When you lose a vegan sausage roll but gain a Laundrette ………….

Now, someone will have written the definitive history of the Laundrette, including a chapters on the Bedsit, and Single on a Sunday.

But for now, I will just settle on the observation that their arrival did much to kill off the laundry, and their demise has had a lot to do with family washing machine.

In the last few decades, the numbers of Laundrettes have tumbled, and with their passing has come the frantic search to find one and find one that will take a king size duvet.

Once Chorlton had lots.  I often used the one on Beech Road along with the one on Barlow Moor Road almost opposite the old cinema and tram terminus.

And there were others, including another on Barlow Moor just down from the corner of Needham Avenue and one on Wilbraham Road.

At which point there will be a surge of memories and a fair few contributions pointing to ones I have missed.

Now there is a new one on Wilbraham Road in what was once Greggs, which of course inspired the silly title.

Leaving me just to wish the new owners a heap of prosperity, and end the long journey to the Quadrant of Stretford to wash the duvets.

Location; Wilbraham Road,

Picture; the Laundrette, Wilbraham Road, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

All glass and surprises ....... back at the Quays

Now the thing about Salford Quays is that it is all glass and surprises.

All glass .............. 2017

Which means, that pretty much every time I wander down there a new glass and steel building has gone up or about to with even more to come.

The place seems full of  of cranes and half finished developments which come in lots of different shapes and sizes.

And this Friday I added another to the list of ones that weren’t there last time I was at Media City.

It’s called the Alchemist and is indeed all glass and steel topped with a  golden roof.

The space between the Lowry and Media City, 2014

It stands on that stretch of land which runs back from the Quays to the water and has the Lowry to one side and Media City on the other.

I remember the plot as an empty expanse which for a while was home to a temporary showroom and then reverted to nothing until blue wooden walls went up with signs announcing “Media City UK” “Where brilliance happens.”

The few who sat waiting for a bus under the shelter by those blue walls may have pondered on what was going on behind them but I never did.

The Alchemist, 2017

I showed no interest  and certainly didn’t think it warranted a picture, but now I wish I had snapped away, if only to mark the change from open space to an interesting building which mixes shapes, and glass with that striking gold roof.

When passed there were people inside and it looked  open for business serving up cocktails. and food.

And that has to be more of an attraction than the windy space that was there before.

A balcony to view the surroundings, 2017

Critics might object that the free view across the water to the Imperial War Museum North  has been lost but I bet there is an equally interesting view from the platform that juts out into the basis with the added attraction of a glass of something.

And the rest I am told will be a painting by my old chum Peter Topping.

But no sooner had this story been posted and quick as a flash Antony added one of his pictures of the site under construction.

All blue walls, an empty site and a promise of things to come, 2016

It perfectly points up that simple observation that you should always carry a camera and always record what is going on around you.

After all without all those Victorian and Edwardian photographs there would be fewer opportunities for people to post old scenes of our towns and cities in a time before now.

And not to be outdone, just minutes later Paul contributed this fine pictures of the new bar which I like, adding, "the latest surprise I saw yesterday was the changed view across the water, now they've opened the Alchemist."

Across the water, 2017

It was taken yesterday when the sun was kinder than on the day I was there and in between those heavy rain showers.

And that really is it.


Location; Salford

Pictures; Salford Quays, 2017 and 2014 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the construction of the new Alchemist, 2016 and remaining two, courtesy of Antony Mills and in 2017 from Paul Sherlock

The lost Eltham & Woolwich pictures ...... no. 44 ..... man working

I am not even sure this it is  a scene you could see today, but back in the 1970s when the Thames was a working river, plenty of people derived their living on and beside it.

This was one of the pictures I took of Eltham and Woolwich in the mid ‘70’s which sat undisturbed in our cellar.

But all good things eventually come to light.

They were colour slides which have been transferred electronically.

The quality of the original lighting and the sharpness is sometimes iffy, but they are a record of a lost Eltham and Woolwich.

Location; Woolwich

Picture; Woolwich, circa 1978, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

When a cook book becomes a bit of our collective past

Ricotta cheese, eggs, sugar and candied peel  with a lattice of pastry, 2010

I won’t be alone in having several bookshelves filled with cook books.

Most remain unopened from one year to the next and only come down to be looked at for the pictures and the carefully written stories.

Not that there is anything wrong in that but that doesn’t make them cook books.

To qualify for that status the book has to be much thumbed, with more than a few cooking stains and fall open at old favourite dishes many of which you know off by heart anyway.

And these books will all come with a history.

That history might be the book given as a wedding present or as a going away manual for the son or daughter about to set up their own home and they also will be full of recipes that reflect the eating habits of the past.

A finished Meta display, 1947

We still have mum’s two volumes of Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking first published in the USA in 1947.

In its time it was as essential as Mrs Beaton’s guide to household management and followed a tradition which can be traced back to the monthly periodicals issued during the 19th century and the stylish recipe books of the century before.

I think the two volumes were given to mother soon after she settled down with my father and they have been part of my life since.

Not that she used them over much.  They have American measures and many of the foods listed would not have been available in those post war years when there was still rationing.

Here are appetisers like Apple Tempters and Shrimp Cocktail, traditional main courses of liver and onions, broiled, fried or roast chicken and a host of puddings.

Some do tempt me but others like Italian Style Liver Marconi and Tomatoes followed by Baked Pears with Marshmallows I am happy to leave alone.

Met's take in stuffed peppers, 1947

But they reflect that immediate post war period when the growing prosperity of the USA set it apart from Britain.

That said we did have Coronation Chicken that 1953 dish first served at the Queen’s Coronation meal which was a mixture of cold chicken with mayonnaise and curry.  It sounds quite tame today but against the backdrop of years of rationing I reckon it would have been pretty exotic.

I have dipped into Meta Given but it is a world away from what I am comfortable with eating.

So my manual of choice is the Silver Spoon which first appeared in Italy in 1950 and like Meta was meant as the ultimate guide to food, cooking and all you wanted to know about both.

I came across it  a decade ago and saw in it an opportunity to reproduce the meals which Rosa cooks when we go home to Italy.

Now family dishes are not learnt from cook books but handed down and in the case of Rosa’s cooking reflect her upbringing in Naples in the 1940s and early ‘50s when food was in short supply. So most of what we eat is weighted to the food of southern Italy with just the odd nod to the heavier dishes of the north, which means plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish and only small amounts of meat.

Rosa's fish stew, 2010

Of course the Silver Spoon includes the lot but I have to say I slide towards the south and fall back on Rosa’s favourites many of which come with a family story.

Like the one about the about making passata which began with the raw tomatoes and ended with the bottling of the finished stuff which was stored away in the garage and pretty much kept them going all winter.

It was a collective affair with uncles and aunts joining the kids, Simone and Rosa and lasted the day and was as much about getting together and retelling old tales as it was about making food.

Sadly the Silver Spoon leaves out the stories which are a shame and set me off thinking that perhaps it’s time to produce that family cook book which will offer both the workaday meals we remember with a bit of the family history.

We shall see.

Picture's Rosa's Easter tarts and fish stew 2010 and dishes from Meta Givern, 1948 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Everywhere should have a bookshop ……… E J Morten's

Now if you live in Didsbury, or once passed through, you will know that down that little side street is that wonderful book shop.

And amongst all the volumes there are some fascinating ones which every fan of local history will fall upon with glee.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; EJ Morten Booksellers, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*EJ Morten Booksellers,  Specialists in new and antiquarian/secondhand/rare books in Didsbury, Manchester, 0161 445 7629 mob: 07836 785 154, 
morten.booksellers@lineone.net  

                       

Posting a letter at the Worsley Post Office ........ now that’s a zippy title

I am the first to admit that Posting a letter at the Worsley Post Office does not rank high as an imaginative title but there you are, sometimes you just have to say it as it is.

And today I am going to do one of those things I dislike when others post a picture with no supporting notes.

I don’t have a date, or the name of a photographer or anything else which would provide a context, other than that it was marketed by “Boots Cash Chemist” and was from their “Pelham Series.”

It’s not a lot but it does offer something to follow up.

I am not surprised that Boots were selling picture postcards, only that they were doing it so early.

The company was established in 1849, was sold to the American United Drug Company in 1920 and sold back into British hands in 1933.

Not that any of this helps with a date for our Post Office.

But someone will know.

Location; Worsley

Picture; Worsley Post Office, date unknown from the collection of David Harrop

The bits of Chorlton you don’t always see

Now there is nothing rocket science about looking for unusual views of familiar Chorlton buildings.

But as with these two buildings of the back of the old snooker hall and cinema, most people will never get to see them.

The pictures were taken last Saturday from the playground of Oswald Road School during market day.

And in an age of powerful electric lighting it is easy to forget that when the hall was built at the beginning of the last century it was important to find every bit of natural lighting.

So, along with those big windows at the front and the series of roof windows there was another at the back which has now been bricked up.

The design was a common one and similar halls, all built by the same company, can be found across Greater Manchester, although few are still in the same line of business.  True the snooker hall was Temperance and today it is a pub but the place is still a place of entertainment, unlike its big neighbour which was once a cinema but is now the Co-op Funeral Parlour.

Location; Chorlton

Picture, the old snooker hall and cinema, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson