Mr George Dansie of Barforth Road Peckham Rye ......... currently residing in Manchester

Now recently I came across one of those fascinating links that connected my current city of Manchester with where I grew up in Peckham on Lausanne Road.

George writes home, 1917

And the connection was a Mr George Dansie of Barforth Road Peckham and a picture postcard he sent from Manchester in the November of 1917.

The card was of the Manchester YMCA in Piccadilly which was a temporary wooden building erected in the grounds of what had once been a hospital.*

It was also known as the Khaki Club and although meant for soldiers recuperating from wounds and shell shock was open to any servicemen and became a popular club.

I have yet to find out what Mr Dansie was doing in Manchester but given that he had been born in 1890 it is more than likely that he was stationed in the city.

There are a few men with his name in the military record and one in particular who was in the Royal Army Service Corps could be him.

The Manchester YMCA, 1917

Sadly George doesn’t give too much away in his message home.

He writes that he “will be writing a letter to you tomorrow” and that he had been to two theatres last week and was planning to visit another.

But what caught my eye was a sentence he added as an afterthought and squeezed into the top of the card where he wrote that the Manchester YMCA “is very like the Camberwell hut.”

And that took me on a journey which ended with the Camberwell hut or at least a painting of the building.

The Camberwell YMCA, 1917

The picture is in the collection of the Southwark Local History Library and Archive and according to the background notes was painted in 1917 by "the artist Russell Reeve who was born in Norfolk and lived in Hampstead. 
He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal Academy of Art. 

In 1916 permission was granted for the building of a YMCA hut on Camberwell Green for the use of passing troops."

The Camberwell building is not unlike its Manchester companion and leaves me wondering what its fate might have been.

Interior of the Manchester YMCA, 1917

I don’t remember it but then we left Peckham for Eltham in 1964.

The Manchester YMCA was demolished sometime around 1920 when the site was turned into a public park.

So the hunt is now on to discover more of the history of the “Camberwell hut.”

Location; Manchester, Peckham and Camberwell

Pictures; YMCA Hut on Camberwell Green, 1917 Russell Reeve, GA0325, courtesy of Southwark Local History Library and Archive, the Manchester YMCA postcard from the collection of David Harrop and the picture of the interior from the collection of Bill Sumner

* Piccadilly Gardens ....... the early years nu 1 The YMCA Hostel 1917,

** Southwark Local History Library and Archive 

On becoming your dad

I have become my dad which I suppose is not that surprising really.

It is less the physical appearance although that is clearly there it is instead all those little ways that creep up on you and take you back four decades.

So I caught myself sitting in an armchair recently talking to one of my son’s and all the speech rhythms, along with the words I used and even the hand movements were dad.

He retained his hair longer than I ever did and unlike him I am useless at making and repairing things but the rest could be him.

He was a calm gentle man who always put the five of us first even down to the nightly winter task of putting a hot water bottle  into each of our beds and today whenever our kids are sleeping over I will do the same, even given that the eldest is nearly 40 and the youngest just 28.

And it made me reflect on just how much we carry forward from the lives of our parents and pass on to our own children.

Now dad was born in 1906 and mum in 1920 which pitched their formative years in the first half of the last century and some at least of those experiences flowed into how they brought us up.

Our Christmases blended the growing consumerism of the late 1950s with older traditions which with just a little tweeking could even have come out of the novels of Dickens.

Of course much of it was down to that simple fact that so much of everyday life was still the same.

The coal, the milk and the papers were delivered to the door,  Sidney the knife sharperner made a regular appearance with his hand operated machine which he pushed around the streets and Sundays remained the day you endured with little to do and little on the television to watch.

That said there are clear differences between me and my dad.

I never shared his politics which were grounded on a belief in Empire and property or for that matter his preference for plain food which “was not mixed about.”

Instead I very early adopted  mother’s politics coloured as they were by the mass unemployment and Means Testing of the 1930s.

For her class politics remained at the bedrock of how she voted and how she saw the world.

But then mum died when I was 25 while I had my dad until 1994 which perhaps has something to do with that simple fact that I grew more like him with the passage of time.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Closed Chorlton ……………

Now by any judgement Chorlton is “open for business”.

Closed, former Police Station, 2022

So, when a shop does close it pretty much doesn’t stay empty for long.

The most favoured change of use remains a bar or restaurant with takeaways a strong second, and in the last few years followed by speciality confectionery shops.

Although the tile and floor store on the corner of Wilbraham and Barlow Moor Roads is a welcome exception, as was the launderette which slid into the former Greggs pastry and sandwich place but appears to have closed.

And that is the subject for today which explores those “closed bits” of Chorlton.

Closed, Public Lavatories, 2022

The first two are those sad empty looking buildings by the bus terminus.  Both are no longer in use.

The first is the old Police Station, which is not that old.  

It replaced the one on Beech Road and dates from the 1950s and closed sometime early this century.

I can’t remember ever going in but do remember the air raid siren on its low flat roof which was occasionally tested in the 1980s.

The other closed building is the public lavatory, and here I draw a blank.  I can’t remember when it opened or when it closed.

Both properties seem to be waiting for something to happen.

Open, Chorlton Police Station, 1959

Occasionally a property board will go up for the police station inviting interested people to bid for or rent it but apart from a short period as furniture emporium like its near neighbour it sits closed and abandoned.

Which just leaves me to add that both do deserve a place on a history blog, and more so because with the passage of a few more years less people will remember visiting either, or in the case of the police station I guess it won’t be long before its place in the story of fighting crime is completely forgotten.

Well, we shall see.

Location, Chorlton

Pictures; Closed for Business, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Chorlton Police Station, 1959, m17522, 99 Beech Road, 1958, m17665, R E Stanley, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pas

What we thought of Chorlton in the olden days …… thanks to Bronte James

Back in July I reported that there was a new community project inviting Chorlton residents to share their personal and historical memories through written stories, drawings, and photographs.

Maps, memories and pictures

The initiative was the work of Bronte James who as part of her postgraduate studies at the University of Salford, organised the Chorlton Memory Mapping Project.

The project is now finished, and she told me “The memories of those who took part along with their pictures have become a large, interactive map showcasing the communities shared memories and favourite spots and an interactive virtual version can be found on my website here: https://www.brontejames.co.uk/817289426360

Working on the project

There is also another page detailing the project: https://www.brontejames.co.uk/mapping-the-community-chorlton

Remembering Chorlton Water Park in the 1980s

Sadly, Chorlton Library weren’t able to take the map as they are in the midst of an ongoing refurbishment. However, I am currently speaking with the Archives team in Manchester Library, so fingers crossed they’ll be able to take it. 

I’ve also created a leaflet with a QR code that is linked to the webpage with the virtual map”.

It’s an exciting way to bring back out of the shadows some of our more recent past just leaving me to thank those who took part and of course Bronte for organising the project.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; mapping our memories, 2024, courtesy of Bronte James

*Bronte James, https://www.brontejames.co.uk/817289426360

Just how many different businesses fitted into 477 Barlow Moor Road? ….… Part 2 …. before today

Yesterday I visited Department Manchester, that new place on the corner of Malton Avenue and the old Co-op which offers up “Vintage, Mid Century Retro, Contemporary Furniture” with some pretty interesting posters as well as art and other “Homeware” accessories. *

499, 1959

It opened last Saturday and has been a great success.

The building has always fascinated me sitting there and occupying a prime position between the tram terminus and the former cinema, making it a place which had the potential for plenty of footfall.

And over the last century various owners, and traders have pretty much thought the same, because it has been  a DIY store, a furniture emporium, a doctor’s surgery and long before that a private home.

To which I can add that the furniture emporium styled themselves “antique dealer”, in 1954 Mr. Crosdale specialized in “stage and studio furniture” and very briefly it was one of those discount places where almost everything was sold for a £.

499, the Department, 2022

Along with a memory from Andrea Morgan that it may also have been a solicitor's office in the 1980s, which she remembers because "I went for an interview for a secretarial job around 1981, I think it was called Cohens", and she got offered the job. To which Claire Mackie has added, "It was Clifford,Cohen's and Co. It was part of Clifford and Co whose main office was on the corner at Brooks Bar".

Trawling through selected directories I know that in 1929 it was occupied by Mr. Alex Norman Pollock MB., Ch.B. who was a surgeon, by 1954 was the antique shop of a Mr. Clarence Crosdale who eight years later was specialising in “stage and studio furniture”.

And after that had a varied set of uses.

But it began as a private home, although just when I have yet to find out.

The Holt's garden 1854

Before 1908 the site along with a huge plot of land belonged to the Holt family and this spot was part of the family garden which stretched from the corner of Beech Road, along Barlow Moor Road, down High Lane and then back running parallel with Cross Road to join Beech Road.

The eastern wall of the garden ran up to the modern edge of Barlow Moor Road and what is now the bus station was part of that garden.

Here generations the Holt’s had lived since the 1830s, but when the last died in 1908 the family home was demolished and the land sold off, to Manchester Corporation and developers, one of whom built the cinema which opened in 1914, and later had several uses before ending as the co-op.

Just when number 477 was built has yet to be discovered and will involve looking back through the directories from 1914, which in turn will give us a list of subsequent owners and traders up to 1969.

The sign, 2022

That said I know that it dates from at least 1921, because in that year the recently released census shows that it was occupied by William Finney, his daughter, son in law and two grandchildren.

I can track Mr. Finney across Manchester back into the 1870s, and he appears to have worked in the textile trade, while his son in law was a plumber.

Mr. and Mrs. Finney were married in 1879 and she died in 1913, and the following year, their daughter  Edith Mary married Andrew Pollock.

There doesn’t seem a connection between Andrew Pollock and the surgeon Alex Norman Pollock but we shall see.

Leaving me just to add that by the 1940s, the house was home to Douglas Cook, who went to Burnage Grammar School and remembers the house and its garden as big and comfortable.**

Just when the property took on its commercial as aspect awaits a bit more research, but I think there is a continuity in the idea that what was once an antique shop and later dealt in in “stage and studio furniture" is back in the business of offering a mix of household accessories.

And Department Manchester has its own Facebook site.***

Inside the shop, 2022

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; 499, Barlow Moor Road, 1959, A H Downes, m17516, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Department Manchester, 2022, from the collection of Stephen Hall and Heather Linnett, and the Holt’s garden in 1854, from the OS map of Lancashire, 1845-1854, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*The shop ……the poster and heaps of vintage treasure …… the continuing story of 477 Barlow Moor Road … Part 1, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-shop-poster-and-heaps-of-vintage.html

** Douglas Cook, www.whitedownmusic.co.uk

***Department Manchester, https://www.facebook.com/Department-Manchester-104044198925948

Walking along the High Street in the spring of 1851

Sherard House in 1909 from the garden

This is one of those walks I wish I could have made in the spring of 1851.

It would have started at the church and finished up just past the smithy by Eagle House and along the way we would have seen some fine old houses including Sherard House, Merewood House and Cliefden House, poked our noses into Sun Yard behind the pub of that name at the collection of wooden cottages and perhaps passed the time of day with some of the residents of Jubilee Cottages which were also tucked away behind the High Street.

Now Jubilee Cottages have quite caught my imagination.  They had five rooms with three up and two down looked east across the fields and had longish gardens at the rear.

The High Street, 1858-73

I often wonder how John Fry who owned them felt about the fact that despite being known on maps as Fry’s Buildings they were by common consent called Jubilee Cottages a name which had stuck from when they were built in 1833 and continued in usage on the census returns.

I have to confess that I am drawn to these along with the cottages of Sun Yard and those of Ram Alley, more perhaps because the big houses are well known as are their occupants.

And so starting tomorrow I rather think I will dig deep into their stories, while not ignoring those fine houses.  After all more than one of them while they may have looked to the casual passerby as an 18th century property were really much older.

Pictures; detail of Eltham High Street from the OS map of Kent, 1858-73 First Edition, and Sherard House from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers,http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

“I have seen the future and it works”* ....... The 1945 plan for Manchester

Now we are all used to those grand plans which are aimed at transforming where we live and in doing so how we live.

I arrived in the city just as the area which was to become the Arndale was being cleared of all its old 19th properties and I watched as many finer buildings were also brought down in the name of progress and commerce.

The unplanned city

And so with this in mind I want to look at Manchester Corporation’s plan for the city which was published in 1945.

It was a bold if not monumental vision of the future, aiming to wipe away the ramshackle collection of streets and buildings some of which were no longer fit for purpose and replace them with wide roads encircling the centre and bold modernist architecture all worked out to a logical plan.

Along with this would be new social housing to replace the slums.

Today we might feel a little uneasy at a lot of what was on offer, but planners are not idiots and the vision was based on a detailed analysis of where things weren’t working.

In particular the degree to which the rapid growth of the city combined with profit seeking entrepreneurs had created great swathes of housing which had been unsuitable when put up and now seventy to a hundred years later were unfit.  “To sum up, the first half of the nineteenth century was an era of unprecedented change, of ruthless and uncontrolled energy and conflict, of crude materialism and blind, unreasoning confidence in the beneficence of the new industrial forces.”  And much of that legacy still existed despite attempts to introduce better planning regulations and new housing estates.

Of course the destruction of some parts of the city during the war helped the planners, as did the growing sense that as the plans were being drawn up victory over Germany was at hand and having won the war it was “time to win the peace.”

Looking up to the new Town Hall

But despite the grand vision I have to say that I am glad much of it never happened.

The creation of a massive processional way from a new railway and bus complex called Trinity Station up into Albert Square and the destruction of the Waterhouse Town Hall would have been an act of vandalism.

Nor does the creation of a massive Peoples' Place at All Saints on Oxford Road  housings a Civic Hall, Concert Hall and Civic Assembly Hall with the “the records of the history and achievements of Manchester and its leading citizens” strike me as any better.

The Peoples' Place

The charm of the city, of any city is the small interesting streets and buildings which let out onto something bigger and more impressive, but always with the scale of the passerby.

Location; Manchester

*Lincoln Steffens in a letter dated April 3 1919 to Marie Howe after his visit to the Soviet Union

Pictures; from the 1945 Plan for Manchester, published by Manchester Corporation, 1945, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass