheap which I suspect had something to do with it being mono rather than stereo but I still play it and it contains all of the hits and many that were only B sides.

But enough of such trivia, these are Oak Bank Buildings, and according to that excellent little book A walk through the History of Withington were where The Manchester and County Bank opened a branch in 1877.

The building “which has a date stone of 1876, has ornate, rather Italianate brickwork and stands on the south side of Devenport Avenue and Wilmslow Road on a site that was formerly gardens.”*

And sure enough there on the OS for 1853 are those gardens and the name Oak Bank.

So I shall go off and trawl the census records and rate books and in the fullness of time return with a little more on Oak Bank and what look to be an interesting set of gardens.

But in the meantime I shall just reflect that the modern shop fronts have done nothing for the building or the casual decision of someone to obliterate the features of one of the properties by covering the front in white paint.

And before I am accused of a latter day Luddite I have to say I accept the need for change and the recognise the commercial pressures on businesses to promote themselves in the most effective ways but sadly the modern singe and frontage do nothing for this grand old set of properties.

This I suppose means I shall also go looking for pictures of the shops from the late 19th and early 20th
centuries just to prove a point.

Pictures; from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the detail of Oak Bank from the 1853 OS for Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

* A walk through the History of Withington, Withington Civic Society, 2014, www.withingtoncivicsociety.org.uk

A history of Withington in 20 objects ….... no. 4 ….. the milestone

The story of Withington in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a few paragraphs.

The milestone is just beyond the Red Lion, in front of the old Fire Station.

It records that the distance into Manchester is just 4 miles, and may have been installed by the Turnpike Trust and is now the only remaining one along the road.

Adapted from the new book on the pubs of Withington and Didsbury, published on June 14th, 2019*

Location; Withington

Picture; the milestone, 2019 Peter Topping

*Manchester Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors Didsbury, Peter Topping, Andrew Simpson, 2019 and is is available from www.pubbooks.co.uk and local bookshops.

,

That ghost railway station in Didsbury

Now you would be forgiven for missing the entrance to Withington and West Didsbury Railway Station.

But this little stretch of road off Lapwing Lane was the well beaten path to the train that took you into Central Station or off to the Peak District.

It opened on January 1st 1880 and was closed to passenger traffic in 1961.

And now the line is open again for business but instead of that steam loco it will be the tram that whisks you into the city or out to  East Didsbury.

Sadly East Didsbury is as far as you can go, and if you want that tram you will have to walk a bit further to the new metro stop.

All of which is a reminder of what you can discover if you go looking for it.

So a thank you to Andy Robertson who came up with the pictures and that wonderful site Disused Stations which has lots more information and pictures on the railway station which is no more.*

Pictures; off Lapwing Lane looking for a railway Station, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Disused Stations, http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/withington/index.shtml

A history of Withington in 20 objects ……………….. no. 1 the village green

The story of Withington in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph.

Every community should have a village green, and Withington still has its one. Much to the pride of many in Withington, the township retained the vestiges of its village green long after Didsbury’s green had become an insignificant space in front of two pubs. Today just a small patch of green remains, which fronts the Manchester Cancer Research Centre and looks out towards The Christie, but back in the late 1840s the green bordered the estate of the Hargreaves family who lived at Cotton House and whose grounds included a large fishpond.  Mr. Hargreaves was a merchant with premises at 5 Tib Lane in the city.

Location; Withington



Picture; the village green, Withington, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Shop fronts I have known …………… Wilmslow Road

An occasional series recording the changing face of the art of dressing a shop for Christmas.

Now, the idea is obvious, but there is a bit of historical thought behind the project, given that the Christmas display is a transient one, soon to be replaced by the January sales and pretty quickly by Easter bunnies and chocolate eggs.

So, with that in mind, over the next few days, I shall indulge my love of Christmas and feature festive shop windows.

This one is A Curious Collection on Wilmslow Road, in Withington, which we visited last week.

Location; Withington

Picture; A Curious Collection, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Clocking the changes on Wilmslow Road ........

I am on Wilmslow Road on that short stretch from the Library to the old Scala cinema.

It was a place I knew well in the late 1960s and early 70s.

Back then, the row of shops between the Victoria and the Albert were the traditional ones you could see on any high street.

What is now Fuel was  Fed Dawes Television Dealer, and Toast, was Exchange Travel Agency, while back in 1911, Moor and Rivers, fruiterers occupied Fuel and Mrs Maria Ann Metheringham dispensed beer and cheer from next door.

Leaving me just to reflect that in the more recent past, the two premises have had different stories

So, starting with Toast, the story of the premises is a varied one.
Back in 2008 it was Prestige Locksmith Ltd, becoming Dania by 2012, Creative Café in 2015, and Toast by August 2017.

By contrast its neighbor, Fuel where we ate on Saturday, has served up interesting food since at least 2012, and pretty much retained the same exterior  décor, with red window frames, and just a slight change from yellow to blue for the brick work.

Location; Withington

Pictures, Toast & Fuel, Wilmslow Road, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Standing on the corner and watching the changes in Withington …………… Wilmlsow Road

2019

I don’t “go off on one” when places I have known for years start to change.

It is after all the way of things, although sometimes we lose buildings of significance.

All of which brings me to the corner of Wilmslow, Parsonage and Burton Roads.

It is a spot which did not seem to change for ages, and so looking at a 1960 photograph, I am reminded of how similar it was a decade later when I was briefly living there and still hadn’t changed much a full twenty years on.

2019

But as Andy’s pictures show the transformation has grown a pace.

The White Lion went along time ago as did the cinema, but the Scala’s replacement is relatively new.

Across the road what had been the corner shop/restraunat has gone and a new building is slowing rising to the sky.

I rather took that building for granted.

It was an addition to the row of shops which were themselves added to the front of a row of houses.

1960

In 1894, that tiny corner plot was an open space.

I remember it as a shop, although I would be hard pressed to say what it sold, and later we ate there when it was a restaurant, and now it will be a four-storey building with retail/commercial space at ground floor and seven self-contained flats above with two studio flats, four one-bed and one two-bed flats.

Location; Withington

Pictures, corner of Wilmslow, Parsonage and Burton Roads, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson and hopping Centre from the set Withington Lillywhite, Tuck & Sons, courtesy of TuckDB http://tuckdb.org/history

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

The Holly Hotel on Palatine Road ........... once a family home and now just a big space waiting for Dennis the developer

Here is a building I always passed by without a second glance.

The Peace Inn, 2014

It is the Peace Hotel, which was the Holly Hotel and before that just Holly House and it is on Palatine Road.

I say is because Andy Robertson’s picture was taken in March 2014 and when he recently drove past it had gone and prompting him to wonder “I’m sure there used to be a hotel here.”

Now as these pictures show there is just a huge gaping space with just that sign as a forlorn reminder of what once was here.

Holly House, 1974

And that led Andy to begin to dig deep into the history of the building.

There is a listing for it as Holly House in 1969 and “during the seventies it seems to have been run by the council to house homeless families.”

He has also uncovered some very unflattering reviews of the place when it was a hotel some of which I have to say are very amusing, but are perhaps now left in the shadows.

Its history before 1969 is as yet a closed book but I know that in 1911 it was the home of Mrs Albertina Christinia who was a widow, had been born in Denmark in 1837 and shared the 10 roomed house with her sister, two children, a “lady companion” and the cook.

A sign but no hotel, 2016

I will in time go back and visit the lady companion who was a Mrs Fanny Luis from Manchester who was also a widow and aged 45.

But for now I am more interested in the two children who were Susanna Maria aged 35 and George Peter who was 41.  Both had been born in Manchester Miss Raundrup in West Didsbury and Mr Raundrup in Withington.

He gave his occupation as an iron merchant and in 1911 he was listed in Salter’s Directory as Raundrup & Co, merchants and shippers with offices at 41 Grosvenor chambers 16 Deansgate.

And for those with a really nerdy interest Mr Raundrup conducted his business from the fourth floor of Grosvenor chambers which is on that stretch of Deansgate currently occupied by Harvey Nichols.

I have no idea how he made his way from home to work and back.

It may have been by tram or perhaps by train from the railway station on Lapwing Lane which would have taken him into Central Station.

This was the family business which may have been established by his father who was already living in Albert Park in Withington by 1870.

That big space, 2016

And that is about it.

I know that Mrs Albertina Christinia Raundrup died in 1920 and her son George Peter in 1945.

A search of the directories in Central Ref should reveal who owned or lived in Holly House in the years after 1911 which will I bet offer up more stories and these will sit beside the memories of the place as a hotel.

And once the memories come flooding in I will go and look up the future of that space at the Corporation’s online Planning site.

Location; Palatine Road.

Pictures, Holly House at various times in its history, 2014-2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson, and in 1974, m43454, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

A tram journey, an adventure, and that old Town Hall in West Didsbury

It began as a tram journey and turned into an adventure.

Yesterday I was off to meet up with my old friend David Harrop who has supplied me with pretty much all the images I needed for the new book on Manchester and the Great War.

He was coming back from Oldham so we arranged to meet at Chorlton and travelled the tram to East Didsbury.

And there the journey became the adventure because on an impulse I got off at West Didsbury and wandered over to look at the old Withington Town Hall.

It was built in 1881 for the Withington Local Board of Heath which in 1894 became Withington Urban District Council and covered Chorlton, Burnage, Withington and Didsbury.*

There are still a few bits of evidence of this short lived local authority.

Some of the streets grids still bear the name Withington UDC and out on Chorlton Meadows there are the remains of the sewage works.

But in 1904 the ratepayers of the four townships were offered the chance to become part of the city.  It was an offer they couldn’t refuse and in the January of 1904, they voted to join looking forward to cheaper utility prices the prospect of new municipal libraries and schools.

The Town Hall remained in civic use and there will many who remember visiting the building or attending public meetings upstairs in the large hall.

It is presently the offices of pabla + pabla, solicitors.  Now I always ask the permission of the owners before taking a picture.  It is the polite thing to do and always offers up the chance of a guided tour of the building which is just what I got.  .

And for anyone interested in our municipal past it is all here to see from the council chamber to the doors into the council offices which still retain their original frosted glass each etched with the name of the department, from Water, to Gas and from Rates to Education.

And with their permission I might be back to look at their deeds.

 A everyone knows the deeds of properties  fascinate me partly because they have their own story to tell.

Not bad for one day on the tra.

Location; Withington Town Hall

And coming soon a fuller article in the July edition of Open Up South Manchester

Picture; detail of Withington Town Hall  2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Painting; Withington Town Hall, © 2015 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk


*Withington UDC

150 years of that Methodist Church in Withington

Now I am not a great one for anniversaries but here is one I think it is worth taking note of because this year is the 150th birthday of the Methodist Church in Withington.

And to celebrate the event Peter Topping painted the church on one of those fine summer days earlier this year.

For me the building is only part of the story but an interesting one.

It was opened in 1865 and was the second chapel built by the Methodists in Withington and continued to serve them well until 1992 when after a survey of the premises, “the church members decided that rather than spend over £100,000 on repairs to the ageing building they would take the bold step of redeveloping the church. 

The redevelopment scheme involved the demolition of ancillary buildings at the rear of the church and the erection of a new floor within the main worship area, to create the space for exciting new projects.”*

And in this respect they were only reflecting the same flexible approach which had led earlier groups of Methodists across south Manchester to worship in cottages barns and even open fields while at the same time working hard to raise the funds to build their first chapels.

In Withington  it all began with “two twelve-year-old girls, Hannah Hesketh and Hannah Langford, who in the 1790s heard the gospel in neighbouring Burnage and asked that a bible class be run for them in 
Withington. From this class held originally in farmhouse kitchens a worshipping community developed who, in 1832, erected a small chapel in old Moat and subsequently built the present building in 1865.”*

A large part of the money for the new church was contributed by Mr Ralph Waller a wealthy industrialist with a factory and showrooms in Manchester. **

He lived at Groombridge House opposite the old green and according to the Manchester Guardian gave a third of the total cost to the building of the 1865 church, which brings us back to that birthday and Peter’s painting.

Painting; Withington Methodist Church, © Peter Topping, 2014, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

* Withington Methodist Church, http://www.withingtonmethodistchurch.com/history.html

**Dale Street, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Dale%20Street

Reflections on what they did to Hough End Hall over the last half century

I don’t think I have ever come across such a wanton piece of vandalism but then I haven’t seen that much of the world.

The hall late 19th century

That said I can still not get my head around what someone or collection of people have done to Hough End Hall.

This was an Elizabeth country house built in 1596 and even though it has undergone many changes during its 400 years there was much in the place that linked its time as a Tudor family home and centre of a large country estate with its time as a farm house.

As late as the 1950s the internal structure which I guess had evolved from the late 18th century when the property became the home of tenant farmers was still there, including living and sleeping areas, a kitchen and even a mangle room.

The restored hall, with altered front entrance 2014

All those rooms have gone and in their place are just two open spaces one on the ground floor, the other above and no obvious access to the attics.

And if that were not enough at some point it was decided to create  new false ceilings with false beams and plaster which in turn were hidden by another false ceiling of polystyrene tiles.

And in the way of things the ceiling tiles have begun to fall down revealing the imitation beams which themselves have been smashed at the edges and drilled through with a series of holes.

Now I fully understand the commercial considerations that drove the original conversion which was part of a development which saw the errection of the two big office blocks which dwarf the Hall.

North elevation 2014

Back then a succession of development companies made soothing noises about the importance of the Hall and the final plan was signed off with the promise of a sympathetic restoration which would add nothing and take nothing away.

That sadly proved not to be the case and at least one voice was raised in protest at what was a restoration bodge both inside and out.

Just what the damage to the inside was I have yet to discover, but it is clear that it didn’t stop there and its subsequent history as a restaurant and suite of offices will also have added to the vandalism.

So I return to that simple observation that even given all the commercial considerations operating over the last half century, a pack of architects who went into their chosen profession because they appreciated good buildings could conspire to rip out or hide anything and everything that was unique and historic about it.

The Hall during the late 19th century

But before I am accused of romantic tosh I am well aware of what two centuries of being a farmhouse also did to the Hall.

In its final years the south side had been converted into a smithy and around our Elizabethan building had grown up a lot of additional agricultural buildings most of which were not that well built and had pretty much come to the end of of their useful life by the mid 20th century.

Some however would have been useful in understanding the later period of the Hall's history but they have all gone and so that just leaves the Hall.

Now I was in there yesterday  felt that over abiding feeling of loss at what has gone.  Daft as it might sound I wanted to touch something of its history even if it was a beam or bit of stone.

The hall in 2014

And there are bits of beam which have been placed in the most bizarre places and what looks like part of an exterior stone arch in the middle of the ground floor where it has no purpose along with a section of stone window which now forms part of an internal kitchen wall.

Back in 1973 one journalist concluded that perhaps the decent thing was to let it crumble away rather than undergo the indignity of destruction by the hand of countless developers and architects.

I am not so sure.  Despite all that has gone before the Hall is still there and the current plans to buy it and use it for the community may yet give it a purpose.

That will never bring back what has been lost but will at least make me feel happier.

Pictures; Hough End Hall, July 2014 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the hall in happier days from the Lloyd collection

Two old Withington pubs

The Albert, 2014

Today I am out in Withington exploring two of those pubs I haven’t been in since I lived behind the library.

Back then the object was to enjoy the beer and the company and not think over much about the surroundings which is a shame because had I done so I might just have added something to my nights in the Albert and the Victoria.

Of course I have passed them plenty of times but never been back inside although given their age I have thought about what stories might lay behind the doors.

And so when Andy presented me with pictures of the two I decided to go looking for their history.

Withington in 1853

In this I was ably assisted by Withington Civic Society and their excellent publication, A walk through the history of Withington.*

“The Albert Hotel and the shop next door are the oldest surviving Buildings in the centre of Withington.  

On October 26 1793 John Rigby (yeoman of Withington) sold to John Bowker tree acres of land known by several names.  Lower End Pasture Field, the Hay Meadow or the Croft.  

In 1824 Edward Langford, a joiner, acquired a dwelling house gardens and premises probably on this site.

The Albert, 2014

Between 1824 and 1829 he remodelled the site and built three cottages which in 1852 he sold to Thomas Holt a cashier.

During the next ten years, Thomas Holt converted the three cottages into two tenements to form a beer house, a shop and a dwelling house.  The first mention of the public house by the present name was in 1897 when it was called the Albert Inn.”

Back in 1853 the properties were still pretty much surrounded by open land and it would a decade before the field next to them was sold and a full fifty-four years before the Victoria Hotel opened for business.

The Victoria Hotel, 2014

“In 1862, the land on the site of the present Victoria Hotel was sold.  In 1905 Hydes Brewery bought the site from Mr W. M. Kay.

The pub, at that time had a basement and in the yard there was a small cottage.

In 1906/7, Hydes demolished the cottage and the stable extended the public house at the rear and built the single storey side section now fronting Queen Street.  

The interior was renovated in 1984, but the exterior has remained unaltered since those times.”

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Robertson, map detail from the OS 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

* A walk through the history of Withington, Withington Civic Society, 2014,
www, withingtoncivicsociety.org.uk

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

All that is left of a little bit of Withington tracking ...... Mr Robert Sherwood and Miss Annie Lister

The smithy as was, and now in 2014

Now I had no idea how bits of Withington behind Wilmslow Road had been redeveloped so recently.

Walking back from the old White Lion past the hole in the grounds which was the Scala and across Copson Street there is now no Albert Street or Queen Street and gone too are Cooper Street Moorfield Street along with a host of small terraced properties.

I wish I could pin point when they all went but like so many redevelopments around the city they happen when you are not looking.

Which of course is where someone will quote chapter and verse and maybe I hope coming up with some pictures.

In the meantime I shall fall back on more from Andy Robertson who wandered off down Wilmslow Road and was enticed into that warren of little streets, alleys and open spaces which is all that is left.

Queen Street in 1893

Today it is called Queen Street West but in the 1890s was simply Queen Street and a decade earlier had been Victoria Street.

It consisted of small terraced properties with the odd industrial unit.

In 1911 there were 16 of these houses which were either four or five roomed properties and were home to a mix of families whose occupations included a gardener, a clerk, a boot maker and warehouseman along with a plasterer, joiner, and pattern card maker.

There was also the business of Sam West the plumber, Richard Tart bricklayer and Robert Sherwood blacksmith.

And it is the smithy which has survived as a car repair shop with “on the left a former stable building with hayloft and hoist.”*

Residents in Queen Street, 1911

I can track the cottages back to 1879 when most of the group were owned by the estate of Edward Smith with a few in the hands of a Robert Sherwood.

And it is Mr Sherwood who has drawn me in, because as well as the cottages on Queen Street he owned the smithy for which he charged an annual rental of 30 shillings and which was matched by the income from those cottages of 11 shillings each.

He had been born in 1845 in Shropshire and was a blacksmith by trade.  In the early 1870s he was in Cheetham and by 1879 in Withington.

And like all good men of property he retired with his wife Ann to St Anne’s on the Lancashire coast.

The house is still there and is a fine large semi detached property spread over three floors with cellars and within a few minute's walk of the sea.

By contrast his tenant at number 5 the Lister family continued living in their four roomed property until after 1911.

The stables in 2014

Mr Lister who had been a gardener was succeeded as tenant by his daughter Annie who took in a long term boarder when her parents died and had a succession of jobs.

She had been born in Sale in 1861 and died in 1938 in the hospital of the old Workhouse.

Like me I doubt she would have recognised the changes to this tiny bit of Withington although given the dominant presence of Mr Sherwood in her life she may not have been surprised at the survival of his smithy or the stables opposite.

Pictures; from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the detail of Oak Bank from the 1893 OS for South Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Queen Street, Enu 5 18-20, Withington Lancashire, 1881, Enu 9 46-47, Withington Lancashire, 1891, Enu 13 30-31,  Withington Lancashire, 1901 and Enu 30 380, Didsbury, South Manchester, Lancashire, 1911  and Manchester rate Books, 1879

** A walk through the History of Withington, Withington Civic Society, 2014, www.withingtoncivicsociety.org.uk