Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester ....... nu 49 Mayfield Cottages moved so Mr Topping could catch a train

You won’t find Mayfield Cottages, they were swept away in 1910 when Mayfield Railway Station was opened so Mr Topping could catch a train.

The Star & Garter, 2015

But then you won’t be able to catch a train from Mayfield Railway Station.

It closed to passenger traffic just 50 years after it was opened and the last trains left in 1986.

It had acted as a relief for London Road Railway Station, having five platforms and recently it was proposed to reinstate it to help ease the congestion of traffic at Piccadilly.

But the latest plans which are part of the bold and innovative Northern Hub would see it demolished and an extension to Piccadilly with two new platforms running over Fairfield Street.

The Star & Garter, 1849, on Boardman Street

And that brings me to the Star and Garter which if it is doesn’t vanish under the new scheme will be so close that with a bit of ingenuity the publican could pass pints up to railway passengers.

The Star and Garter is a magic place, part old fashioned pub but also a venue for live music and a place which many people will remember with affection.

It has stood on the corner of Travis and Fairfield Street since at least 1879 and moved from its previous site between 1876 and ’79.

That previous site was on Boardman Street which is now Baring Street and where the pub once stood is at present just a bit of open land on the corner of Fairfield Street.

Now depending on which source you read the original Star and Garter opened in 1801 or 1803 when an enterprising individual saw the potential in an area which was fast being developed with residential, industrial and commercial properties.

The Star & Garter and Mayfield Railway Station, 2014

That said the name of the pub doesn’t appear in any of the early street directories although it is clearly labelled on both the 1849 OS map and that of Adshead’s map of 1851.

Of course its absence from the street directories proves nothing given that Boardman Street doesn’t appear in any listings.

And so what is needed is a trawl of the rate books and licensing records which should offer up the answer.

Mayfield Cottages in 1849

In the meantime I shall just ponder on the name of Mayfield which is currently associated with the disused railway station and was once the site of two schools and nine properties of which five were back to back.

And go back into the 18th century and the area is shown as Mayfield.

All of which leaves me to ponder on how the name will survive into the future.

Location; Manchester

Painting; Paintings from Painting; The Star & Garter Manchester. Painting © 2015 Peter Topping, Pictures
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk



Pictures; of the Star and Garter, 2014 from the collection of Andy Robertson and maps of the area from the 1842-44 OS for Manchester & Salford, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

In celebration of all things Chorlton ..... beer, cider ...... and the competition

That festival of all things beer and cider is back again in Chorlton, just over a year and a bit since we published our book on the pubs and bars of Chorlton, which as everyone knows was a companion to our equally successful and well received one on the  pubs of Manchester.*

Find a caption

All of which may seem outrageous self promotion which of course it is, so stepping back from such blatant advertising, we thought we would have a poster competition to mark the opening of the new festival.

And as Peter does he went looking for a suitable image and came up with this one from 1907.

The original was a picture postcard from Raphael Tuck and Son and was marketed in Wales under the title “A PUZZLER” .

This was one of six cards in the series, “Welsh Rarebits", and our original was posted in 1907 to New York on April 2nd from Tenby.

The card proved so successful that it was still in the catalogue four years later and the company added another five picture cards to the series of six.

A caption with a Chorlton Beer Festival connection

So it seemed the perfect choice for a competition for the best caption to the picture above and opposite.

The captions should be Chorlton Beer Festival related.

There will be a prize of our Chorlton Pubs book to the best caption.

Mark your entries Picture Caption and as a comment to the blog, an email to peter@pubbooks.co.uk  or facebook message to either of us.

In time I think I will return to the series but that is almost it, other than to say that all the books including, Hough End Hall - The Story, The Story, Didsbury Through Time, along with The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester Pubs -City Centre, Manchester Remembering 1914-18 and The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy are available from Chorlton Bookshop or direct from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk.

Location; Chorlton Beer Festival, St Clements Church, Edge Lane






Picture; The Competition, adapted by Peter Topping from a picture postcard issued in 1907 by Raphael Tuck and Son, and now in the catalogue of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/

*A new book on the pubs and bars of Chorlton; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20pubs%20and%20bars%20of%20Chorlton

The Board School .......... still going strong almost 140 years later

I remain a fan of those old Board Schools built in the late 19th and early 20 centuries.

They were, and still are solid beautiful buildings which are warm in winter and cool in summer.

By contrast the new wave of schools built in the 1950s onwards, were bold modern statements about what schools should be like, but  were all glass and metal with a fflat roof.

All of which meant that these new builds leaked heat in the winter, and were furnaces in the summer.

Added to which the metal frames were not always a good fit, and over the years began to rust and buckle allowing the wind to whip through.

And while all that glass looked good it proved an irresistible temptation to stare out at everything from the games lessons taking place or the traffic whizzing past.

Their Victorian and Edwardian predecessors had high windows which were good for letting in the light but were often just that bit too high to afford a distraction.

And of course these schools have lasted much better than those thrown up in the 1950s, which means many of us will have been to a Board School and seen our children go through similar ones and no doubt will see our grandchildren do the same.

Some are now too small and have had modern additions grafted on.

Andy Robertson was drawn to Springfield School on his travels through Sale and sent over a selection of pictures with the comment "this was on the way to Bulls Head, which was only a necessary watering stop you understand for an evening of culture with Cathy at the Waterside centre... John Bramwell of I am Kloot fame.

I was drawn in by the ‘Cookery Instruction’, sign and also by the way the 'Infant Boys' has been incorporated into the new build”.

Now I had to agree, but I wonder which of the two bits of building will still look good and be fit for purpose a century on.

Location; Sale

Pictures; Springfield School, Sale, 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Start the Festival without us ....... Chorlton Beer Festival

It is with great regret that Peter Topping and I will not be at the Chorlton Beer Festival this year promoting our books.

We had hoped to have a stall, and to show case our two very successful Manchester Pubs Books, along with the ever popular The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Last year we made many new friends at our pitch beside the church entrance and shared with them memories of the pubs we knew and loved, from Tommy Ducks and Peveril of the Peak to the lost pubs of Chorlton.

Because of a shedload of commitments including holidays, we left it very late to apply, but like the thirsty works outing heading back from New Brighton, all the spaces at all the hostelries along the way were full.

Still, we will there to meet our friends and sample the ales.

All the books including Hough End Hall The Story, Didsbury Through Time, along with The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Manchester Remembering 1914-18 are available from Chorlton Bookshop or direct from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk.

But that is not quite all because we are running a competition for the best caption to the picture above. The captions should be Chorlton Beer Festival related

There will be a prize of our Chorlton Pubs book to the best caption.

Mark your entries Picture Caption and as a comment to the blog, an email to peter@pubbooks.co.uk  or facebook message to either of us.

Location; Chorlton Beer Festival, St Clements Church, Edge Lane

Picture; Adapted from a picture postcard by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/  and adapted by Peter Topping

The day I went to Brockley looking for a water trough and found a cinema

Now I like the way you start off on a story and end up discovering all sorts of things you never knew.

The Brockley Barge, 2008

So in my quest for water troughs across south east London I have had lots of people share their memories of ones they remember.

And yesterday Margaret Nash wrote that “I haven't thought about horse troughs for years but after your post it bought back memories of a very foggy evening in the early 50's. 

It was a real pea souper and I had a boyfriend who had a car, we were on our way to see friends at Honor Oak. 

As we slowly drove along Brockley Road we came up behind a vehicle so stopped for what seemed ages until my boyfriend got out to see what the long hold up was, only to come back to tell me we were parked behind a horse trough. 

It was at a point in Brockley Road where the road divides off to the right into what is now Foxbury Road. 

I wondered if my mind was playing tricks but googled street view and the horse trough isn't there anymore but a pub called the Brockley Barge stands where the road divides.”

And that was a challenge I couldn’t turn down and went looking for the pub and the site of the trough.

The Brockley Barge turned out to be the old Breakspear Arms which had opened in 1868 and was renamed in 2000 when it became a Wetherspoons, and according to that wonderful site London Pubology has appeared in the Good Pub Guide for six years.*

Having found the pub I found the water trough.  It stood just in front of The Breakspear and is there on the OS map for 1896 and was still there in 1952.

The pub, the cinema and the water trough, 1952

For those who want an exact date for when it was placed there I can’t offer one up although I do know it will have been sometime after 1872.

Nor do I know when it was declared obsolete and taken away, but at least we found it just where Margret left it, and although she never mentioned it the trough faced a cinema which I had no idea ever existed.

This was the Brockley Picture Theatre which opened its doors on September 27 1913 and underwent several name changes over the next 43 years.

According to Mr Ken Roe “It was re-named Palladium Cinema from 24th May 1915.

The Ritz, date unknown 

In 1929 it was under new independent ownership and had a change of name to Giralda Cinema. 

This only lasted until 1936 when it was closed on 2nd November 1936 for renovation. 

It re-opened as the New Palladium Cinema. By the 25th May 1942, it had been re-named Ritz Cinema.

The Ritz Cinema was closed on 14th March 1956 with Charles Drake in 'Tobor the Great' and John Derek in 'The Fortune Hunter'(The Outcast). It was demolished in April 1960 and the site was re-developed. In 2009 an MOT car testing centre and garage is located on the site.”**

And now the MOT centre has gone and the site is underdevelopment again.

Looking at the maps and comparing with an old photograph it was a big place with a 40 feet wide proscenium and a 16 feet deep stage and a massive entrance.

I had wondered why the place didn’t ring any bells but I would not have ventured into Brockley until the early 1960s by which time the cinema had gone and with it perhaps that water trough.

Pictures; Brockley Barge, July 2008 courtesy of London Pubology, and that water trough and detail of St Mary’s Road 1953 historical map extract courtesy of Southwark Council at Historical map extract courtesy of Southwark Council at http://maps.southwark.gov.uk/connect/southwark.jsp?mapcfg=Historical_Selection&style=historical&banner=historical.
 with mapping provided by Landmark Information Group and picture of the Ritz by courtesy of Martin Tapsell from the Ritz Cinema, Ken Roe, cinematreasures,


* London Pubology, http://www.pubology.co.uk/pubs/215.html
**Ritz Cinema, Ken Roe, cinematreasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/27905

Always look up ..... On Cross Street, with ceiling window ..... Sale

Now Andy Robertson is a man of few words, but they cut to the point, so accompanying these two pictures he sent over was the simple comment, “On Cross Street, with ceiling window”.

And that is pretty much all that needs to be said.

The Bulls Head is not a pub I have been in, but I think I will take a visit, just to check out the ceiling.

The date says 1879 which means it will be pretty easy to trace.

Of course there will be someone who can reel off its whole history which would be interesting.

The Trevor Arms in Chorlton had a similar ceiling which was closed off in the 1960s, exposed again in the 1990s and after the last refurbishment has gone again under false panelling.

In the case of the Bull its attractive features are a little eclipsed by the big TV screen.

Still people will be drawn to the glass in a n idle moment when the football gets boring, which might start me off on a new series ....... Pub Windows.

And that is it.

Location; Sale

Pictures; the Bulls Head, Sale, 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson 

On Vassall Road ............with a water trough, the Union and a butter factory

Vassall Road trough, 2015

Now I have Ros to thank for these fine pictures of the water trough at Vassall Road and as ever there is a story which unites the trough, the Union and a butter factory.

Vassall Road was outside my comfort zone when I was growing up in Lausanne because it was just a tad too far to walk looking for adventures.

Back then adventures started with a walk except on those rare occasions when we spent our pocket money on a train trip from Queens Road or bought a Red Rover.

Neither of which ever took me down towards Camberwell New Road.

So Ross’s water trough was new to me and unlike so many it has been preserved and in the absence of passing horses and other livestock has been filled with flowers.

But the inscription exhorting kindness “to your animals” can still be read even if one of the stone emplacements which would have protected the trough from wheel hubs of passing wagons has been lost.

And intrigued by its survival I went looking for it on the old maps and there it was just where Ros left it yesterday.

And in 1953

Sometimes these troughs were moved from the centre of a crossroads as part of road widening schemes or just because they were getting in the way of the growing amount of traffic, but ours seems to have been sited on Vassall Road by the early 1950s and while it doesn’t show up on earlier maps I am guessing this is where it has always been.

Close enough to the old Union public house for the odd carter to leave his wagon in charge of his assistant and while his horse drank from the tough nipped in to the pub for a quick pint.

And having chatted to Mr Cook the landlord of the Union our carter might have gone off to deliver to one of the many small factories in the area.

The trough, the Union and the Butter factory, 1953

Now Mr Cook was pulling pints at the pub in 1914 and not long before there had been a smithy just across the way on Farmer Road and later still a Butter Factory and Kenoval House (Roller Shutter Factory).

Today there are still some industrial units along the road opposite the Academy and bits of them may date back to our butter factory roller shutter factory but the set of streets which included Warrior Road, Westhall Road and Elfin Road have gone.

And even the Union has undergone change with part of it becoming Bar Lenuccia which makes the survival of the water trough something to marvel over.

Pictures; the water trough on Vassall Road, courtesy of Ros Parks, and detail of Vassall Road and Farmer’s Road, 1953, historical map extract courtesy of Southwark Council at Historical map extract courtesy of Southwark Council at http://maps.southwark.gov.uk/connect/southwark.jsp?mapcfg=Historical_Selection&style=historical&banner=historical.
 with mapping provided by Landmark Information Group