Coniston, Windemere and Rydal were among the first council homes to be built in Stafford, between 1951-52, under the direction of County Architect CM Coombes.
The flats were built as a result of The Housing – Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1946, which gave subsidies to local authorities to provide social housing. The expansion of the Borough Council’s civic duties included the employment of County Architects, in this case CM Coombes FRIBA, to whom these flats are attributed.
54 flats were built in total, to a distinctly Modernist design, and their appearance and setting are very well preserved.
Whilst there are some common stylistic characteristics the Corporation Street Flats are of a more modest order. There are communal areas and a grassed apron, balconies and arched passages.
Over time the standard of maintenance seems to have declined, and the Crittall Windows have been replaced by white uPvc, where once there was a bowling green, this is now roughly mown and unused.
In 1870 the street pattern has yet to be established, between the South Junction railway and Chester Road. The area is occupied by a Nursery. Pomona Gardens sits beside the river, and the Corn Brook is clearly visible. To the right are the Hulme Barracks, closed and demolished in 1914.
Corn Brook Textile Street 1947
In 1884 there is new housing to the right of Chester Road.
In 1904 the Pomona Docks have been established and the are around Hadfield Street fully developed.
Pomona Docks 1923
This is an aerial view from 1930, there area is now a dense network of streets to the north of Chester Road, transport infrastructure, housing and industry sit side by side.
2025 the street pattern is still extant – but what has survived?
The Empress Brewery as seen on the previous Chester Road post.
The Empress Brewing Company was established by Charles Dawes in c. 1880, the brewery closed in 1955.
The building was converted into offices in 1992 as part of the development of the Empress Business Centre, which saw new office and business units built to form a courtyard.
24 Design Ltd Hadfield Street – an exhibition design and build practice, working extensively within the museum and heritage sector.
Glancy Fawcett Lund Street, A project-based, luxury lifestyle supplier delivering exquisite homeware for superyachts, residences and private jets.
Concept Life Sciences Hadfield Street, your trusted partner from concept to clinic. We are your integrated drug discovery and development partner for complex challenges, renowned scientific knowledge, and strategic execution across all modalities from small molecule and biologics to cell and gene therapies.
They seem to have left the building.
J Parker‘sLtd Hadfield Street, Dutch bulb importers – competitive prices across all our garden plant and bulb ranges, huge range, unbeatable prices, established 1933.
Empress Mill latterly Orchid Point Empress Street.
Built between 1903 and 1909, it echoes the industrial character of the larger industrial buildings on Chester Road and Empress Street. The property is listed as a smallware factory in the occupation of Woolf & Higham manufacturers of small wares, upholsterers’ trimmings, worsted bindings, woven venetian ladder tapes, cotton and linen venetian blind webs, spindle bandings, window blind cords, carpet bindings, bed laces. The works is shown on the Ordnance Survey of 1955 as an Engineering Works – Printing Machinery.
Local Heritage List
In 2011, FreshStart Living purchased the building, alongside others nearby, as part of a £9 million development ‘breathing new life’ into this corner of Old Trafford with 116 one and two-bedroom apartments. But, on the inside, leaking roofs, mould, exposed electrical wires and a dodgy gas connection paint a completely different picture.
Not long after purchasing it, we discovered the entire building was being powered by a generator.
Empress Mill was turned into an apartment block as part of a development called Orchid Point. It is understood some residents were allowed to move in twelve years ago, but these residents were asked to move out after a number of years due to safety issues.
On February 20th 2023, the Empress Mill was one of a number of buildings described as unsafe and unsecure by Trafford Council.
The emergency services were called to Empress Mill at 5.15am on Friday. Ten appliances from across the region, including specialist appliances called a stinger and a scorpion, attended the abandoned mill turned apartment block off Chester Road and firefighters battled the blaze into the afternoon.
Officers from Trafford Council have taken firm action to put a stop to anti-social behaviour at a vacant block of flats in the Old Trafford area.
Drug addicts and thieves have descended on Aura Court since much of it was closed in August 2020 by Greater Manchester Fire Service due to a decaying non-compliant fire escape.
The site along with Venos and Progress House is up for sale.
A rare development opportunity in Central Manchester with excellent access to Manchester City Centre Close to Salford Quays, Old Trafford Football and Cricket Grounds along with White City Retail Park The total site covers an area of approximately 2.10 Acres, historic planning consents granted on the site for in excess of 200 flats plus additional commercial accommodation.
Duckworth’s specialised in the manufacture of concentrated soluble essences, essential oils and colours supplied to the aerated water trade – local ‘pop’ men. They were leaders in the field, supplying flavours and essences around the world and developing products tailored to specific markets.
Duckworth & Co was acquired by Cargill Flavor Systems Ltd in 2003, the company vacated the Chester Road premises in 2006.
After buying the building in 2007 for a reported £3.6m, the Church of Scientology planned to re-open the building by either 2010 or 2011.
Leaders of the religious group have submitted a new application to carry out external and internal works. A design and access statement written on behalf of the church by NJSR Chartered Architects proposes a comprehensive revamp of the building.
The overall aim of the project is the refurbishment and conversion of the Duckworth Essences Building into a place of religious study and worship.
One of the last privately owned markets in the city, is to close on July 19th 2025, after serving the area for over a century.
The family which owns the Harpurhey site has decided to put the acre of land and its existing redbrick buildings up for sale. It will be auctioned off with a guide price of £450,000.
It’s so sad the stall holders, and the community that surrounds the market, have lost their place to go on weekly basis, meeting friends for brew and bacon butty, chats and last minute buys, rummaging around in boxes finding treasures. The previous owner Mike, would have fought tooth and nail to keep this beloved market open, he would be turning in his grave.
I visited on 30th January 2023 – the gate was open there was nobody home, except the cleaner and me.
Princess Cinema It is listed in Kinematograph Year Books from 1927 to 1954, but had gone from listings by 1962. It had a Western Electricsound system. The upper part was later removed after a serious fire and the remainder became an indoor market.
The pub was open, but the Alan Boyson mural was in need of repair.
The missing panel, stored in the pub’s cellar was subsequently reinstated.
Then, following a Modernist crowdfunding project instigated by Richard Brook and Christopher Marsden, Alice Vincent-Barwood restored the work, during July 2022.
Sadly in August 2023 the pub lost its licence and remains closed.
Wandering from Town to Moston yesterday, I happened to pass by, so I took some photos, here they are:
Burnley Central railway station is a stop on the East Lancashire Line, it is managed by Northern Trains, which also provides its passenger service.
Architect: RL Moorcroft of British Rail 1964-1966
Described by Claire Hartwell in the Buildings of England Lancashire: North as – of blue brick, bleak.
The station was opened by the East Lancashire Railway in 1848, as part of its route from Bury and Blackburn to Colne; here, an end-on junction was made with the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway line from Skipton that had been completed several months earlier. The service from Colne through the station to Manchester Victoria, via Accrington and Bury, was well used from the outset by the owners of the local cotton mills, who travelled from their homes in the area to make their purchases of raw cotton at the Royal Exchange several times each week. It was also possible to travel from the station by direct train to Blackpool, Liverpool and Skipton and even through to London Euston, via Blackburn, Manchester Victoria and Stockport.
1964 Red Rose Collections.
However, the cutbacks of the 1960s affected the station badly, with through trains to Manchester via Bury ending in 1964 (two years before the withdrawal of the Accrington to Bury service) and those to Liverpool in 1969 whilst the line to Skipton was closed to all traffic in 1970. This left the station on a 10.5 km long dead-end branch line from Rose Grove to Colne.
The station was rebuilt in 1965, its ground floor is at street level and the first floor at platform level.
This is the result of my two visits to St Clare’s – an urban church which is kept open each day. I urge you to visit as and when you can, you will be rewarded by an uplifting experience – the most refined, calm and spiritual space.
A striking example of post-war church design built for the Franciscans, combining original modern forms and references to historic ecclesiastical architecture. The church predates the Second Vatican Council, and is of traditional basilican plan. Apart from the original sanctuary arrangements, the interior is well preserved, with furnishings of note – the large mosaic over the high altar, depicting St Clare of Assisi raising the Blessed Sacrament by Georg Mayer-Marton, stained glassbyJoseph Nuttgens, Stations of the Cross by David John.
Mayer Marton was also responsible for the fresco and mosaic mural at the Church of the Holy Rosary, Oldham – which is currently under threat.
There is a large west window grid, continued at the base, where it is angled out, to form a canopy over the entrance. Mosaics in this position have been overpainted or lost.
Whilst not seeking sheltered housing for my good self, I am always intrigued by small developments of interesting social housing, grouped around pedestrian walk ways and green space.
The residents with whom I chatted seems content with their homes and the management thereof.
I bade them adieu and went about my way, taking these few snaps.
I was cordially requested to produce tram based walk, by the good folk at the modernist – travelling from Victoria Station to Bury. Alighting at each stop and seeing what could be seen, by way of modern buildings along the byways.
By the way, I do have previous experience, having undertaken a similar task travelling to Ashton.
So I set off as instructed, clutching my GMPTE senior concessionary travel pass.
Queens Road
Turn right on leaving the station, right then left – you have reached The Vine.
Glendower Dr, Manchester, Greater Manchester M40 7TD.
Head for Rochdale Road and turn right back toward the city centre, you have reached Eastford Square.
Turn left from the station along Bury Old Road until you reach Heywood Road on your right.
Heywood Road, Prestwich, Manchester M25 2GT
1954-5 by the Manchester City Architect’s Department, Chief Architect Leonard C Howitt, for the Manchester Corporation Waterworks. Alan Atkinson, engineer. Incorporates large relief by Mitzi Cunliffe, signed and dated 1955.
After months of public consultation, the joint venture has firmed up its proposals for the redevelopment of the Longfield Centre and is aiming to be on site before the end of the year.
Muse and Bury Council have submitted a hybrid application to transform six acres of Prestwich town centre.
The Strategic Regeneration Framework is the guide that is shaping the direction of Radcliffe’s growth over the next 15 years with a series of realistic short, medium, and longer-term actions. It is also shaping the direction of future council investment, supporting bids for central governmental funding and providing certainty for third parties wanting to invest in town.
Work has begun on Strategic Regeneration Framework’s priority projects, these include:
A new civic hub in central Radcliffe, which will bring together a mix of functions at the heart of the town
Refurbishment of the market basement and the revamping of market chambers
New leisure facilities
A secondary school on the Coney Green site
A “whole town approach” to housing, bringing forward a comprehensive approach to residential development in Radcliffe
A transportation strategy, which will consider matters such as active travel and car parking
Along with the Renold Building– which is already home to start up tech businesses.
The city council has approved Bruntwood SciTech’s change of use bid to transform the 110,000 sq ft Renold building into a tech and science hub.
In a joint venture with the University of Manchester, Bruntwood will create 42,000 sq ft coworking and business incubator spaces for businesses in the sector at the Altrincham Street building.
Sister is Manchester’s new innovation district. A £1.7bn investment into the city, its setting – the former University of Manchester North Campus and UMIST site – is steeped in science and engineering history. Home to the UK’s most exciting new ideas and disruptive technologies, Sister is a worldclass innovation platform in the heart of one of the most exciting global cities. It stands as the city’s symbol of a new era of discovery that promises progress against humanity’s greatest challenges.
So it is with a bitter sweet feeling that I took a group of Modernist Moochers around the site this Saturday – a number of whom had been students there.
As a former UMIST student 1990-1997, I had a wander round the old site recently, sad to see it so empty and run-down.
So let’s take a look at the current state of affairs.
Blackpool Council says it remains committed to the Blackpool Central project amid the potential collapse of the developer leading the works.
But warning alarms sounded this week when Nikal – which was hired to oversee the project – filed a notice of intent to appoint administrators.
The £300m Blackpool Central development is billed as the biggest single investment in the town in more than a century and is planned to involve a “world-class leisure development” which would create 1,000 new jobs, bring an extra 600,000 visitors per year, and boost annual spend in the town by around £75m.
A spokesperson for Blackpool Council told the Blackpool Lead:
We have been working on the enabling phase of Blackpool Central over the last few years. The new multi-storey car park opened earlier this summer and we are currently completing preparations to demolish the old police station and courts building early in the New Year.
The proposals for the Bonny Street area can be seen here.
Plans for the area have hit further problems.
A new £40m magistrates courthouse is facing building delays after the project’s main contractor collapsed.Blackpool’s magistrates court was one of twenty two projects belonging to construction giant ISG, which was working on the scheme for the Ministry of Justice.
But the firm went into administration in September, leaving two thousand two hundred workers at risk of redundancy, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
Work was due to start early next year with a completion date expected in 2026.
The town needs all the help it can get, time has not been too kind, whilst efforts have been made to invigorate the area around Blackpool North and the promenade, the back streets reflect the legacy of years of deprivation.
Blackpool ranks as one of the most deprived areas in the UK. Many people were already in poverty, and the cost of living pressures are having the biggest impact on this group, who need to spend a greater proportion of their incomes on household essentials. It is also affecting people on low and middle incomes, often surviving by having several jobs, who are being pushed into poverty. More people are turning to services for support, and as the winter progresses this is a serious concern.
I have no wish to poor scorn on the area – but a short walk around the streets approximate to the coast tells a tale of failed businesses, decay and decline.
Happily there are the seeds of recovery in evidence, in the form of newly built housing.
The executive report outlines an area of regeneration to the South of the town centre. It lies broadly between Chapel Street and Rigby Road, and the Promenade and Central Drive. These have been identified as the initial areas of focus for detailed scheme development, community engagement and property acquisitions in preparation for future development.
British Telecom Telephone Exchange Abbey Road Barrow in Furness LA14 5QZ
I took a train in the rain to Barrow in Furness.
I alighted, bathed in bright sunlight.
I espied a telephone Exchange.
The original building was designed by MOPBW senior architect M Williams and job architect P Chilton around 1966-67. Senior architect RN Dixon – of modernist talk fame, and job architect P Joyce were involved with some detailing around 1968, before Dixon designed an extension in 1972.
They have campaigned tirelessly to save the building which is under threat, the local authority wishing to demolish the site.
There has long been a split in Shropshire Council between councillors who want to keep Shirehall and this that want to demolish it and move to the town centre. Last December, the council agreed to dispose of the building in the next few years after work on Civic Hub in the town centre is completed. That Civic Hub is still in the ideas stage and there is no clear idea of where the money will come fund it. Unless the council sells the 3.5 hectare Shirehall site for housing boosting its capital reserves which were depleted by the £51m purchase of the shopping centres in Shrewsbury town centre.
The budget plans agreed two weeks ago days propose that Shirehall is sold before April 2025 to make a saving of £325,000 in 2024/25.
Work began in the interwar years, and continued following the hiatus of 1939-45. The shopping centre named the Civic Centre was open in 1963, the actual Civic Centre containing a swimming pool, theatre, public hall and library in 1971.
Here I am again four years later, taking a look at how it looks today.
ASDA remains the anchor store, Wilko having left a Wilko sized hole in the precinct. On an overcast Friday morning there was sufficient footfall to sustain the wide variety of smaller shops and larger retail chains. As with many other towns within the central Manchester orbit, the easy proximity fills those busy trams and buses, which are leaving the area.
There are plans in place to regenerate the area, in the form of a Masterplan – which can be downloaded here.
Between 1991-2002 there have been some architectural changes, including new stores and office developments. Some of the interventions included significant adaptions which further increased retail into the existing buildings high street.
The interventions included significant adjustments to the multi-storey car park with the aim of reducing parking numbers whilst providing additional lettable space. Further Transport Hub Arrival commercial development was created to the north of the site with the construction of Etrop Court, despite there being significant commercial vacancy across other parts of the estate.
Whilst there has been significant incremental intervention, the character of the area has not fundamentally changed from its founding concept. However the cumulative impact of the various changes have had a negative impact on the functionality and suitability of place, so much so that the centre is in many ways no longer fit- for purpose.
The site today is surrounded by surface car parks, with a total of around 2,500 car parking spaces, 1,700 of which are contained within the multi-storey car park. Many of the retail units, the upper floor office spaces along the Birtles and Hale Top, and buildings to the east are vacant.
Typically, the levels of vacancy are consistent with the changing demands of the high street, where typically modern and successful retail centres are now more diversified and focussed on creating a visitor or destination-based experience. In this sense, we anticipate a need to diversify the high street and to promote a smaller more concentrated retail core, whilst supplementing the offer with more meanwhile and permanent uses and activities based on culture, food and creative workplace.
The gateway to the Civic Centre on arrival from the Transport Interchange is very poor. Access to the high street isn’t obvious and the route through to the high street isn’t clear. Much of the site is surrounded by fencing, barrier and gates and whilst they are open during the day, they are locked at night to prevent vandalism. This barricaded aesthetic does nothing to promote an easily accessible and family friendly environment as well as preventing any opportunity to promote a much needed night- time economy.
Currently, the Civic Centre appears to only cater for those with a need to visit for a particular purpose, rather than capitalising on an opportunity to create a place to visit and dwell.
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.
Having visited and photographed the bus station in 2016 I thought that it was about time I went up in the world, to the top level of the car park.
Mixed opinions from Parkopedia reviewers – let’s take a look around.
There are plans for refurbishment outlined in 2022 in the Huddersfield Hub.
The bus station will undergo a major revamp both inside and out and the most striking feature will be a sweeping canopy with a living grass roof which will run right across the main frontage from Macaulay Square to Upperhead Row.
Also of note a project by Kate Matthews to seriously rethink the role and design of the space.
The starting point for this project was the Welcoming Water group scenario, involving the controlled flooding of areas of the town.
The new interchange includes facilities for cycling, walking, and public transit. The basin and marina on the new lake allow for an increased focus on water-based transport, including a new bus-boat. The main Transport Hub sits below an undulating roof and contains not only the bus bays and ticketing facilities, but also co-working and relaxation spaces. The curves of the roof, trying to confuse the binary of floor and ceiling, are just one example of the ambiguity throughout the scheme.
This project was nominated for the Architects for Health Student Design Award in 2021.
The Ferodo Factory was founded in Caernarfon in 1962, and officially opened by Princess Margaret.
However, the Ferodo Factory faced a significant setback in April 2001, when a lengthy industrial strike by the Transport and General Workers Union members began.
The strike lasted for an astonishing two and a half years.
Following the strike, the Ferodo Factory underwent a change in ownership. Bluefield Caernarfon Ltd acquired the site in 2007/08, with plans for redevelopment and revitalization. However, these plans did not come to fruition, and the factory’s buildings gradually fell into disrepair.
The site was identified as a potential location for a multi-million pound North Wales prison. This development would have created numerous job opportunities and breathed new life into the area.
Plans for this proposed redevelopment where rejected.
An appeal was launched in 2023 to find ex-strikers, in order to invite them to the premiere of a documentary to mark the 20th anniversary of one of Britain’s longest industrial disputes.
The hard-hitting film, Y Lein: Streic Friction Dynamics – The Line: Friction Dynamics Strike, has been made by Dïon Wyn, the grandson of one of the strikers, Raymond Roberts, who was determined the historic injustice should never be forgotten.
The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Sir Offley Wakeman, a former chairman of the county council, on 25 July 1964. It was designed by Ralph Crowe, the County Architect, in the Modernist style, built at a cost of £1.8 million and was completed in April 1966.
It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, on 17 March 1967.
The design for the six-storey building facing Abbey Foregate involved continuous bands of glazing with concrete panels above and below: it also included an unusual ovoid-shaped council chamber which jutted out to the south-west of the main building.
Pevsner described the building as – the major monument to post-war modernism in the county.
Shropshire Council initially backed a scheme drawn up by HLM Architects in 2017 to revamp Shirehall to provide modern working facilities as well as commercial opportunities. However this plan has not progressed and the local authority has said that making the building fit for purpose would require ‘a multi-million pound investment’.
in September 2020, the council indicated that it would rather sell the building and move to the town centre. Then in October 2020, following an application for a certificate of immunity from listing requested by the county council, English Heritage decided not to list County Hall as the building did not meet the criteria for listing post-1945 buildings.
The Adelphi Picture Theatre is located in the Attercliffe district in the east of Sheffield. It opened on 18th October 1920 with Irving Cummings in Auction of Souls. The red brick building has buff and blue coloured terracotta enrichments on the façade, especially on the small turret dome over the entrance, which also has stained glass windows.
Seating in the auditorium was provided in stalls and circle, and the projection box was located in the rear stalls, underneath the circle. The cinema was in reverse, and patrons entered the auditorium from behind the screen. The decoration includes pilasters, a segment-arched panelled ceiling and a moulded proscenium arch with a central crest which is flanked by torches. The circle has a lattice-work plaster front.
Single photo enhanced with easyHDR 3.15.2: Adelphi 1920 10 18.jpg
It underwent some restoration in 1936 and a re-decoration in August 1939. It received some bomb damage during the second week of the blitz and was closed for around a month. It received further renovation in August 1946. It remained an independently operated cinema throughout its cinematic life and was usually tied in with the Coliseum Cinema on Spital Hill.
The Adelphi Picture Theatre closed on 28th October 1967 with Robert Vaughn in The Karate Killers and Glenn Ford in The Rounders. It became a bingo club, last operated by the independent Walkers Bingo. After this closed in around 1995 it became a nightclub and since March 2000 was converted into a music teaching centre. This closed in 2006, and the building stood unused, and by 2013, it was in use as a storage facility. It was announced in November 2022 that the city council were seeking to purchase the building to renovate and convert it into a community centre.
Since early 1996, the Adelphi Picture Theatre was designated a Grade II Listed building by Historic England.
Just the other day I came across an old ticket stub issued by The Savoy in Heaton Moor.
They used a Automaticket machine, but with dead stock tickets.
Evolving from being gear and lever driven, to powered by electric motors, these ticketing machines served as somewhat of an industry standard for over eighty years.
While there are still a few of these machines in use, the theatre industry generally abandoned such ticketing systems, in favor of computerized ticketing, by the late 1980’s.
The striking art deco – sic. building later hosted Sheffield’s famous Gatecrasher club nights, among other events, and was also used as a music teaching centre.
It sat empty from 2006 until 2013 and has since been used only for storage.
My dad was a regular at The Adelphi during the war years. He remembers that the showings were always like a theatre with two matinees during the week and two evening showings everyday unlike the continuous showing at other cinemas and a children’s matinees on a Saturday.
He and his friends had six seats booked on Q row for every Monday and Saturday night as more often than not the films ran for three nights Mon, Tues and Wed, then a new picture Thurs, Fri, and Sat – no show on a Sunday. Occasionally a good film, now known as a blockbuster, would run for longer; if this was the case they just put up with seeing it twice.
The cost of the film was 4d or 6d upstairs, the cinemas in town were dearer.
Called up in February 1944 he did not return to Attercliffe until his first leave from the army a week before VE day in 1945. He returned from Germany, said hello to his Mum and Dad, dropped off his kit bag then caught the tram the three stops to the Adelphi where he knew his friends would be. The smartly dressed commisioner, in blue with plenty of gold braid, standing outside immediately recognised him even in army uniform. He showed him in telling him the lads were all there. He crouched in the aisle next to his friends and caused quite a commotion once he was spotted – he has no memory of the film showing but great memories of the reunion to this day.
It was bought by Sheffield City Council earlier this year, as part of the Attercliffe Levelling Up project, and has now gone on the market as the council seeks someone to revive the Grade II-listed building as a vibrant cultural hub.
Councillor Ben Miskell, chair of the council’s Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee, said:
We’re thrilled to announce the Adelphi Cinema building in Attercliffe is now on the market and we’re eager to hear from interested parties. The building forms one part of our ambitious plans for the area which will all come together to breathe new life into the community.
Modern Mooch 