Local Scenes

St Gregory’s Catholic Boys’ High School, 1958

One of the last pictures of the school to be taken before extension work began, this image includes a good close-up of the former home of John Rylands, the front portico of which later became a listed piece of architecture and was protected from change. The sign bearing the school’s name, as shown here, probably dated from its early years but was now somewhat misleading because, from March of that year, it was called   “St Gregory’s Roman Catholic Technical High School for Boys”.

Ardwick Green North, 1958

The buildings were, from the left: No. 71, housing Holliday and Hemmerdinger, No. 73, the old Ardwick Town Hall, and Nos. 75-77, St Gregory’s. Note the contrast in lamp posts between the old and the new.

The Manchester Hippodrome, 1958

The theatre, commonly referred to as ‘The Ardwick Hippodrome’, can be seen to the right with St Gregory’s visible in the distance. In 1961, the Hippodrome was closed and there were plans to convert it into a bowling alley; in February 1964, it was severely damaged in a fire and was demolished in the autumn of that year. This snapshot is rather unusual in that not a single vehicle can be seen; on other occasions, all the roads converging at the roundabout were invariably gridlocked with rush hour traffic causing severe congestion. This sometimes resulted in some pupils arriving late. 

On the far side of the roundabout, and to the right of the public conveniences, can be seen the hut from which Mrs Dinah Wilson sold sweets and chocolates to cinema and theatre-goers from the 1930s to the 1950s. She sometimes opened it for business during the day for the benefit of the boys, according to a past pupil.

View along Higher Ardwick, about 1958

Taken from the corner of Ardwick Green North and Higher Ardwick, this photograph includes the Methodist Church and, in the distance, the Union pub. In the left foreground is a shed sited inside the fenced-off land that was used as a car park before becoming part of the extended school. Behind the man sitting on the wall across the road is a piece of wasteland on which boys played football during the time of the extension work, when the schoolyard was somewhat reduced in area. Note the trolley bus power cables and posts.

The Union Inn and shops, 1959

At lunchtimes pupils sometimes bought buttered barm cakes and muffins from one of the shops on the left. These shops were later demolished and the ground remained unused for years. Again, note the trolleybus power cables and posts.