Oldham Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

1915

The Oldham area was once home to several railway stations – many of which have since closed.

There is currently no rail link to and from the town.

Tram services between Manchester and Oldham have returned – for the first time since trams stopped running in Oldham in 1946. 

The first service to Oldham Mumps left Manchester Victoria at 05:24 BST – calling at the eight stops on the line.

The tram then made the return journey, leaving Oldham at 06:00 BST and taking about 25 minutes to reach Manchester city centre.

BBC News

Oldham Central

To the right an huge Sainsbury’s supermarket 1999-2001 Pringle Richards Sharratt.

To the left can be seen the semi-derelict Grade II Listed Prudential Assurance Building 1898-91 Alfred Waterhouse & Son – now in the ownership of Oldham Council.

Image – Victorian Society

Back tracking toward Phoenix House – with its implausible heron.

It’s been four years since the Department of Work and Pensions left their Union Street office and eighteen months since plans were submitted to turn it into eighty two flats.

However, apart from hoardings being installed around the building, there doesn’t appear to have been much movement at the site – at least not legally.

Oldham Times

Turning the corner to Metropolitan Place.

Currently in use by Oldham Council – formerly home to the Registry Office, wedded couples referred to it as the Hobson Street Cathedral.

Though there seems to have been plans for both office and co-working space, along with conversion to apartments.

Back out onto Union Street and down to Gallery Oldham 2002 Pringle Richards Sharratt.

Linking to the older Library and Art Gallery 1883 T Mitchell with sculpture by JJ Milson.

Today the building has been restored to include the Council Chamber and Mayor’s Dining Room, public exhibition spaces and a new home for Oldham Theatre Workshop.

The Old Library is one of the earliest examples of an ashlar faced, in-situ formed concrete multi story building.

Oldham Gov

Take a turn up Greaves Street and here’s a faience clad Victoria House a former Billiard Club 1912 Winder & Taylor – subsequently the hall was used as council housing offices and a college before becoming vacant.

Oldham Boxing moved into the building in 2011.

Next door a Ponsonby And Carlile Solicitors Office 1902 Edgar Wood – Grade II Listed.

Back now onto Union Street and the GMB Offices.

Onwards to the former Oldham Evening Chronicle

Down the hill and left to the Walshaw Street Bus Depot 1936

Image: Jeff Smith Oldham’s Past

Home to the Pennine Lounge.

Next we head up Yorkshire Street to Harry’s Bar – formerly The Artizans Rest 1937.

Architects: CT Taylor – Roberts & Bowman.

In 2025, it was revealed by the Manchester Evening News that Oldham council planned to buy the building and demolish it with the price tag for the project reported to be £1m. The money comes from a £2.5m pot of regeneration finding given to the local authority by the government.

MEN

Image: Oldham’s Past

Image: George Symes

These two carved panels have been removed.

Just around the corner is the former Kings Picture Hall – currently Bees Knees.

Located in the town centre, directly opposite the Coliseum Theatre. The King’s Picture Hall was opened 18th September 1911. In October 1912 a café was opened in the building adding a further amenity to the cinema. In 1929 it was equipped with a British Thomson Houston sound system.

The King’s Picture Hall was closed on 25th June 1966 with Ryo Ikebe in Battle in Outer Space and Randolph Scott in Comanche Territory.

On 2nd July 1966 it was converted into a bingo club.

In 2006 it was a nightclub.

Cinema Treasures

A stand of shops – stepped the accommodate the incline, partially clad in Westmorland Slate.

Oldham Town Centre now has a new high-quality public space – Parliament Square

Six new restaurant units will be located within the Old Town Hall alongside a brand new 800-seat, seven screen ODEON cinema.

BDP 2017

A stunning glass extension to the side of the Grade II-listed building provides access to the various levels of the cinema and is also the frontage to the new restaurants.

George Woodhouse of Bolton 1841, extended by Edward Potts of Oldham 1879-80. 

Oldham Gov

To the left is a statue of Springhead born Annie Kenney – political activist, socialist feminist and suffragette, modelled by Denise Dutton, unveiled 14 December 2018.

The Egyptian Room Food Hall project extends BDP’s partnership with Oldham Council and the rejuvenated Grade II listed Old Town Hall building in Oldham town centre, the main transformation of which was also designed and delivered by BDP.

The Loom is a brand new events space next to Oldham’s new indoor market on Parliament Square in the town centre. The gala-sized event space can fit up to one thousand standing guests, seven hundred seated, or five hundred dining, or can be split-off into smaller rooms for exhibitions, gigs, or theatre performances.

Design for a war memorial chapel, St Mary’s Church 1920.

Architect: Nugent Francis Cachemaille-Day.

Artist: H Lewis Curtis.

Image: RIBA pix

Next to the former Yorkshire Bank 1970 John Brunton & Partners.

Under construction 1970

Image: Kayla Chadwick

Down to the Spindles Shopping Centre 1991

Originally the site of St Peter’s Shopping Centre architect Richard Seifert

St Peter’s House – housed Oldham Area Health Authority Administrative Offices

Images: Yesteryear Oldham then & now 

Spindles has been revamped by AEW Architects.

Stained glass by Brian Clarke installed in 1993.

Between 1990 and 1993, Brian Clarke designed a series of three interrelated roof lights in stained glass for the Spindles Shopping Centre in his hometown of Oldham, Lancashire. Among the largest stained glass windows in Europe, and some of the largest public artworks in the UK, these panels connect the main public areas of the principal shopping centre in the town.

No town walk would be complete without a former Burton’s.

Next to the Bus Stations 2008 Austin-Smith Lord situated either side of the Civic Centre.

In the midst of it all is the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

The Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham will soon open its doors for the last time before it permanently closes to the public and is prepared for demolition. Since being condemned for containing Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete – RAAC in 2023, its days have been numbered.

Now the old theatre is part of plans to bring 2,000 new homes into the town centre in a partnership between Oldham Council and the developers Muse.

Oldham Times

Chris Connor as Elvis at the Oldham Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Surrounded on two sides by the Civic Centre – the lower parts are by Richard Seifert & Partners 1962, the fourteen storey Tower and Hall 1974-78 are by Cecil Howitt & Partners.

Plans are underway at the civic centre, the largest site in the regeneration project, to create a vibrant community providing eight hundred and thirty eight homes rising up to fifteen-storeys with mixed-use commercial spaces on the ground floor. This development will integrate seamlessly with the surrounding neighbourhood, particularly the nearby Former Magistrates’ Court site. The Civic Tower at the edge of the site will be retained and redeveloped as a hotel in a later phase.

Where have the Magistrates’ Courts gone?

Architects: Leach Rhodes Walker 1977.

Demolished in 2019 to make way for further redevelopment.

The proposals for the Former Magistrates Court site include two hundred and nineteen new homes with the tallest block ten-storeys and a green route connecting Manchester Chambers with King Street. The designs have been developed to ensure a unified neighbourhood with a common design language and seamless movement between other sites. 

Team Civic

Oldham Council and Muse intend to work in partnership over the next 15 years to develop the sextet of council-owned brownfield sites across the town centre.

Place North West

Next door the Police Station – architects: Leach Rhodes Walker.

Next to the Mecca Bingo formerly Shopping Giant.

We conclude at the Telephone Exchange.

Viewed across the site where Bailey’s used to be – aka Romeo & Juliet’s, Butterflies, Astoria ballroom and Bowling Alley, Froggies and Riley’s.

The site originally started out as the Grand Theatre, a performance space designed by London architects Thomas Taylor and Ernest Simister who also designed Chadderton Town Hall.

In 1937, Gaumont Super Cinemas took over the building, gutted the auditorium and transformed it into stalls and one circle seating totalling 1,842 to open their 1930s cinema.

BBC

In 1991, the Chronicle reported on a mysterious haunting which was thought to have taken place in Butterfly’s nightclub in Oldham.

Before Butterfly’s had been a nightclub the building had been used for many purposes, and in 1939 was known as the ‘Grand Theatre.’ The building was undergoing renovations when Mr Lloyd was killed. ‘Witnesses said that Mr Lloyd was crushed underneath the beam which he was trying to guide down with a rope.’

However, Derek Lloyd’s theory of the origin of the ghost was not accepted by everyone at the time. Due to the fact the ghost appeared to be wearing a white T-shirt, people believed it was unlikely to be the spirit of a 1930s man. In response, Derek argued that ‘my father always had his sleeves rolled up at work because he suffered from a skin complaint.’ 

Gallery Oldham

In 2011 the building was converted into a roller derby centre known as the Thunderdome, once home to the Rainy City Roller Derby who moved out in 2020.

It was announced in April 2023 that the building was proposed for demolition and the end came in May 2025.

Image: Mark Hughes

Scarborough Coastal Stroll

Posted on by modernmoocher

This is one of many walks from South Bay Bathing Pool to South Bay Beach.

Today we begin at the Scarborough Library.

The Edward Bawden map was commissioned in 1931 by Tom Laughton, the hotelier of Pavilion Hotel in Scarborough.

I discovered Edward Bawden myself. I saw some illustrations of murals in the Illustrated London Newswhich had been carried out by Bawden at Morley College. The principal subject was a lodging house with a classical pediment and with the front walls taken out, so that the life in the house was shown from the basement to the attic. I found it delightful. I managed to find out where he lived, and I went to see him. I rang his bell; waiting on the steps I looked across the road and recognised the building that was the subject of the mural. At length a young and seemingly timid man came to the door; “There is your mural”, I said. He told me that I was the first person to spot his subject. He took me on a bus to see the paintings on the walls of Morley College.

The outcome was that he designed a wine list for the Pavilion Hotel, decorated a large ordnance map of Scarborough – (which when I left the hotel I gave to the children’s public library and also made an amusing perspective peepshow, which is still in my possession – Pavilions by the Sea was published in 1977.

The peepshow is on display on the first floor of Scarborough Art Gallery, where it still enchants children and adults alike.

Scarborough Museum and Galleries

The map is hand painted and based on the OS Map of 1926.

The map was fully restored and reframed in 2012 and now lives in Scarborough Library.

Bawden’s postcard for the Pavilion Hotel.

Tom Laughton was brother to Charles Laughton – the plaque is attached to their home the Victoria Hotel.

Enthused by Edward’s exquisite map I set off strolling along the seafront.

I always stop to pay my respects to these seriously neglected concrete beach chalets.

Thence to the former South Beach Bathing Pool designed by Scarborough’s former Borough Engineer, Harry W Smith.

Construction began shortly before the outbreak of WWI, and was taking place in December 1914, when Scarborough was bombarded by German ships. Workers were able to shelter, coincidentally, behind the new wall they had recently constructed for the pool.

Built in the Art Deco style, it measured 330ft long and 167 ft wide, and was filled naturally by fresh sea water, propelled into the pool by the tide each day – officially opened in 1915.

The pool closed in 1989.

Stories From Scarborough

Concrete Colonnade in the Post Modern manner.

Filey Brigg is barely visible through the mist.

The Scarborough Spa – boldly stands over the bay, beaches, and harbour, providing unrivalled views. With a lengthy and impressive past, it is a popular venue for touring performers and meetings, conferences, and training sessions.

The Spa dates back to the C18 when a mineral spring there became a place of fashionable resort. Originally there was just a timber embanked terrace to the shore. Later, in the early C19 a castellated building was raised. In 1858 Sir Joseph Paxton designed the new ashlar faced Spa pavilion raised on terrace with arcaded ground and first floor articulated by pilaster strips, seven bays, with projecting pilastered corner towers with balustraded parapets.

Grade II* Listed

Grand Hotel was chosen as one of Historic England’s seven wonders of the English seaside, as featured in the Daily Mail

Located in the town centre and built in 1863, the Grand Hotel Scarborough takes pride of place overlooking the town’s picturesque harbour and South Bay. This stunning Victorian building is an instantly recognisable landmark, and stands out amongst other hotels in Scarborough. 

We’ve stayed here a few times and we’ve never had a problem with our room. If you dont like lifts theres a lot of stairs but we like to keep fit anyway. Fridge was a bonus. Hairdryer, towels, three loo roll, towels, fan, iron, ironing board Good stock of tea and coffee, nice clean kettle. Paid for a room with a window and got unexpected sea view which was fab to wake up to. Gorgeous main area, singers on at nine, stayed in room thirteen no ghosts lol.

Will defo come again – thank you Grand Hotel.

Samantha K

Absolutely disgusting, the rooms was very dirty, full of dust, the room hasn’t been cleaned since the last person stayed as there body shape was still in the bed, bathroom had toothpaste all in the sink and the shower was absolutely filthy. Curtains are hanging off. Carpets are dirty. The food is very bad, cheap and under cooked. And most the food on the menu wasn’t even available. When speak to the staff I got verbal abuse from them and the chef told my partner to “f off”.. it’s just horrible experience. Do not wish this on anyone. You go outside to loads off homeless doing drugs and been drunk also. I actually ended having to leave and book an alternative accommodation.

Don’t stay here

Chloe S

Trip Advisor

Architect: Cuthbert Brodrick – 1863-67 an immense structure in red brick with tawny terracotta dressings, four storeys, basement, and storey at eaves cornice level, and two storey attic

Grade II* Listed

Olympia Leisure

This is the place to be, either to meet friends, make friends or just book a Party event for friends and family. With twelve lanes our Ten Pin Bowling Alley, with its modernised interior and updated scoring system is a fantastic place to relax.

We have fabulous balcony views of Scarborough’s Seafront and Bay and a Smoking Area. It’s the perfect venue for an office or workplace party, student celebration, holiday activity, or just a regular get together of friends.

Formerly the site of the Futurist Theatre

The Futurist Theatre was built to the design of Scarborough architect Frank Tugwell and opened on 27 June 1921 as a cine-variety theatre operated by William Catlin.

Originally it boasted a grandiose, ornate façade of robust, self-cleaning white glazed Carraraware tiles, the design of Henry Doulton.

This was later obscured during spring 1968 by a facelift of rectangular plain yellow cladding.

Demolition of the building began in June 2018 and was completed in August 2018.

The demolition and associated land works cost local taxpayers £3.91 million.

Wikipedia

Coney Island is a popular amusement centre located on Foreshore Road in Scarborough, offering a vibrant dose of classic seaside entertainment. It’s known for its unique architectural style and cool retro vibes that captivate visitors. This lively spot provides a welcoming atmosphere for all ages looking for fun by the coast.

Step inside Coney Island and discover a fantastic array of arcade games, ranging from exciting racing simulators where you can ‘drive’ sports cars and motorbikes, to a decent selection of both older and newer games. Beyond the flashing lights and sounds of the arcade, the centre also features a bowling alley, perfect for some friendly competition. Guests appreciate the ease of exchanging notes for coins at the desk, ensuring continuous play.

Yorkshire.com

I have been to t’other Coney Island – it looked like this.

Morecambe – West End

Posted on by modernmoocher

We are on a collision course on the coast.

The sky collides with the sea

The sea collides with the land

We wash up in Morecambe’s West End.

This is where the past meets an uncertain future, the best laid plans are eroded by the backwash of interminable economic decline.

The whole tale is best told here by East of the M60.

Britain from Above 1920

Postcard 1919

Postcard 1976

Busy bustling streets lined with large bed and breakfast establishments, rail and road links that led the holiday makers to town.

Supplanted by budget airlines, that took them far away.

The pier disappears along with subsequent short term attractions.

Social deprivation ensued, the shadow of Thatcher’s economic experiment looming large over the hollowed out streets.

2007

The café has been and gone no more Tasty Bites.

There were projects to support the rebuilding of the community, WEM closed in March 2026.

The area has been allocated £20m from the government’s Pride In Place fund.

Phased over 10 years, it aims to empower local people to tackle empty buildings and boost the local economy, public spaces and community amenities.

Lancaster Guardian

The former land of Frontierland may yet be saved as the cavalry, in the form of the Eden Project, comes down the line.

Photo: Dave Clark

It was a sunny day in August so I went to take a look around.

Come along to the Coffee Pot – 93 Marine Road

All day breakfast, burgers, panini, hot dogs and much more.

Outside seating on this lovely sunny day, come try us out.

Permanently closed.

Offering sea views, The Wellington Hotel & Holiday Flats is an accommodation set in Morecambe, the accommodation offers a 24-hour front desk and free WiFi is available throughout the property.

The aparthotel is fitted with one bedroom, a fully equipped kitchenette with a microwave and a fridge, and one bathroom with a shower and a hair dryer.

Photo: The Guardian

Best shop ever – Gabrielle Gibson

Olive Tree Ministries – serving the Polish Community.

Lancaster City Council’s ambitions to bring back to life the site of a former department store have moved one step closer thanks to the award of a government grant worth nearly £750,000.

Bought by the city council as part of the West End masterplan, the intention is to refurbish the building’s upper floors to provide affordable housing, retaining the Co-Op late shop that occupies one-half of the ground floor.

Lancaster Council

The Well Communities is a peer-led recovery organisation built on support, inclusion, and lived experience. For more than a decade, we’ve helped people across North Lancashire and Cumbria overcome drug and alcohol challenges, rebuild confidence, and move toward healthier, more hopeful lives.

Well Communities

Established in 2016 and winner of The Visitor “Business of the Year” award in our opening year.

The Exchange

This is by far the best, friendliest and cheapest pub I have been to in the fifteen years I have lived in Morecambe.

Initially they owned the Ranch House on the promenade but moved to the Exchange – then called the Imperial, some years ago.
Rob and Debbie completely turned the place around, barring all the undesirables and introducing live music every weekend.
Rob has kept the ale prices down which is reflected by the numbers of regulars and visitors it attracts.

Trip Advisor

Duffy’s Irish Bar on Springfield Street is officially opening its doors on Saturday June 6th from 12 midday.

A spokesman for Duffy’s Irish Bar said:

Expect great craic, ice-cold drinks, live entertainment, and the warm Irish welcome you’ve been waiting for.

Lancaster Guradian

We are a Morecambe based organisation & shop located ran by volunteers dedicated to helping local pets.

Crazy Cats

Loaded jackets, fresh smoothies and delicious panini.

Spud Runners

Morecambe, I love this place for treasures – Anna’s Charity

Four soup cups £2, 70’s piggy bank £1, 80’s and 90’s curtains £2

Louise Beagle

David Thurlwell, baker and proprietor – taken on the 26th of April 1991.

I remember the excellent meat and potato pies – George Smith.

Lancaster City Museum

More Music is a music and education charity based in the West End of Morecambe, with 30 years of experience delivering workshops, training, performances and festivals across the district, region and beyond. More Music seeks to build confidence and spirit in individuals and communities through the arts, especially music. More Music is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation.

More Music

Action is needed to tackle empty shops and rundown buildings in Morecambe’s West End, councillors have said.

Coun Whitaker “Do you agree that we need to stop the rot and the domino impact of more boarded up properties which residents are getting really fed up of? We need to prioritise getting boarded up properties back into use, as business or arts opportunities. Hopefully, we can make the West End a good arts hub when the Eden Project arrives?”

Coun Bottoms replied: “Yes, there are lots of ideas and lots of talk at these meetings. But there is no real vision or strategy. That’s what we need to move things forward. We need positive action, not just words.”

Lancaster Guardian

See how the other half live on my Morecambe Walk.

Wear Mill Stockport

Posted on by modernmoocher

1920

As a consequence of the geology, geography, and topography of the area Stockport became an industrialised town.

Coal, water cotton and hats coalesced into a viable local economy, with a viaduct to carry goods, services and people over the River Mersey.

Beneath the viaduct and alongside the river is Grade II Listed Wear Mill

The first record of a mill on this site was when John Collier, a cotton manufacturer built a mill on this site in 1790. It was water powered. The mill probably consisted of two multi-storey spinning mills and attached weaving sheds, one destroyed by fire in 1831 and the other rebuilt in 1884.

Thomas Fernley bought the mill in 1824, and in 1831 needed to replace one mill with a new one that was of fireproof construction. This mill was eleven bays long and six storeys tall. The floors were sprung on transverse brick arches supported on cast iron columns. It was driven by a beam engine in an internal engine house to the east of the mill. It was over this engine house that the Manchester and Birmingham Railway built the Stockport Viaduct in 1840, and again when it widened in 1880. The second mill was replaced in 1884, but not the original wheelhouse. It is a five-storey, 15-bay mill of fireproof construction with narrow longitudinal vaults springing from iron joints. The original weaving sheds have been replaced with two-storey structures, creating a complex site.

Wikipedia

Employees at Wear Mill c.1907

I have circumnavigated the site on a previous post concerning the viaduct.

Way, way back in the Twentieth Century Mr LS Lowry came to take a look around.

As did photographer John Davies.

However cotton and hats do not last forever and the mill became home to a variety of small business operations, its future seemed precarious.

Along comes Capital & Centric wearing their developers’ hats to transform the site into an oasis of modern living.

Hundreds of youthful stock photographic figure illustrations were ordered to fill the proposed dwellings and contemporary leisure outlets.

Work began the future began to take shape.

The Weir Mill project in Stockport is breathing new life into a historic site, transforming the former cotton mill into a vibrant mixed-use community.

BDP

Lo, it came to pass – opened to the public August 2026.

I went to take a look around.

Available to rent right now – one bed from £1250 two bed from £1600

Living here comes with a stack of resident perks too. On-site amenities include a fully kitted out gym and studio, co-working spaces, mini-cini, residents lounge, private dining for big get togethers, and a rooftop garden fitted with electric BBQs.

Ollo Living

Cheetwood Road Manchester

Posted on by modernmoocher

1900

1920

1960

2026

I often wander these streets and write about the area’s history, or record the current state of affairs, then returning with 35mm film to photograph a black and white world.

On this occasion I am concerned with the tight little rectangle formed by Cheetwood Road, Broughton, Alison and Sherborne Streets.

Cheetwood Road is a postwar construction, a straight route replacing the meandering Cheetwood Lane. The road is lined with low level functionalist brick, steel and concrete industrial units.

Having fallen into disrepair they are now being renovated and reused.

In the early Twentieth Century the area was a mix of semi-derelict Victorian housing and industry.

Corner of Sherborne Street 1905

Cheetwood Lane 1917

The huge Holt’s Cheetwood Hotel has since been demolished, lasting until c1990.

Cheetwood Lane 1920

Images: Thomas Baddeley

Progress House 1969 – Domtar Howard Smith Ltd Paper Manufacturers.

Norweb Electricity

Images: Louis H Price Manchester Local Image Collection.

So here we are on Friday 7th August, taking yet another look.

The whole area and beyond is now the centre of a plan for regeneration.

Salford City Council and Manchester City Council have developed a joint Strategic Regeneration Framework to transform the Strangeways and Cambridge areas.

This plan addresses long-standing challenges such as counterfeit crime, poor-quality buildings, and flood risk, while creating opportunities for new homes, businesses, and green spaces.

Salford Gov

The Strangeways and Cambridge strategic regeneration framework sets out a vision to deliver around 7,000 homes in buildings up to 30 storeys and 3.1m sq ft of new or improved commercial space across 320 acres spanning both Manchester and Salford.

HMP Manchester & Jury Street: A catalytic neighbourhood at the heart of the SRF. Home of the existing HMP Manchester with potential for long term change subject to the relocation of the prison.

Derby Street: An intensified business district, supported to ensure the long-term preservation and evolution of the business base in the area.

Copper Park: A regional destination, multi-functional open space delivered to create positive amenity and biodiversity in response to future flood risk.

Overbridge: Gateway to Copper Park from the city centre, an area of significant residential potential – up to 2,000 homes – but with important economic assets and heritage.

Cheetham Park: A new urban-suburban residential neighbourhood of up to 1,000 homes, building on the heritage of the Victorian Cheetham Park and the nascent residential community around it.

Dutton Street: The Dutton Street area is a natural extension of the city centre. Subject to the existing Great Ducie Street SRF, it is identified as residential-led mixed use area – up to 4,000 homes – where significant development and investment is already evident. This part of the SRF could accommodate 1.75m sq ft of new commercial space

Lord Street: A transitional neighbourhood, connecting the residential-led change in Dutton Street with the economic focus of Derby Street to the north, and with Red Bank and Victoria North to the east.

Place Northwest

St Catherine’s Wood – Manchester

Posted on by modernmoocher

1807

1821

1860

1908

1960

Manchester Historical Maps

Collyhurst Rd Manchester M40 7TW

Image 1939 – Britain from the Air

Situated at the western end of the Irk Valley – there’s a brand new urban woodland park.

We worked together with Copenhagen practice, Schulze + Grassov on the Red Bank Masterplan in Manchester for Far East Consortium. It combines the wilderness of the riverside park setting and the metropolitan urbanity of Central Manchester.

Set within this wilderness, social, community and commercial infrastructure will support a thriving residential neighbourhood to foster an equitable, active, local, and resilient urban dwelling.

It is one of the first seven neighbourhoods being  regenerated  as part of the £4 billion Victoria North project, which is one of the largest in the UK and expected to build 15,000 new houses over the next decade.

MACCREANOR LAVINGTON

2022 plan – here’s one we made earlier.

The 2.7 acre St Catherine’s Wood, part of the emerging 5,000-home Red Bank neighbourhood within Victoria North, welcomed its first visitors on Friday.

Manchester City Council and Victoria North development partner FEC unveiled the city’s newest park at an event last week that gathered local stakeholders to the previously forgotten patch of woodland next to the River Irk.

Accessed via a pre-existing bridge off Collyhurst Road, the site has been transformed using part of a £51.6m Housing Infrastructure Fund grant from Homes England and £7m from the GMCA.

Place North West

This is the first phase of wider plans for Red Bank.

Red Bank forms the first phase of Victoria North that will see the regeneration of Manchester’s neighbourhoods running north of the city centre along the River Irk.

Red Bank forms the first phase of Victoria North that will see the regeneration of Manchester’s neighbourhoods running north of the city centre along the River Irk. The fast-flowing river is nested at the bottom of a valley, with its dramatic topography providing a respite from the general flatness of the central Manchester. The surrounding area was formerly at the centre of Manchester’s industrial might. Red Bank itself had held gasworks, a railway depot, mills, small factories and workers’ housing. Infamously, it was this neighbourhood that Engels used to describe the appalling quality of urban living in the “Conditions of the Working Class in England”.

NLA

The park is named for long gone St Catherine’s Church on Collyhurst Road.

Architects – Speakman and Charlesworth, built by, Messrs A Cochrane and Company, Manchester

On 5th November 1859, St Catherine’s Church Collyhurst was consecrated, with the service from the Book of Common Prayer, which gave thanks for the delivery of Parliament from the Gunpowder Plot and for the landing of William of Orange at Torbay in 1688. The church was named after a daughter of Lord Derby.

The rector of St Catherine’s in 1959 was Rev Robert C Tootel a Deputy Grand Chaplain of the Loyal Orange Institution of England. Due to dry-rot and a declining population the church had to close and the building was demolished in the 1960’s.

Manchester Orange

Image 1968 Lawrence Kaye Manchester Local Image Collection.

Collyhurst Road 1968 Manchester Local Image collection.

So the industry is all but gone, the older houses and their occupants displaced, the church and its congregation demolished and dispersed. A new world awaits the incoming population, a demographic and architectural leap into a high rise high rent future.

In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.

Friedrich Engels – The Communist Manifesto

Let’s take a walk in the park.

Collectively, we developed the idea of – Wild Urbanism, uniting the wilderness of the re-naturalised post-industrial landscape with the urbanity of the metropolitan world directly adjoining it. Merging nature and city life, it will offer the naturalised River Irk, the extended existing St Catherine’s Wood and a myriad of other interconnected green spaces to Mancunians. Cafes, restaurants, shops, community spaces and homes will be set among the nature to bring a dose of urbanity to the wilderness.

MACCREANOR LAVINGTON

When is a wilderness not a wilderness?

When it’s Wild Urbanism.

For further context see previous posts Dalton Street, Eastford Square, Sandhills and Collyhurst Circular.

This wilderness was and is home to a significant community of people with a sense of their history.

Collyhurst Voices.

Post Industrial Ancoats

Posted on by modernmoocher

This is a story of streets which almost existed in 1836, an area enclosed by Gould Street, Bromley Street and Rochdale Road.

Further developing my Collyhurst Cheetham Circular.

By 1870 there are a number of streets which now no longer exist, along with the homes and industry, they have been subsumed by car parks.

In 1960 the Rochdale Road Gas Works built in 1824, is then still extant.

The expansive site spanned over nine acres, including four retort houses, with a capacity of producing 8,500,000 cubic feet of gas daily. Since the end of the 18th century, the site was home to a locomotive/goods shed outside of the main works tramline infrastructure which was used for coal transportation for off-site refining. In the early 1940s, reorganisation and reconstruction ledto alterations and clearance of existing above-ground structures.

Image – Britain from the Air

Image 1907 J Jackson Manchester Local Image Collection.

Image 1958 Lawrence Kaye Manchester Local Image Collection.

Bromley Street.

Image 1964 Lawrence Kaye Manchester Local Image Collection.

Image 1966 Thomas Brooks Manchester Local Image Collection.

It’s 2026 and almost everything has been erased.

This is the only remnant of the former gasworks, preserved on Gould Street car park.

The raggle-taggle gaggle of businesses cling on to the Bromley Street arches beneath the railway.

The other side of the tracks.

Bilbrook Street just about hanging in there.

Burstock Street.

Here we are at the former home of Isomax Construction Company Ltd.

Manufacturing and execution of liquid waterproofing systems since 1990. All products are unique development, protected by patents and trademarks. All products are water-based and thus are 100% ecological. More than 1,200,000 sqm of executed projects with ten years warranty, since 1990.

Export to Serbia, Poland, Spain, Montenegro, France,

Latterly the former industrial premises have become temporary home to a Warehouse House Party – under the banner of We Are Nowhere.

In 2024 the are was becoming Victoria North – with the incipient intrusion of gargantuan residential blocks.

A far cry from the workers’ homes of Sudell Street.

The redevelopment project will create better-connected public spaces, new and improved transport links, and more homes, parks and retail spaces for the city’s growing population. Victoria Riverside is at the forefront of the new, distinct residential neighbourhood at Red Bank and New Town, benefitting from its location within Manchester City Centre, but offering something new to its community.

Victoria Riverside

Former Barclays and Bank of Baroda Manchester

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50 Swan St Manchester M4 5JU

This is a relatively diminutive building, which has been a constant source of fascination down the years, walking to and fro down Swan Street.

This is the site top centre, almost under construction in 1970.

To the left can be seen the long gone CWS Fresh Fruit Fish Poultry & Egg Depot.

Photo WM Johnstone 1970 Manchester Local Image Collection.

Photo Lawrence Kaye 1958 Manchester Local Image Collection.

I visited the Bank of Baroda in 2023 – but agreed to keep the interior views under wraps.

But now the bank has vacated the premises – so all can be revealed.

Then yesterday I took these snaps the interior seen through murky windows.

The Barclays insignia now revealed.

Bradford Walk 2026

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Here we are again – updating the 2020 post and subsequent 2024 visit.

Saturday 25th July arriving in bright sunshine at the Bradford Interchange – architects WC Brown City Architect and RL Moorcroft BR 1971.

Which has been transformed for the City of Culture 2025 by Bigg Design, with their multicoloured panels.

In addition there has been a transportation of the approach by Fereday Pollard, with the addition of seating in the newly landscaped plaza area.

Moving into the city centre there have been changes in the area between the Bradford Hotel and the Town Hall, it’s now a freshly landscaped space especially for pedestrians.

The NCP multi storey car park on Hall Ings has been demolished.

The demolition work is part of the Government-funded Transforming Cities Fund for Bradford.

Bradford Council, in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, is bringing forward a flagship programme of forward-thinking transport schemes, alongside major public space enhancements, that will help us shape and drive forward Bradford’s future regeneration in the city centre and beyond.

Providing an accessible, attractive and cleaner alternative to car journeys is at the heart of the Leeds City Region Transforming Cities Fund, a major new programme of transport infrastructure investment secured as part of the West Yorkshire devolution deal. The programme, which is being delivered by the Combined Authority in partnership with local authorities, will be funded through £317 million from the Department for Transport plus local match funding up to £140 million.

Photo Telegraph and Argus.

The area was once traversed by this elegant raised walkway.

The Bradford Hotel remains resolutely unmoved, recently it has been used as an Asylum Hotel, unsure that this is still so.

Located in the heart of central Bradford, The Bradford Hotel provides an elegant refuge in the midst of the bustling city.

Originally opened as the Norfolk Gardens Hotel, the hotel was completed in 1972 and opened in June of that year.

Architects – William Walker Partnership.

Adjacent is the Magistrates’ Court 1972.

City Architect WC Brown.

With a view through to One City Park 2024 Sheppard Robson.

One City Park in Bradford, England, draws attention with its striking architecture. The building’s curved design and forward-thinking concept create significant interest. For Sheppard Robson Architects, sustainability and the needs of people were paramount in the design. The facade of the complex features 1,700 glassfibre reinforced concrete elements from Rieder, making a distinctive design statement. The sandstone-coloured concrete components serve as both an architectural feature and a key element in creating a sustainable, visionary work environment.

Architonic

One City Park has been built on the site of the old Police Station opened in 1974 and demolished in 2010.

The area was once the centre of Will Alsop’s 2003 masterplan.

Which three years later are somewhat diluted:

The latest images of the scheme for the Bowl are generally disappointing and at the risk of a bad pun, the lake is now a watered-down version of Alsop’s vision.

Philip Veitch – of local practice Waller and Partners.

The Norfolk Gardens landscaping has opened up a fresh toward the Central Library 1965.

Architect – City Architect WC Brown with project architects G Sunderland and KLS Glen.

Next to the two Telephone Exchanges.

The Exchange of 1939 designed by FA Key.

The Exchange of 1976 by Trevor H Anson PSA Architect.

Turn right around to take a look at the rear of the Ice Arena.

In January 1966 Mecca Leisure Limited opened the ice rink in Bradford under the name of the Silver Blades Ice Rink, it was reputed to be “The finest rink in the world”, with coloured lighting in the barriers, sparkling chandeliers over the ice, and a plush bar and restaurant.

The resplendently dressed skaters were entertained with organ music. The opening gala at the rink had performances by British skaters who had just returned from the World Championships, they included Sally Anne Stapleford, John Curry and ice dancers Bernard Ford and Diane Towler.

History

The take a turn around the bend to the front.

Let’s go up the hill to the University of Bradford.

The institution uses this image illustrating the transition of the BDP Richmond Building of 1964, to its contemporaneously clad iteration.

Out front is the tiled mural by Joe Mayo.

Some original seating has resisted transitioning.

The undercroft has not been so fortunate in resisting the chill wind of change.

We emerge into the clear light of day and the BDP designed Chesham and Horton blocks along with the former Nuclear Research Bunker.

Next back down into town to the shops that were shops.

Let’s hop to the Grade II-listed Co-op Sunwin House designed by CWS in house architect WA Johnson and JW Cropper in 1935. 

Architect W A Johnson worked for the Cooperative Wholesale Society from 1899 until 1950. He was heavily influenced by the German architect Erich Mendelsohn after 1930, evident in his embrace of the International Modernist style. Johnson travelled widely in Germany and Holland, and Mendelsohn’s Schocken store in Stuttgart 1928 is quoted as being a particular inspiration for the Bradford Co-op.

Sunwin House had been – one of the most modern and stylish looking shops in Britain, when it was built in 1936, according to The 20th Century Society.

But the charity warned that the building, whose architectural style was inspired by Germany’s Bauhaus art movement, had stood empty for nearly 15 years and was in danger of creeping neglect.

Sunwin House, which was most recently used as a TJ Hughes department store after the firm went into administration in 2011, is one of 10 buildings featured on The 20th Century Society’s risk list for 2025.

BBC

The Freehold of Sunwin House, 65 Sunbridge Road, Bradford has been sold to a Bradford based investment company who have plans to refurbish the whole building principally based off a Retail/ Emporium use.

The building was purchased by Legal and General from the Co-operative Wholesale Society in 2005 subject to a lease to T J Hughes, who ceased trading in 2012. Following Administration, and the release and separation from the former Godwin Street Annexe, the original 95,000 sq ft Grade II Listed Store became an independent asset in 2017.

Holbeck Land

A stride away is the now closed Kirkgate Centre and Market – John Brunton and Partners 1975.

Demolition work will begin later this year to make way for the recently approved City Village development, comprising up to one thousand new homes, with the aim of creating a stronger, more welcoming, and sustainable future for Bradford.

Some residents have welcomed the changes, with the Kirkgate Centre previously described as a blight on the landscape. But others, like Barbara, lament the loss of the places they knew and loved.

Every time you go anywhere something has gone missing. Some of the changes are alright, some of them I think they could do without.

BBC

In 1979, the building won a European award from the International Council of Shopping Centres.

But the Historic England report described its design as mundane and repetitive.

The William Mitchell concrete reliefs housed in the market are to be conserved along with the Fritz Steller tiles.

Higher up the hill John Brunton’s Highpoint has survived the call for demolition.

The derelict former headquarters of Yorkshire Building Society, on one of the highest parts of the city centre, looms over the city centre, and to many people is the city’s ugliest building.

It is now home to an innovative residential apartment complex with a community at its heart, which embraces ideas of sustainability, preservation, and rejuvenation that will bring a new lease of life to this abandoned landmark.

Redeveloped by Radii Living.

A tower block in Bradford likened to a structure from sci-fi movie Blade Runner has been named as the best brutalist building in the country.

Built in the 1970s, High Point, the former headquarters of the Huddersfield and Bradford Building Society, was recently converted into eighty seven flats as part of a £12m regeneration scheme.

National newspaper The Telegraph named the building top of its brutalist list – ahead of the Barbican, in London, Bristol’s Clifton Cathedral and Preston bus station.

Si Cunningham, who chairs Bradford Civic Society, said it remained one of the city’s

Most divisive buildings.

Symbolic of Bradford’s confidence and prosperity.

BBC

Highpoint’s neighbour the Oastler Centre is closed and awaiting demolition.

The Oastler Shopping Centre, formerly known as the John Street Market contained 176 stalls comprising a retail area, with an additional twenty three external shops and twenty seven storerooms. The cafes and stalls within the centre were various food, clothing and craft shops with some of the cafes and stalls having been in business since the 1960s.

The original outdoor open-air market was renovated to an indoor market in the early 1970s to make economic improvements to the upper side of the city centre and was named for the abolitionist Richard Oastler.

As part of the Bradford’s regeneration projects in line with the successful UK City of Culture 2025 bid, the Oastler Centre was scheduled to be demolished in late 2023 to make way for the new Darley Street Market.

Wikipedia

The Oastler Marker had its final day of trading on 28 June 2025.

The centre along with the nearby Kirkgate Market will be demolished and replaced with green space, housing and new commercial spaces in line with the new Darley Street Market and planned City Village, an area of green space nearby the site.

Happily the signage from the Oastler’s Fountains Coffee House has been preserved by the Bradford Industrial Museum.

Huddersfield Walked Again

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College of Technology: the central precinct with the two classroom blocks 1960 Frederick Gibberd.

Image – Henk Snoek 1960 RIBA pix

We no longer begin at the Kirklees College – it was knocked down and a Lidl built on the site.

So we begin at a new beginning, a new beginning for the Bus Station, during the current refurbishment the car park is closed.

We are transforming Huddersfield Bus Station into a fully accessible facility.

Work is underway on the £28 million facility, which is funded by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Kirklees Council.

I was informed by the seriously erudite Christopher Marsden, that the bus station and car park were the work of Derek C W Vane: Borough Architect 1972-1974.

We then cross over the road to the Civic Centre, with its gold leaf facade, and the perennially empty piazza, which along with the Magistrates’ Courts and Police Station, was the work of the Borough Architects team – led by Charles Edmund Aspinall.

Exsilite panels set in the stone faced columns – a brand name for a synthetic, moulded, artificial marble. 

Exsilite is made by fusing grains of silica and pigments to form a slab that simulates onyx marble.

Exsilite is a Latin word meaning – spring/leap/burst forth/out, leap up, start up, bound; emerge into existence.

It is to be note that the doors and distinctive handles from the Courts to the Piazza have been removed.

The Police Station is to be vacated on completion of the new Police Station.

Next to the curved and ribbed concrete wall, concealing an electrical sub-station.

Further on down the road the former Co-operative store 1936 JW Cropper.

On opening day, the Examiner said the Co-op gave:

The town of Huddersfield a store that is entirely modern in design and equipped on the most up-to-date lines-a store of which the townspeople generally, and co-operators in particular, can be proud.

It has subsequently been seriously disabused by insensitive refurbishment and extension.

We cross over to view the access road to the service area of the market – now closed.

It was formerly topped off by a multi-storey car park – since demolished.

Then onward to the Grade II Bath House at Broadbent’s Engineering in Huddersfield.

1955, by Abbey Hanson architects – designing architect Andrew Buck, project leader Geoffrey Rowe.

The building is a very rare, possibly unique example of a purpose built bath house for foundry workers

* Its continuing function as a bath house has preserved its original purpose in both its layout and its fixtures and fittings as well as its design

* The design of the building manifests inspiration from both W Dudok and Frank Lloyd Wright, and achieves a high standard of accomplishment in its interpretation of contemporary architectural influences

* The use of local stone for external walls distinguishes it from brick built pithead baths of similar style, and the imaginative use of finishes lends further distinction

* The interior survives almost entirely intact, with original wash basins, shower and tap fittings, lockers, floor and wall surfaces, doors and light fittings.

Historic England

One of Huddersfield’s hidden architectural gems has been transformed into an attractive and unusual gallery-cum-coffee house and restaurant, destined to become a popular public space for meeting, eating and art appreciation. But among the attendees at a special unveiling event there were men who remembered its original function – as a bath house where scores of foundry workers could shower away a day’s grime.

University of Huddersfield

Up around the the bend and here we are at the Grade II listed Queensgate Market, 1968-70 to the designs of the J Seymour Harris Partnership, with Leonard and Partners as consultant engineers. 

Another feature of Huddersfield Market which sets it apart from other post-war market buildings is its incorporation of works of art. Fritz Steller was a German-born refugee architect who had settled in Stratford-upon-Avon. He pioneered the production of large scale ceramic art, having been interested in the use of a wide variety of materials in sculpture. The development company Murrayfield had a policy of incorporating public art into their schemes, and the project manager of J Seymour Harris, the architects for the Huddersfield development, was Gwyn Roberts, a friend of Steller. One of the Borough Councillors at Huddersfield was Clifford Stephenson, an enthusiast for public art and particularly for modern ceramic sculpture. This combination led to the appointment of Steller to produce designs for the new market hall. The size of the panels necessitated the construction of a special kiln for their firing, and experimental mixes for the composition of the clay which was resistant to acid rain and chemicals.

Historic England

Seen here on my visit in 2015, and subsequently in 2021.

Straight ahed to the service entrance at the rear of The Piazza.

The council wants to demolish the Piazza buildings as soon as possible.

Phase 3 was originally to be the Queen Street plot but Greenhead College’s plans for a new education building on the site failed to secure Government funding. Since then the council has been looking at alternatives – including a hotel, residential or offices – but now believes a new multi-storey car park could be the best way forward.

Phase 5 was to have been a £90 million events and concert venue with a multi-storey car park attached but that is no longer affordable. A review of the venue is underway and the council now thinks a “flexible multi-purpose” venue is the way forward. It would have a fully-seated capacity of 1,200 or 2,000 with a standing floor and seated balcony.

Huddersfield Hub

Turning our back on the market and away to Buxton House 1968.

Kirklees Council’s plans for the £16 million re-development of a Huddersfield town centre block of flats have collapsed.

Buxton House, between New Street and Albion Street, failed to meet modern fire safety standards and the council moved tenants and bought out owners and leases, pending a full-scale refurbishment.

Planning permission was granted in July 2024 to re-model the tower block to create forty one, one and two-bedroomed flats along with five studio flats with construction set to start in November 2025.

However, it has now been revealed that the council has failed to find a contractor and the scheme is on hold indefinitely.

Huddersfield Hub

Design for refurbishment.

The flats are part of a larger retail development by Bernard Engle & Partners.

Across the way Ramsden House a slab on a podium, part of the Murrayfield Redevelopment 1968 J Seymour Harris Partnership.

This block was the first and only phase of four that’s still intact. It’s a slab and plinth project with underground servicing marble finishes and two art mosaics that relate to the town. The Ramsden Street elevation mosaic depicts ‘Development of the woollen industry from a cottage craft to the beginning of the industrial revolution’ designed by Huddersfield artist, Harold Blackburn.

Princess Street bears ‘Facets of the Local Scene’ by Mural Consultants Ltd.

Modernist Buildings Trail

Across the way Whitfield’s Department Store 1963 Ralph Hudson.

The longstanding furniture & piano dealers, Whitfield’s expanded from numbers five and seven with this six6 storey tower.

Influenced by a tour of modern European retail premises the company chairman supplied the architect with photos of ideas.The glossy metallic finish reflects the excitement of the notion of an Ercol show room on the fourth floor and G-Plan on the fifth. Pianos were on the first floor and TVs & radio and their servicing were in the basement. Welcome to stylish living sixties style!

Modernist Buildings Trail

Down the hill and away to:

Public Library 1940 Architect: EH Ashburner & James Arthur Woodford.

James Woodford at work – on the right, sculpting figure representing the Spirit of Literature

Reference Library.

Image – Charles Pickard 1940.

The food hall and library is due to open in summer 2026 but more problems have been uncovered with the former library and art gallery which will become the new museum. Internal works are underway and more asbestos than expected has been found and an extra £1 million has been needed to pay for removal.

The council has also found several other “significant issues” that also needed to be resolved.

It could be mid-2029 before the museum is ready to open.

Off we go to the Midland Bank – then HSBC then not a bank at all, 1970 Peter Womersley with Roger Shaw of Kitson & Partners.

Next door the Halifax Building Society 1981 Abbey Hanson Rowe.

back to the main drag and the Pearl Assurance Building 1963 Elsworth Sykes & Partners.

The nipping down the lane to Neaversons 1935 with two Moderne fascia elevations by shop fitters Sharp & Law of Bradford, Grade II Listed as part of the Kirkgate Buildings.

Once selling bijou household goods, following occupation by several bars and cafes, currently empty.

Finally just in time to catch the last post at the Royal Mail Sorting Office – Post Office extension 1968 Office of Public Works.

Rochdale Observer

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The Rochdale Observer is a local newspaper published on Wednesdays and Saturdays for the  Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale.

It has been Rochdale’s main newspaper since 1856.

This is the original building on Drake Street.

This was replaced by the current building, which is no longer home to the newspaper.

Its foundation stone was laid in 1954 by the Rochdale-born singer and actress Gracie Fields.

Architect – Frank Bradley of Bolton.

Image – Mike Ashworth

It has subsequently been converted to apartments.

Behind the Observer offices on Drake street are the former Observer print works on Greenwood Street.

Materials Science University of Oxford

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The Denys Wilkinson Building was designed by Philip Dowson at Arup in 1967.

The building houses the astrophysics and particle physics sub-departments of the Department of Physics at Oxford University, plus the undergraduate teaching laboratories. It was originally built for the then Department of Nuclear Physics and named the Nuclear Physics Laboratory. From 1988, the building was known as the Nuclear and Astrophysics Laboratory after the Sub-Department of Astrophysics moved from the University Observatory in the Science Area. On 21st June 2002, the building was renamed as the Denys Wilkinson Building, in honour of the British nuclear physicist Sir Denys Wilkinson, who was involved in its original creation.

Wikipedia

Denys Wilkinson Building Oxford photo – Webb Aviation.

Department of Nuclear Physics, Oxford Arup Associates 1971 – Colin Westwood RIBA pix.

The University of Oxford is relocating its undergraduate physics practical teaching from the Denys Wilkinson Building amid concerns about the presence of asbestos at the ageing site.

From Michaelmas this year, some practical teaching labs will move to the former Biochemistry and Biological Sciences Teaching Centre, with the remainder moving by Michaelmas 2027. The Biochemistry and Biological Sciences Teaching Centre will be adapted for physics practical teaching. Around six hundred undergraduates currently take part in compulsory practical coursework in the Denys Wilkinson Building across the first three years of Oxford’s physics degrees. 

A University spokesperson told Cherwell that the decision to relocate had been taken proactively to avoid the risk of a sudden building failure causing disruption later. The spokesperson added that the Denys Wilkinson Building:

 Is being carefully managed through the later years of its usable life, adding that the building has some legacy issues, including asbestos.  

Cherwell

Originally completed in 1967, the building had not been maintained and required significant repairs to the roof structure of the accelerator tower, which had suffered from prolonged water ingress.

All defects were identified through a hammer test survey and thorough visual inspection, the original concrete was broken out back to a sound substrate and was square cut to depth of 10mm, thus preventing featheredging of the subsequent repair.

Exposed reinforcement was mechanically wire brushed, and prepared using high performing and sustainable products from Sika. Treated with Sika Monotop 1010; a bonding primer and corrosion protection, followed by the application of Sika Monotop 4012; a concrete repair mortar, to the original surface levels.

Structural Renovations

This building has been assessed under the Planning – Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest. The asset currently does not meet the criteria for listing.

It is not listed – the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport disagreed with Historic England’s recommendation for this case 23rd July 2015.

Heritage Gateway

Let’s take a look at what I looked at:

Florey Building – Oxford Queens College

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Florey Building, a residential student block.

RIBA pix 1977 Alastair Hunter

Designed by James Stirling and Partners in 1966-1967 for Queen’s College, Oxford, and built 1968-1971, with Roy Cameron as associate, and Frank Newby of F J Samuely and Partners as engineer.

RIBA pix 2005 Jeremy Harrison

Listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:


* as a highly significant work by Sir James Stirling, one of Britain’s foremost post-war architects; 


* as the last of a triumvirate of university buildings that are without doubt amongst Stirling’s most significant works in England; 


* as a highly creative re-working of a familiar formal language, executed with masterful handling of form and colour, characteristic of Stirling’s style;


* for the high degree of survival of the original plan form, fixtures and fittings, which have been little altered since the building’s completion, including but not limited to the bedrooms, porter’s lodge, and breakfast room;


* as a distinctive and popular piece of post-war university architecture.

Historic England

On the day of my visit the building was secured and in a state of semi-dereliction, mothballed by the owners The Queens College Oxford.

There have been plans and a competition for refurbishment:

Perhaps the most charismatic of James Stirling’s surviving buildings; the Florey Building is hugely admired worldwide for its boldness and heroism.

Despite some practical and infamous failings, the Florey has a cult presence in Oxford: a modernist’s riposte to a city defined by traditional architectural masterworks.

The Queen’s College Fellows seek a dedicated team who are inspired by Stirling’s exhilarating vision. The challenge: to use advances in technology to update the building, provide modern facilities and achieve exemplary energy design.

The competition has now concluded — 27th February 2014

The Queen’s College, Oxford is delighted to announce that the team led by Avanti Architects has won the design competition to update the Grade II listed Florey building, widely regarded as an emblem of modernism. Avanti will now work to develop their scheme for the project and determine construction priorities.

The plans however were poorly received:

Alas the proposal for Florey lets down the practice, the college and most importantly Jim Stirling and the Modernist corpus, with a design that all but wrecks the essence of this unique building.

Alan Berman – founding partner at Berman Guedes Stretton

These proposals must be thrown out and consigned with distaste to the dustbin as a gross violation of Stirling’s intentions.

If permitted, they would constitute the comprehensive betrayal, by alteration, of one of the internationally most important buildings of the 20th century.

Thomas Muirhead – Stirling’s friend and former colleague.

Architects Journal

Furthermore there has been a history of criticism of the building:

At the official opening in 1971, the Queen Mother was rumoured to have said it was the ugliest building she had ever seen.

College bursar AA Williams described it as – a structure revolting and inhuman in its hideousness and defective in practically every aspect of its functioning.

Just a year later, students were complaining that it leaked, was noisy, too hot in summer, too cold in winter, they couldn’t stand up straight in the showers, and there were no baths.

Lord Florey, the pioneer of penicillin after whom the building is named put up the money, and was almost the architect’s sole supporter in the college.

This culminated in a legal battle, an intense dislike of the building throughout the college, a reluctance to spend anything but the minimum on maintenance, and decades later, to the possibility of demolition.

Oxford Mail.

So with little institutional love and a soupçon of general loathing, we are left with a Listed building in limbo.

Happily Leicester University are taking care to care for their Stirling building.

Manordeifi Old Church – St Davids

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Tim Rushton and m’self were cycling from Fishguard to Aberystwyth, as we have in previous years, taking the train from Stockport and setting off on our way through Pembrokeshire and beyond. Modern pilgrims crossing the ancient pilgrim’s route.

This was the second day of our tour, from Aberteifi to Lllandysul.

At the end of a long lane that follows the Afon Teifi we saw this low stone church, tucked beneath the rising landscape to the right.

We both share a love of architecture and vernacular churches in particular – Tim, illustrated below, has produced a book on Welsh Chapels.

So we stopped to take a look around.

Old St David’s lies on the pilgrimage route to the cathedral of the same dedication and next to the Teifi River. Frequent flooding led to a new church being built on the other side of the river in the 19th century. It also explains why the church has its own coracle, which once ferried worshippers to and fro during a flood. Unfortunately, the church is still prone to flooding, most recently in September 2021.

This is a reproduction as the original was stolen.

The church you see today is a 13th-century building, remodelled in 1847 to the elegant Georgian Gothick interior. This style was already out of fashion in more urban parts and by 1899, the church had fallen out of regular use.

The nave walls are lined with a set of 18th-century box-pews; some have fluted columns, drawers with brass handles, and some even have their own fireplaces.

The square font, which you’ll find right inside the west porch, dates to the 13th century and is the only survivor from the early church. Its underside is fluted and its sides are carved with quatrefoils.

Don’t miss the memorial to Capt. Charles Colby, who was stationed to Rawalpindi – now in Pakistan in about 1850. On a day off, he went hunting on an elephant, and was unfortunately mauled by a tiger. His plaque bears an urn with the inscription ‘Rawil Pinde’ and a carved palm tree.

Friends of Friendless Churches

Many thanks to the Friends of Friendless churches for ensuring that the church remains open and maintained.

As a postscript – the appreciation of these wonderful Welsh churches must be due in part to John Piper.

Jerwood Foundation was recently alerted to a renewed recognition of John Piper’s painting The churchyard, in Jerwood Collection, after it appeared as an illustration accompanying an online article. The image was immediately recognised by a reader as depicting St Baglan’s Church, near Caernarfon, viewed from a familiar angle.

John Piper, a founding member of Friends of Friendless Churches in the 1950s, painted many historic churches across the UK. Although St Baglan’s has been under the charity’s care since the 1970s, this rediscovery offers a valuable insight into Piper’s early engagement with sites that would later become key rescue projects. The recognition helps to piece together the history of how some of the charity’s earliest churches were identified, recorded and preserved.

Jerwood

Wigan Civic Centre 2026

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Over ten years ago I visited Wigan Civic Centre.

It looked a lot like this:

The current Pevsner Guide remarks:

1971 built of a pre-cast concrete panel system, dour, on an awkwardly sloping site.

I beg to differ – what’s the opposite of dour?

So says the online Thesaurus – and I heartily concur, for the whole building has had a makeover and a half.

Civic is a super energy-efficient workspace in the centre of Wigan town centre. The BREEAM Excellent building has space for business of all sizes, from desks for solo start-ups, all the way to big open plan offices with their own front door.

The brutalist beast has been lovingly restored by Capital&Centric to celebrate its architecture, with original waffle ceilings, corduroy concrete and stunning feature windows that flood the space with light.

Capital&Centric

The redevelopment was supported by cash from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund – UKSPF.

Dave Molyneux, the leader of Wigan Council, said:

I had an office in here for quite a while and it had that 1970s retro, concrete building style but this is something special. 

For businesses, we’re probably the best located local authority in Greater Manchester because of the West Coast Main Line and the M6 motorway.

BBC

It was great to visit and tour Wigan Civic Centre on Millgate, to see the inspiring work being done to create sustainable workspaces and amenities in the centre of our town. This development, alongside others taking place and planned across the North West, will help to revitalise our public spaces

Lisa Nandy MP

The refit was handled by shedkm.

With students, start-ups and professionals situating themselves elsewhere in Greater Manchester, Wigan town had been missing out on the economic and cultural vitality that high quality workspace brings. Civic’s transformation represents not just the overhaul of a tired concrete building, but a wider renewal of place and opportunity for Wigan.

Main interior contractors were Workspace Design & Build.

Working with Wigan Council and Capital & Centric, we completed the refurbishment of the 50,000 sq ft building that is Wigan Civic Centre. Delivering aspirational office accommodation to stimulate economic growth with the goal to create a lasting social impact in Wigan. In addition to exemplar market-leading workspace, amenities include a rooftop terrace, mini cinema, gym studio and co-working/coffee shop space.

Here’s the exterior.

Many thanks to the Cotton Café Bar for kindly allowing us in after hours.

Diners image Canning O’Neill – spaces to let.

Ultimately, civic stands as a symbol of optimism for Wigan, proving that intelligent commercial design can catalyse economic renewal, secure a sustainable future, and truly lift a town’s spirits, without erasing its history. It is a gold standard for the adaptive reuse of 20th-century landmarks.

Judge, BCO Awards 2026

Open for business bob along pronto.

Barclays House – Poole

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Barclays House 1 Wimborne Road 

Photo 2012 – Peter Holmes

Barclays House was constructed by Barclays bank from 1972 to 1975 as part of a move to decentralise its offices from London.

The structure, was designed in the Brutalist style by architects Wilson, Mason and Partners. It consists of three main wings, each octagonal in plan, and dominates the town centre skyline.

Barclays first occupied the office in January 1976. The building’s basement is below sea level and is often flooded or damp, which prevented its use by the bank for storage. The structure has also sunk over time due to its significant mass

Barclays left the site in January 2022 and put the structure up for sale by sealed bid auction. The highest bidder was Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council but they withdrew from the purchase in September 2022.

BCP offered £17 million, almost three times more than the next highest bidder, thought to be Fortitudo at £6.5 million, who wanted to demolish the structure and build three apartment towers.

In February 2023, boarding was put up around the building and the Bournemouth Daily Echo reported that a new buyer had been found. In November 2023, proposals for redevelopment to residential use were announced, 362 flats are proposed for the building.

Wikipedia

The main reception 28th January 1976.

Historic England

Photos 26th March 2025 – AD Coastalmedia

Town hall planner Gareth Ball has given the go-ahead for VCRE Four Poole Limited to convert the historic building into a 362-bedroom apartment block. 

No parking spaces will be available for the future residents, as noted by BCP case officer Mr Ball as being in accordance with the council’s rules. Instead, the development will come with 488 cycle spaces – or one space for every resident. The scheme will feature a gym, communal workspace, squash courts, a games room with table tennis, pool, video games, surfboard storage and a rooftop garden.

Barclays House was bought last year for £5.3 million, according to documents. 

Bournemouth Echo

Here are the photographs I took in May 2026 – incorporating the multi storey car park.

But what of the future?

This recent ARC project involves transforming the former Barclays building in Poole into 362 modern residential flats while preserving the existing building’s façade. This project focuses on revitalising a heritage landmark by repurposing it with innovative designs that offer easy access to public transport, exceed space standards for comfort and practicality, and create a strong sense of community through shared internal and external amenities.

Barnsley Co-op

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Having previously visited Barnsley to construct a Barnsley Walk, I returned to take the Modernists on the walk.

Previously puzzled by this mosaic clad Festival of Britain facade.

Subsequent observation and research revealed it to be an extension to a group of Barnsley Co-operative buildings.

I should have noted that the building of 1910, was the work of architect Arthur Walshingham, the terracotta and green faience, very much in the style of Northmoor Road.

And also his work here in Pendleton.

According to author Lynn Pearson:

The building housed grocery and footwear shops, an elegant marble floored entrance hall, a restaurant and assembly room. Its original shopfronts were mahogany with metal sills on a granite base, the windows were divided by columns with green faience shafts.

England’s Cooperative movement – an Architectural History.

The Barnsley building is loaded with decorative details.

Sadly the columns mentioned above were replaced, the mosaic from the later extension extended to give a misplaced sense of cohesion to the pairing.

The extension has a charm of its own – with an upper tier terrace bordered by a metal fence.

A concrete relief to the side.

The adjacent buildings were the 1885 central offices of the Barnsley British Cooperative Society.

The building is Grade II Listed.

In 2016 the Barnsley British Co-operative building, sited opposite the existing buildings, suffered a large fire and unfortunately had to be demolished due to safety concerns.

For more than a century it had been considered the place to shop in town. Many will recall it as the Co-op’s toy department where, every year, excited children would queue with mums and dads to meet Santa in his grotto at Christmas.

It closed in the 1980s.

In 1993 the plan was to turn the imposing Victorian Grade II listed building into a ’high class’ venue which it was anticipated would be aimed at a clientele in the 25-plus age group.

Barnsley Chronicle.

Walsall Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

The name Walsall is derived from Walh halh, meaning valley of the Welsh, referring to the British who first lived in the area. Later, it is believed that a manor was held here by William FitzAnsculf, who held numerous manors in the Midlands. By the first part of the 13th century, Walsall was a small market town with a manor house; the weekly market was introduced in 1220 and held on Tuesdays. The mayor of Walsall was created as a political position in the 14th century.

Significant developments also took place nearer to the town centre, particularly during the 1960s when a host of tower blocks were built around the town centre; however, most of these had been demolished by 2010.

The Memorial Gardens opened in 1952, in honour of the town’s fallen combatants of the two world wars. The Old Square Shopping Centre, a modern indoor shopping complex featuring many big retail names, opened in 1969.

Much of the reconstruction of the post-war period was quickly reconsidered as ugly and having blighted the town. In 1959, John Betjeman advised that with sensitive restoration the old buildings of the High Street could become:

One of the most attractive streets in England.

Instead, almost every building was demolished.

Wikipedia

There is to be further demolition on the High Street, to open up the vista between the Bus and Railway stations.

In 2021 Walsall secured funding of £11.4m from the Future High Street Fund. With further investment from Walsall Council we are now delivering the early phases of the Town Centre Masterplan, through the Walsall Connected Gateway Project.

Walsall Gov UK

Approval has been granted to remodel the Saddlers Centre to create a more open and attractive arrival experience for train passengers whilst also opening up Park Street. Butler’s Passage, which has in the past been the centre of antisocial behaviour, will disappear as some of the buildings are removed to create a large open walkway, connecting the rail and bus hubs.

Former Railway station 4th March 1978 – photo by Walsall 1955

The station was about to be closed, demolished and replaced by a new Marks & Spencers and the Saddlers Centre.

The existing entrance to the railway station on Station Street.

Let’s begin at the St Paul’s bus station or Hub – if you will, complete in September 2000.

The 1936 St Pauls Street bus station closed in February 1975, and was completely demolished, rebuilt and opened in August 1975.

Photo by: Walsall 1955

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris designed the building for Centro. The structural engineers were Atelier One, Shepherd Construction Ltd were the contractors, Watkins Dally were the landscape architects and Clark Smith Partnership were the civil engineers. 

The project cost £6.5 million.

Wikipedia

Next, a glimpse of Hatherton Road multi-storey car park.

Though it appears to be closed.

Adjacent to Enoch Evans Solicitors, their offices housed in one of the many imperious inter-war buildings dotted around the town.

Which faces onto the back of the Civic Centre.

Following the formation of the Metropolitan Borough, the new Civic Centre in Darwall Street opened in 1976, architect Stanley W Bradford Walsall MBC Director of Architecture.

Central roof garden.

Leaving the Civic Quarter on the left is the Imperial

The Imperial started life as an agricultural hall, constructed in 1868-69, and designed by the architect GB Nichols of West Bromwich. At that time, it was used for a variety of community activities including shows and dancing, it was also hired out to travelling film showmen. The main feature of the early building was a principal ground floor hall.

In June 1914, the Imperial was closed to allow for conversion to a cinema, designed by West Midlands-based architects Hickton & Farmer.

The Imperial was converted to a bingo club in 1968, and in 1996 it was converted into a pub, which closed in 2016.

Theatre Trust

Next to the TSB Bank.

At the end of the otherwise period correct Victorian Arcade is a space age Pound Bakery.

Across the way a former Barclays Bank architects: John HD Madin & Partners.

Next door an anomalous disco themed fascia.

From here up the hill to the Old Square.

Sainsbury’s Old Square store in the early 1970s photo Will Parker.

The majority of the Shopping Centre was demolished in 2014.

I remember when I was about fifteen in 1990, Coca-Cola were doing these yo-yos and if you went upstairs by the cafe, I think it was you could earn a gold coloured yo-yo. You just had to perform three tricks with it to earn one. I did walk the dog, the sleeper and I think it was around the world! Proud as punch with that I was. I know my uncle was Father Christmas for a few years on the bounce as well, when they used to have a grotto. 

Dan Bracknall

These are the remnants.

Ascending to the dizzy heights of the Grade II Listed Memorial Gardens 1953 by Geoffrey Jellicoe designed as a memorial to the dead of the two World Wars and said to mark a significant stage in the evolution of his principles of design.

Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe was one of the century’s greatest landscape architects. His contribution to landscape design has been described as equal to the 18th-century gardener Capability Brown. He was educated at Cheltenham College and then trained to be an architect at the Architectural Association. It was while at the AA that his interest in landscape was first kindled.  

The second phase, comprising the building of the memorial chapel in the Memorial Garden, and the flats and Brotherhood or Church Hall to the south of the open space known as St Matthew’s Close, was completed c 1960

Photo: History of Walsall

Historic England

Of back down the hill onward to the Walsall School of Art.

Walsall’s art school’s history is a story of gradual growth and change, evolving from evening classes in a chapel to a modern art college. The Walsall School of Design and Ornamental Art, founded in 1854 as an evening class, operated from 1861 at the Goodall Street Baptist Chapel and eventually became the Walsall College of Art. 

To celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, the Walsall Science and Art Institute was opened in 1888 at Bradford Place. In 1897, it was transferred to the Town Council and renamed the Walsall Municipal Science & Art Institute. In 1926, the institute was renamed Walsall Technical College. Post-war demand led to the establishment of the Walsall and Staffordshire Technical College at Wisemore – now St Paul’s Street, in 1952. The Walsall College of Art officially merged with the College of Technology in 1992 to form Walsall College of Arts and Technology – now simply Walsall College. The college maintains strong historical ties to local industries, such as the leather trade.

Artbiogs

Further on there’s an enormous Telephone Exchange comprising fifties and seventies buildings.

Across the way a large system built block on a podium base.

Standing on the corner where it has always stood the Silver Knight Garage.

Heading back into the town centre, picking up on there’s a former Woolworths that looks like a Burton’s that thinks it’s a Barclays Bank, and also improbably a Swag King.

1933 by FW Woolworth Construction Dept – H Wimbourne

Next an indeterminate infill with pale blue panels and central pivoting metal window frames, soon to be demolished along with its neighbours, as part of the Connected Gateway Project.

Possibly a former BHS – known as Jacey House.

Next up Park Place.

Ai says – notable features include Park Place Meats – a town centre butcher, and Park Place Shoe Repairs, which offers engraving and key-cutting services.

A Post Modern Poundland.

And last but not least a thoroughly Modern New Art Gallery.

Caruso St John Architects 1997-2000

Concrete Chalets Scarborough 2026

Posted on by modernmoocher

Here we are again, following visits in 2020 and 2023.

There has been some low level maintenance undertaken to almost secure the site, and someone from the Corporation has given the walls a coat of paint, subsequently undone by the local scrawlers.

Who knows what fate awaits them?

I shall endeavour to keep you posted with further posts.

Greg Street Reddish – Industry

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Manchester Guardian Printing Works owned by Taylor Garnett & Evans & Co. Ltd- a view of factory dated 1902.

Lithographic Printing Dept 1902. 

CWS Printing Works – formerly the Guardian Print Works showing a view from the road dated 1972.

CWS Printing Works showing a rear view with canal in the foreground.

The Stockport Branch Canal was a five mile branch of the Ashton Canal from Clayton to Stockport.

An important cargo was the supply of grain to William Nelstrop & Company’s Albion Corn Mill at Stockport Basin.

In its early days there was passenger carrying on the Ashton Canal and one of the routes was between Manchester and Stockport.

Commercial carrying ceased in the 1930s but it lingered on into the 1950s’ as a barely navigable waterway. At one stage in the 1950s it was dredged but this improvement did not attract any traffic. Stockport Basin was the first section to be filled in but it was not until 1962 that the canal was officially abandoned by the British Transport Commission, who had been responsible for it since 1948.

It took many years to fill in and this was a disagreeable procedure for people living along its length.

Wikipedia

Archive Photographs – Stockport Image Archive.

From a very lavish production, printed of course by the CWS’s own Printing Works at Reddish, is a description of the new flagship department store for the Crawley Co-operative Society that was opened in 1959. The elevations and facade are very much of their day, quite ‘Festival of Britain in style, and the store was a prominent feature of the planned New Town’s centre. 

Mike Ashworth

Printed in Reddish.

The wide variety of printed material which the CWS required, created a need that could not be met locally by a single source, another large print works was required in Longsight.

Craven Brothers Works 2008

1900 – Further growth prompted the construction of the Vauxhall Works at Reddish, near Stockport. The company kept the works at Osborne Street, Rochdale Road, with about 500 employees, open until 1920. The 1915 O.S. map shows Vauxhall Engineering Works with its south-east corner on Osborne Street, Collyhurst, and bounded on the north by streets of terraced houses and to the south by the L&YR Manchester-Normanton line. 

The Developement of Reddish – quite a number of Manchester firms are prospecting the neighbourhood of Reddish, writes a correspondent, while Messrs. Heywood are about to erect electrical engineering works in Sandfold-lane, and Messrs. Rowley and Co, boiler-makers, are fitting works in the neighbourhood. Messrs. Craven Brothers, engineers, of Salford, have purchased 14-acres of land near the Reddish Station, on the estate of Mr. H. P. Greg, on which they intend to erect large engineering works.

The first sod was cut on Thursday afternoon by Mr. William Craven, in the presence of his brother directors in 1900.

Closed in 1970

Graces Guide

ARC began in 1995 at Greek Street, Stockport under the name of MAPS and moved to the Vauxhall Industrial Estate Craven Works building in early 1997. Arts for Recovery in the Community or ‘Arc’ was then launched in 2005. The Arc Centre in its current form, including gallery servung refreshments and public programme has been running since 2016.

Of course, we are sad to say goodbye to the old Craven Brothers factory and the Reddish community as our base. We are so grateful to the local residents and businesses who have supported us for so long. Please, don’t be strangers! We made the building our own over the years and take with us many, many great memories. 

Looking to the future at Wellington Mill, we will have exclusive use of several rooms on the floor accessed via the A6 and Hat Works Museum shop. This will include a large art studio, ceramics studio, offices and storage spaces. We will also share the large cafe, events and retail space with the Hat Works museums team and work together to build a bigger audience for both organisations and hopefully a Stockport town centre creative arts hub.

ARC

Demolished 2020.

And lo, it came to pass, from the onset of the Industrial Revolution to today, a whole world of work is dismantled. A transport infrastructure is literally filled in, and the former homes of industry demolished.

The CWS is no longer the global behemoth it once was, and print technology has changed beyond recognition.

With it goes a whole series of social relationships and identities bound up in shared occupations.

Our excavations at Vauxhall Industrial Estate, undertaken in advance of the redevelopment of the site by RECOM Solutions and  Vauxhall Industrial Estate Ltd, revealed a number of features associated with the Craven Brothers’ Works. Two excavation areas were opened, targeted on features shown on historic mapping but no longer surviving: Area 1 in the north, targeting a small chimney and outbuildings adjacent to the machine shops; and Area 2 in the south targeting a chimney and part of the footprint of Building 3. In Area 1, the archaeological remains had been heavily truncated by the installation of chemical vats in the late 20th century after Craven Brothers closed; however, the foundations of the targeted outbuildings and the chimney were uncovered, as well as the remains of a railway track running alongside the machine shops, represented by in situ sleepers.

Archeological Research Services

What do he have now?

Vauxhall Trading Estate, formerly Vauxhall Industrial Estate, was a collection of dilapidated old industrial buildings, which have been demolished and new modern industrial units provided. RECOM provided project management services to demolish all previous buildings and prepare the site for the main contractor, achieve planning consent, enter a BAPA with Network Rail, tender and appoint the successful main contractor and then provide the Employer’s Agent service throughout the construction phase.

We worked with the design team to produce project specific Employer’s Requirements, ensuring that the client’s brief to provide high quality industrial units was delivered. We ensured the client’s interests were maintained throughout the project, making
objective decisions that aligned with the client’s goals. In order to de-risk the project prior to entering into the main contract, we advised the client on what site investigations, enabling works and surveys needed to be undertaken. As the Employer’s Agent,
we ensured that the conditions of the contract were adhered to, managing claims from the contractor,ensuring that the client’s position was protected.

Project Cost £16.1m

Recom Solutions

Partners C4 Projects Architects, SATPLAN Planning Consultant, Sixteen/DTRE Letting Agents.

Demolition works and embodied carbon created through construction works, is being offset against the sustainable energy created post occupation including: mix of air-source heat pumps and gas-fired radiant tube heating for heating and cooling, and photovoltaic solar panels installed on rooftops to generate green electricity for occupiers.

Hargreaves Contracting