A bright and breezy day in Chester – why not visit a car park?
Having previously visited a car park on one’s previous visit.
Pepper Street Car Park
So off we go into the Shopping Centre.
From high street style to independent finds, coffee breaks to long lunches, there’s so much to discover here. Plan your visit, explore what’s new, and enjoy a day that’s every bit as relaxed as it is rewarding.
Up in the lift, walking just one flight of stairs, right to the top.
Pepper Street Car Park
New Brighton in late summer – a little sun, a handful of visitors, and offshore breeze.
In 1830, a Liverpool merchant, James Atherton, purchased 170 acres of land at Rock Point, which enjoyed views out to sea and across the Mersey and had a good beach. His aim was to develop it as a desirable residential area and watering place for the gentry, similar to Brighton, one of the most elegant seaside resorts of that Regency period, hence the name “New Brighton”. Substantial development began soon afterwards, and housing began to spread up the hillside overlooking the estuary.
During the latter half of the nineteenth century, New Brighton developed as a very popular seaside resort serving Liverpool and the Lancashire industrial towns, and many of the large houses were converted to inexpensive hotels. Designed by the noted architect of seaside structures Eugenius Birch, the New Brighton Pier opened in 1867.
The promenade from Seacombe to New Brighton was completed by 1901.
The New Brighton Tower, the tallest in the country, was opened in 1900 but closed in 1919, largely due to lack of maintenance during World War I, and had been dismantled by 1921.
After the Second World War, the popularity of New Brighton as a seaside resort declined dramatically. However, the Tower Ballroom continued as a major venue, hosting numerous concerts in the 1950s and 1960s by local Liverpool groups such as The Beatles, and international stars.
The Tower Ballroom continued in use until it was destroyed by a fire in 1969.
New Brighton’s Art Deco Lido, was opened on 13 June 1934 by Viscount Leverhulme. When it was built, it was the largest lido in Britain, at a cost of £90,000, designed by Wallasey County-Borough Engineer L St. G Wilkinson
The saltwater pool survived until 1990, when it was damaged during a storm and later demolished
What remains today is a seafront transformed by the recent addition of large retail and leisure buildings.
Comedy legend Ken Dodd made his first appearance at the venue in 1940.
The old structure was demolished as part of New Brighton’s £60 million Neptune Project.
A new £12 million complex featuring an 814-seat auditorium and conference centre, was opened by Ken Dodd, in December 2008.
New Brighton Palace, an amusement arcade, built in 1939, commissioned by Will Wilkie, the current owner is David Wilkie, his grandson.
Looking Backward Moving Forward
The New Palace and Adventureland on the famous Promenade at New Brighton, Wirral, offers a tremendous range of family fun-filled entertainment and activities.
The traditional family amusement arcade, The Bright Spot, has something for everyone including state of the art video driving, adventure and shooting simulators, dance games, plus the always popular slots and ‘pushers’, as well as mini-bowling and toy-grabbers.
Special mention must go to long time New Brighton resident Photie Man Tom Wood.
Across the water the Seaforth Dock.
Opened in 1971, the site consists of about five hundred acres
Technological changes, such as containerisation, caused the loss of numerous jobs on the docks. In the 21st century, the dock handles mainly containers, oils, timber, fruit and vegetables, grain and animal feed.
New Brighton Lighthouse the structure is Grade II * listed
Designed by John Foster Jr, construction of the present tower began in 1827 by Tomkinson & Company using blocks of interlocking Anglesey granite using dovetail joints and marble dowels.
The lighthouse was in continuous use until it was decommissioned in October 1973, having been superseded by modern navigational technology.
Perch Rock Fort – its is Grade II* listed.
In 1803 Liverpool merchants concerned about a possible invasion by the French during the Napoleonic wars put forward the idea of a fort at New Brighton. Naturally there were disputes about how it was to be financed and consequently construction didn’t get under way until 1826.
It was completed three years later. It was built out of red sandstone blocks on a base of sandstone rocks, confusingly known as the Black Rocks.
Designed by a Captain John Sikes Kitson of the Royal Engineers, it had room for 100 men plus officers with adequate provisions and armaments. It had eighteen guns, sixteen of which were thirty two-pounders and they faced the Rock Channel that was the main entrance for shipping to the Mersey at that time. The ships passed nine hundred yards from the guns and the fort soon became known as the “Little Gibraltar of the Mersey”.
The fort was decommissioned by the War Office 1956 and passed through various hands until it was sold to the Darroch family who are the current custodians.
Malcolm Lowry author New Brighton born.
“Love is the only thing which gives meaning to our poor ways on earth”
Water Treatment Plant
Almost a year on and I’m back again and you’re still here.
Still awaiting the wrecking ball and a rubble trouble future.
Back in 2025 the reports of your demise were premature.
Back in 2023 you were, even then, tired and ready to go home – to car park heaven.
It’s 2026, are we to bury you or praise you?
Fresh plans have been unveiled for one of the Northern Quarter’s most significant redevelopment projects, with the latest proposals for the long-awaited transformation of the Church Street multi-storey car park now entering a second round of public consultation.
The council-owned car park, which has occupied the site since 1970, has long been viewed as one of the area’s least-loved landmarks, and in recent years has found itself frequently at the centre of antisocial behaviour in the area. Developer Glenbrook is now proposing to replace it with a new mixed-use neighbourhood featuring around three hundred homes, including 20% affordable housing, alongside commercial units, public squares, green spaces and a community hub.
Manchesters Finest June 2026
Other Manchester car parks are available.
Wellington Road New Brighton Wallasey CH45
Almost high on a hill overlooking Liverpool Bay, and the Irish Sea on the edge of the Mersey Estuary, there stands two separate private high rise housing developments.
Portland Place interwar Seaside Moderne, built between 1938 and 1939.
Further along the road The Cliff – two Seventies high rise blocks, with double decker garages.
Described by a residents as two Bourbon biscuits.
I was asked by SMBC to take folks on a short Stockport walk – beginning at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery and concluding at the Stockroom, a distance of less than a mile.
So here we are beginning at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery a Grade II* listed building opened in 1927.
Designed in Neoclassical Greek Revival style with central tetrastyle Corinthian portico, the order loosely based on Temple of Apollo at Bassae
The Gallery has a long history of exhibitions from some of the art world’s finest artists. Today the gallery boasts an extensive exhibition program, which gives emerging artists a chance to showcase their work.
Designed by James Theodore Halliday of Halliday Paterson & Agate of Manchester.
Sculpture by Gilbert Ledward.
© National Portrait Gallery
Crossing over the Wellington Road South to the site of the former Mount Tabor Chapel 1868 designed by William Hill.
Closed in 1954 demolished in 1969.
The capitals of Chapel’s Corinthian columns, surround the site of the Cockleshell Hero memorial 2017 – sculptor Luke Perry.
The former Edgeley milkman James Conway took part in the Royal Marines’ most famous wartime raid, where he was one of the twelve men who paddled more than eighty miles in canoes up the Gironde to plant limpet mines on shipping in the German occupied French city of Bordeaux in 1942.
Down the hill to Stockport Town Hall 1908 another Grade II* listed building – designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas, built in a free English Baroque style.
Although much simpler than continental Baroque architecture, English Baroque designs were equally heavy, sensual and decorative.
Across the road the former Stockport Infirmary l832 Grade II listed – architect Richard Lane.
Currently named Millennium House, home to the Department of Works and Pensions.
Around the back of the Town hall we find Stopford House built in 1975 and designed by JS Rank OBE, Director of Development & Town Planning, Stockport Council.
The painting has recently been much improved by the folks from Merseyway Workshop along with local volunteers.
They also staged the hugely successful Stopford House Party in August.
Back down the road to the old Grand Central.
Formerly a large coal yard, replaced by a huge leisure facility and now a hotel and office complex, with a municipal swimming pool attached.
Next door the former Royal Mail sorting office.
The transformation of a building once dubbed Stockport’s ugliest has been completed, now known as The Mailbox.
When it was built in the 1970s, it was given extra reinforcement due to the risk of IRA letter bombs. The sorting office closed and moved sites in 2010, from when the building was vacant for nearly a decade.
The state-of-the-art development is now home to 117 ‘stunning’ new one and two-bedroom apartments and 12,500 square feet of commercial space. There is an atrium at its heart a roof terrace with views across the town centre.
It also has an eighteen -metre high green ‘living wall’ covering the front and other parts of the exterior, which with 114,500 plants is the largest of its kind by surface area in the North of England.
Over the road the Grade II listed former Central Library – architects Bradshaw Gass and Hope, funded by Andrew Carnegie, opened in October 1913.
Current plans are to use the building as a new home for the Stockport Music Service.
Adjacent is the Garrick Theatre.
The Stockport Garrick Theatre was founded on 24th of October 1901, by engineer Edwin Heys and his fellow actors: fugitives from the disbanded dramatic society of Stockport Unitarian Church. Meeting in what was then The Church Coffee Tavern on St Petersgate, Heys and his friends resolved to found a new society ‘to perform the best plays by the most capable amateur actors and with the finest scenic effects’.
The society purchased its current building, an old mill occupied by an assortment of small businesses, in 1920. Since then, the building’s labyrinthine interior has undergone various refurbishments to enhance the society’s ability to produce theatre to the highest standards possible.
The newly painted murals are by Captain Kris.
Next door the Hat Works – the UK’s only museum dedicated to the hatting industry, hats and headwear.
Occupying part of the Grade II listed Wellington Mill, a cotton mill of 1831 which became Ward’s Hat Works.
Both cotton spinning and hat making contributing to the economic development of Stockport in the C19th.
Across the way the long gone Carlton Cinema Architects: Francis Edison Drury and Joseph G Gomersall.
Opened on 28th July 1937.
In July 1948 the cinema was taken over by the Essoldo Cinemas chain. In 1954 the Essoldo became the town’s first CinemaScope cinema and for many years was the only cinema to offer full stereophonic sound. Richard Burton in The Robe was the first widescreen film to be shown, followed by Marilyn Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire.
At the height of the Davy Crockett craze, in 1956, Fess Parker made a personal appearance at the Essoldo.
It was converted into a twin screen cinema in 1971, by converting the balcony into Screen 2, it was taken over by the Classic Cinemas chain in 1972. Its final owners were the Cannon Group who ran the cinema from 1982 to its final closure on June 21st 1990.
The cinema was demolished in 1994 and a small park occupied the site for several years.
By 2011, offices had been built on site.
Until March 2025 home to the Sky call centre.
Further down the road the former Wellington Hotel.
Known variously as Ups ‘n’ Downs, Glitz, Bentley’s and the Bees Knees.
Finally, partial occupation by a forlorn Pound Shop – defying economic trends by closing.
Street art by Cats and That.
Next to the Transport Interchange aka the Bus Station.
In collaboration with Transport for Greater Manchester and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, the project redesigned a 10,000 sq m bus interchange, linking the rail station with new landscaped parks.
The development includes a fifteen-storey building with one hundred and ninety six apartments, commercial space, and parking. New parks and riverside spaces improve connectivity and enhance urban living, marking a transformative step in placemaking for Stockport.
Replacing the former Bus Station closed on Saturday 28th August 2021.
Down to the top of the Lowry Steps
LS Lowry snapped in 1962, the Viaduct in the not too distant distance – Grade II* listed structure and remains one of the world’s biggest brick structures.
Railway viaduct opened 1840 by GW Buck for Manchester and Birmingham Railway in brick and stone.
Twenty eight arches of total length over 540m – three spans at either end of 18ft, twenty two spans between of 63ft, and nearly 34m high above the river.
Said to contain eleven million bricks.
Stone moulded impost bands and rusticated faces to piers.
Took 21 months to build, at a cost of £72,700.
Widened to the west 1888 to 1889.
Historic England.
Down on the corner the former George Hotel.
Premises To Let as of 13th May 2018 – on the 2nd April 2018 the licence has lapsed, so this proved to be a barrier to it re-opening.
A former pub in Stockport town centre could be knocked down to make way for a tower stretching 17-storeys high. Plans have been sent to Stockport council for consideration and would bring 76 new apartments to the town replacing The George on Wellington Road, based opposite Merseyway Shopping Centre and near Stockport Viaduct.
Across the way the Heaton Lane Car Park is now rubble.
It is to become the site for the re-sited bus depot, as the current bus depot is demolished to make way for housing.
Though Place North West reports in August 2026:
Talks over a deal for a bus depot off Daw Bank have broken down after the council refused to meet the operator’s financial demands, prompting the authority to use compulsory purchase powers to acquire the site.
Despite protracted negotiations, Stockport Council and Stagecoach have failed to reach an agreement over an important piece of land the authority needs to deliver Stockport 8, a £350m, 1,300-home regeneration scheme.
Leaving Wellington Road we head for the Merseyway Precinct – 1965 architects Bernard Engle & Partners.
Where we find the Alan Boyson screen wall, screening the multi storey car park, now no longer above the Co-operative store, but above Primark.
Next in line the new occupants of Adlington Walk – Stockport’s fabulous Stockroom.
Stockroom is an exciting new creative and cultural centre in Stockport, designed for getting together, getting involved or just popping by for a brew. It has been developed with and for local people and the creative community to build an exceptional communal resource for entertainment and learning.
There’s room for everyone: to make noise, meet friends or find some peace, play, take part, think or do new things.
Part of Stockport’s £1 billion transformation, Stockroom is an ambitious £14.5 million cultural and creative centre that will breathe new life into the heart of the town.
Located in previously disused retail units, Stockroom has been brought to life through funding from UK Government’s Future High Streets Fund, which aims to rejuvenate town centres across the country.
The Stockroom have hosted a tribute to Alan Boyson, the exhibition The Marvel from Marple.
Otherwise open to access the Library service and archives, eat drink and play, use a computer, or a lavatory, read whilst relaxing in a comfy chair, stay cool or warm, stare into space either upstairs or downstairs.
Whatever floats your personal boat, though currently unsuitable for floating actual boats.
Mention must be made of near neighbours the Merseyway Workshop – the plant planters who we met up at Stopford House.
The Merseyway Workshop is a community focused, inspiring place for innovation and collaboration.
A DIY-style hub on Stockport’s pedestrianised high-street. Offering open use of creative workshops, drop-in activity sessions and skill exchanges.
Working in clay and wood, access to a fully equipped B&W darkroom and so much more.
One short mile or so a cornucopia of history – layer upon layer of exciting architecture.
Get out take a walk take a look!
Previously on Modern Mooch – cycling from Prestatyn to Colwyn Bay.
Today I chose to walk.
Just as I had done in Scarborough, just the other day.
I arrived by train just in time for the rain, took a look around Prestatyn town, waiting out the passing clouds.
The coast was overcast but dry, the pale marine light and light breeze caressing the wet concrete promenade.
This is a contested coastline, the concrete a first line of resistance to rising sea levels.
There is a history of serious flooding, particularly the area around Tywyn.
On 26 February 1990, the sea defences were breached for four hundred metres at Tywyn when a ferocious storm coincided with hide tide and a surge of water one and a half metres high. Lifeboats and helicopters were brought in to evacuate residents as seawater swept past the railway and flooded houses and caravans. Roughly ten square km of land were inundated.
Much work has been done to protect the land.
The Central Rhyl Coastal Defences Scheme forms part of the Welsh Government’s £291m Coastal Risk Management Programme, which is responding directly to the challenges posed by climate change.
Dechrau a diwedd – Beginning and End 2009 by CAMM Design
The name of the sculpture acknowledges the nature of the Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail and Prestatyn as a point of departure or arrival. The trail is symbolised by a stylised representation of the sun. To either side of the sun sculpture are paved areas, and large blocks to provide seating.
It is known locally as the ‘Polo Mint’.
The light continually changes over the placid surface of the Irish Sea, the off shore wind turbines spin slowly, seemingly silent on the distant horizon.
There was rain blowing in from the Orme – I cut and ran at Bae Cinmel, boarding the bus for Bae Colwyn.
So here we are at RIBA North to take a closeup wide angle view of the past.
In 1969, the Architectural Review magazine launched Manplan, a ground-breaking and often uncompromising assessment of Britain’s built environment at the end of the sixties.
Combining pioneering graphic and print techniques with powerful photojournalism, the attention grabbing magazine sought to question and critique architectural ideas at the time.
Photography lay at the heart of the series- through striking black and white reportage, Manplan revealed how architecture and urban planning shaped people’s daily lives, highlighting social issues that continue to be relevant today, such as inadequate housing, community, and loneliness.
Workers’ housing in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with Dunston Power Station behind.
Image: Tim Street-Porter Architectural Press Archive RIBA Collections.
Bold in tone and innovative in style, Manplan reframed conversations on urban development and brought attention to socially conscious design within the built environment.
The Wide-Angle View exhibition reflects on its legacy and highlights the powerful role photography and design can still play in communicating and challenging over half a century on
Lillington Gardens Estate Pimlico
Image: Tony Ray-Jones
My Visit to the estate in 2018
Constructed in phases between 1961 and 1980 to a plan by Darbourne & Darke.
The estate was among the last of the high-density public housing schemes built in London during the postwar period, and is referred to as one of the most distinguished. Notably, seven years before the Ronan Point disaster ended the dominance of the tower block, Lillington Gardens looked ahead to a new standard that achieved high housing density within a medium rather than high-rise structure. It emphasised individuality in the grouping of dwellings, and provided for private gardens at ground and roof levels.
Blackburn Corporation office tower and shopping centre.
Image: Peter Baistow
My visit in 2025 – the tower and shopping centre having been significantly remodelled.
Architects: BDP
Preston Bus Station
Image: Peter Baistow
My visit in 2018 – prior to refurbishment and listing.
Architects: Keith Ingham for BDP.
Newcastle Civic Centre with bronze statue of Tyne God by David Wynne.
My visit in 2017 which also included the Interiors and the Council Chamber.
Architects: George Kenyon.
The companion exhibition catalogue to the RIBA’s photography exhibition: Wide Angle View: Architecture as social space in the Manplan series 1969-70.
Given the current government’s drive for new build housing and new towns, I feel that the time is right to reassess the role of our citizens planners and architects own shaping this new New World.
Let’s all plan The Plan.
In July 2025, the government published its five-step plan to deliver a decade of renewal for social and affordable housing. This plan committed to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation, alongside a transformational and lasting change in the safety and quality of social housing.
Consideration should also be given to all the infrastructure that the housing may require – the schools, hospitals, libraries, shops, play areas et al.
No more shabby PFI, but substantial public buildings of real quality and distinction.
No more developer led, overseas capital fed, elite inner city out of town cookie cutter ghettoes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.’
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
Once upon a time you were not a bingo hall.
You were a Shopping Giant – a Co-op superstore.
Pioneer co-op opened King Square superstore in 1974, changing to Shopping Giant, then eventually Discount Giant.
Dominating Oldham for most part of the decade was Co-op’s Shopping Giant. It was a great place where you could stock up on your groceries and buy non-food items. It boasted its own Handybank, had a separate chemist opposite the main store and a fast food restaurant – qv Food and Drink section. Cars parked on the roof and at ground level with access via trolley-friendly escalators.
Other delights included Mario’s salon – on Manchester Street underneath the main store, and an ice cream stand by the entrance nearest the Bank Top Tavern.
Nothing, like everything lasts forever – so you became the Mecca Bingo Hall.
Being something of a car park aficionado I couldn’t resist walking up the ramp to take a look around.
To the right is the tower of the Civic Centre, it was designed by Cecil Howitt & Partners, and the topping out ceremony was held on 18 June 1976.
Plans are underway at the Civic Centre, the largest site in the regeneration project, to create a vibrant community providing 838 homes rising up to 15-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.
Images have revealed how the site of Oldham’s Mecca Bingo was envisioned to be transformed into a new state-of-the-art ‘commercial quarter’.
However the council says that while the site is still potentially earmarked for redevelopment – it is not likely to come forward any time soon.
A visit to Preston on our Modernist Walks would not be complete without a visit to Telephone House.
Local enthusiast George Sharples, a chemist by trade who was familiar with telegraph engineering, also had ambitions in this field and successfully applied for a licence to operate from his premises at 7 Fishergate.
His Preston Telephonic Exchange opened a few weeks later, having recruited local businesses who at first were reluctant to move away from the highly efficient telegraph message services and embrace the new technology.
Things progressed quite rapidly after that and by 1886 Sharples had sold his business to the county operators, who in turn were taken over by the National Telephone Company in 1889. Within a year the £9 subscription rate offered by Sharples had increased to £12 – a familiar tale. Within three more years this organisation had set up its telephone exchange in Guildhall Street and a decade later moved operations to the old Preston Gas Company offices in Glover Street, where the multi-storey Avenham car park now stands.
Despite the NTC being taken over in 1912 by the Post Office, the Preston Telephone Exchange remained at the Glover Street premises until 1931, when an automatic telephone system was installed in the General Post Office building in the Market Place. Subscribers now had the freedom to dial most calls themselves. At the official launch of the new system it was stated that 15,000 calls were handled daily in Preston.
From the mid-1940s the increase in telephones was dramatic, with modern technology and underground cables leading to greater efficiency. A reflection of this progress was seen locally in June 1964 when the main Preston telephone exchange was moved to the purpose-built structure on Moor Lane. The era of trunk dialling had arrived and by 1980 two out of three homes within the Preston Telephone Area had a telephone installed.
Images and further information Lancashire Post.
Image – Norwyn Photographics
Twixt Walker Street and Moor Lane the mighty BT Building – Telephone House by Building Design Partnership, 1960-64.
A decent office block with rough patterned concrete end walls.
Pevsner
The front elevation was re-clad in 1992 the back is intact
BDP’s founder Professor Sir George Grenfell Baines, known affectionately as GG, was born in 1908 and set up in practice as an architect in Preston in 1937.
Four years later he teamed up with two other Preston practices and the Grenfell Baines Group was born. Expansion in various locations in the UK continued throughout the 1940s and 1950s and in 1951 GG was the only northern architect appointed to design a building for the Festival of Britain in London.
In 1961, his long cherished ambition of establishing the world’s first interdisciplinary practice was realised and Building Design Partnership was founded. It was a successful formula and on the occasion of his retirement in 1974 GG’s advice was
“keep going, getting better.”
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.
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.
A tale of two exchanges in one city – forty years apart.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens.
The Exchange of 1939 designed by FA Key.
The Exchange of 1976 by Trevor H Anson PSA Architect.
My thanks to Lisa Kinch of tele_exchange over at Instagram for the facts.
Let’s circumnavigate the site.
Just to spoil the twosome allusions there was a third exchange – just as there was a Third Man, returning from the dead.
Bradford’s last manual exchange was on the corner of Nelson Street and Union Street, opposite Bradford Town Hall.
It was opened by the National Telephone Company around 1900 to replace a magneto manual exchange in Swan Arcade. It closed on Saturday 26 July 1947 when the current Bradford exchange was opened.
The area has now been redeveloped.
Bradford Brighter Homes Exhibition January 1936.
100,000th telephone to be connected in Bradford 1953 – for the use of the Lord Mayor.
Photos courtesy of BT Archives.
So here we are back in Bradford – updating elements of the 2020 walk.
Arriving right on time from Manchester Victoria at the Bradford Interchange.
First a little history,
Image – Disused Stations
The original railway station, named Bradford Exchange, was opened by the joint efforts of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the Great Northern Railway on 9 May 1850. The railway station with its 10 platforms was deemed too large and was again rebuilt, this time on a different site slightly further south.
The Interchange was designed in 1962, it was hailed as a showpiece of European design when it opened in 1971.
Architects WC Brown Borough Architect and RL Moorcroft BR.
The bus station featured a large ridge and furrow design of overall roof, which was subsequently demolished in 1999 to allow for a rebuilding of the bus station, which was opened in 2001.
Further down the line, the plans of 2020 are yet to be realised.
So the curved and tented canopy is still in place, with the addition of seating in the newly landscaped plaza area – designed by Fereday Pollard.
The area has replaced the former taxi rank and drop-off point, and has new paving, seating and planters.
Designs include a new pocket park, plaza and interiors, all formed as a high quality welcoming visual amenity whilst repairing the disparate components which form the backdrop of the proposals. In the plaza, a kaleidoscope of colours is complemented by a grid of generous planters with integrated seating and vibrantly coloured furniture to create a celebratory and flexible meeting space. The ‘Colours of Bradford’ introduce clarity and joy, with the new plaza serving as an extension to the station concourse, allowing meeting and dwell space to interact with the city and onward journeys. Reinforcing the moor to meadow narrative of our original scheme, the new pocket park creates a pollinator park, encouraging and promoting a connection with the wider surrounding landscape of Bradford and combined with the Tower of Now, pays tribute to the rich and varied cultures found in Bradford.
Fereday Pollard
With Bradford awarded the UK City of Culture 2025, and an expected 15 million visitors during its year of celebrations, the city is ready for its moment in the spotlight. As part of these exciting developments, Bigg Design and Fun Makes Good are transforming Bradford’s main bus and rail interchange with super-scale, multi-surface artworks that will create an exciting, welcoming gateway to the city.
Their design work not a million miles from the prints and paintings of Richard Paul Lohse.
For me, this lower concourse always seems to have echoes of Jean-Luc Godard’s film Alphaville.
There are no special props or futuristic sets: instead, the film was shot in real locations in Paris, the night-time streets of the capital becoming the streets of Alphaville, while modernist glass and concrete buildings – which in 1965 were new and strange architectural designs, represent the city’s interiors.
Up the steps to the bus station.
St John’s College was founded as a men’s college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979. Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to provide a source of educated Roman Catholic clerics to support the Counter-Reformation under Queen Mary.
St John’s is the wealthiest college in Oxford, with assets worth over £790 million as of 2022, largely due to nineteenth-century suburban development of land in the city of Oxford of which it is the ground landlord.
The Beehive North Quad: the entrance elevation.
Architects 1960 Co-Partnership
Reginald Hugo de Burgh Galwey 1960
The Beehive North Quad: seen from the archway on the western side.
Bill Toomey 1960
The Garden Quadrangle.
Architect 1994 MacCormac Jamieson Prichard – MJP.
Detail of spiral stair.
The entrance courtyard.
A study bedroom at topmost level.
The lecture theatre.
Charles Martin 1994
Sir Thomas White Building.
Architects 1972-75 Philip Dowson of Arup Associates.
The pavilion looking through to the dining room.
A study bedroom.
The roof scape and service tower.
John Donat 1975
See also: St Catherine’s College, Materials Science, Worcester College, Keble College and The Florey Building
The original buildings of the College were designed by William Butterfield 1814-1900. Although the darling of the Tractarian movement, Butterfield was a controversial choice, as his style – a form of High Victorian Gothic had long provoked argument in Oxford. The original Gothic revival of the 1840s was purely imitative, seeking to blend new buildings with the pre-existing architecture of the city. However, this did not satisfy Butterfield, who “sought a new form of Gothic which would both convey eternal truths and would express the spirit of the age”.
The College was lucky in that the ambitious vision of its founders allowed it to house the majority of its students for decades. However, by 1967, it had become clear to the College that there was a need to expand on a large scale. With the £500,000 cost funded via the Centenary Appeal, the project remained challenging – the site available was wedge-shaped, construction had to be phased, as funds became available, and the buildings had to stand next to Butterfield’s imposing work. To meet this challenge, the College chose an up-and-coming firm of architects, Ahrends, Burton and Koralek ABK.
We have previously taken a look at the Halls through the RIBA pix archive.
Paul Ahrends, architect, with a model of the ABK buildings, explaining them to HRH Princess Margaret, the Chancellor and the Warden.
Here are the photographs which I took on my flying visit of July 2nd 2026.
Architect: Ahrends Burton & Koralek 1977
Ahrends, Burton and Koralek – ABK was established in London in 1961 by three young AA graduates, Peter Ahrends, Richard Burton and Paul Koralek. By the 1970s, ABK was known as one of the most creative and versatile of Britain’s younger practices, its workload ranging from college buildings in Oxford and Chichester to housing, public libraries, retail and industrial buildings.
While influenced by High-tech, their buildings were characterised by a concern for strong form and materiality. Major projects of the 1980s included stations for the Docklands Light Railway and the pioneering St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight, as well as buildings at Hooke Park in Dorset designed in collaboration with Frei Otto.
ABK’s victory in the prestigious 1982 competition for an extension to the National Gallery in London reflected the firm’s standing but the scheme was abandoned following a controversial intervention by the Prince of Wales.
The College was lucky in that the ambitious vision of its founders allowed it to house the majority of its students for decades. However, by 1967, it had become clear to the College that there was a need to expand on a large scale. With the £500,000 cost funded via the Centenary Appeal, the project remained challenging – the site available was wedge-shaped, construction had to be phased, as funds became available, and the buildings had to stand next to Butterfield’s imposing work. To meet this challenge, the College chose an up-and-coming firm of architects, Ahrends, Burton and Koralek – ABK.
The construction was completed in two phases, the De Breyne quad – completed in 1972, was largely funded by the Adeby Trust. The second phase – completed in 1976, was primarily funded by the Hayward Foundation.
Whilst ABK’s architecture did not seek to imitate Butterfield, it nevertheless adopted elements from his work. The buildings follow the exterior line of the College and the roofline varies along its length, gradually decreasing as it approaches the Butterfield buildings. Yet, the architecture also manages to be innovative. The exterior is fortress-like, punctuated by slot windows, with the buff coloured brick forming a contrast to the red of the original buildings. Internally, the walls are formed by overlapping layers of glass, creating a “soft underbelly”, which mirrors Butterfield’s patterns in its reflective surface.
Once again, Keble’s choices proved to be controversial. The Architectural Review of 1977 claimed the walls “suggest the exterior of some strange zoo”, yet the Royal Institute of British Architects saw fit to award it their Southern region award in 1978 and in 2001 it became one of the youngest Grade 2* listed buildings, a ranking reserved for “particularly important buildings of more than special interest”.
John Donat 1977
John Donat 1980
John Donat 1977
A typical study bedroom.
The glazed walkway
John Donat 1973
The common room and bar.
John Donat 1977
Charles Martin 1983
See also: St Catherine’s College, Materials Science, Worcester College and The Florey Building
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.
I was walking from the railway station, a map of Oxford folded in my back pocket.
Having no real notion of anything really, I simply followed my intuition and ended up here.
Worcester College was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet 1648–1701 of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was adopted by the college. Its predecessor, Gloucester College, had been an institution of learning on the same site since the late 13th century until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539.
Founded as a men’s college, Worcester has been coeducational since 1979.
This Mediaeval terrace is thought to be the oldest surviving domestic building in the city, known as the cottages – forming one side of the Quad.
This is the Casson Building – undergraduate accommodation.
The Linbury Building is a dedicated conferencing and private dining venue enjoying a beautiful natural setting among mature trees and landscaped lawns.
Accommodating up to one hundred guests for receptions or forty eight on a fully-catered basis, the Linbury Building offers the perfect venue for your mid-sized event. Set among the College’s award-winning gardens, the Linbury allows you to enjoy our unique natural setting thanks to floor-to-ceiling glazing which can be retracted to create an al fresco space in the summer.
With its own bespoke furniture made from English oak and College-crested leather chairs, the main conferencing space can be adapted into a wide variety of configurations, from seminar, cabaret or theatre to private dining and drinks receptions. The adjacent foyer area is a perfect space for delegate registration, break-out coffee and pastries or buffet lunch service.
John Davan Sainsbury – Baron Sainsbury of Preston Candover 1927 – 2022 was a British businessman and politician. He served as the President of Sainsbury’s, and sat in the House of Lords as a life peer and member of the Conservative Party
Robert Alfred Maguire 1931–2019 was an influential British modernist architect and leading thinker in the British liturgical architectural movement of the Church of England. Maguire and Keith Murray formed an architectural practice in 1959.
Nazrin Shah ascended the throne of Perak in 2014. As Sultan of Perak, he has been a strong advocate for education, Islamic moderation, and national unity. He has served as deputy king under Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan, Sultan Abdullah of Pahang, and Sultan Ibrahim of Johor.
The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre is a new building of 2017 housing a large lecture theatre, a student learning space, seminar rooms and a dance studio. The project is not simply the provision of new facilities, but also the development and enhancement of the setting of this significant part of the College site. Whilst the relationship between the new buildings and the listed parkland is important, it is only one part of a complex arrangement.
Elizabeth Frink’s sculpture Seated Man II – on loan from Yorkshire Sculpture Park, in accordance with the wishes of the artist’s late son, Lin Jammet, 2020.
He overlooks The Sainsbury Building student accommodation – 1983 Architect: Richard MacCormac
View from the loggia to the upper terrace.
Archive images 1983 – Charles Martin RIBA pix
The common room.
The central lobby.
A study bedroom.
The College Chapel was built in the 18th century. George Clarke, Henry Keene, and James Wyatt were responsible for different stages of its lengthy construction 1720–1791, owing to a shortage of funds. The interior columns and pilasters, the dome, and the delicate foliage plastering are all Wyatt’s work. His classical interior was insufficiently emphatic for the tastes of militant Victorian churchmen, and between 1864 and 1866 the chapel was redecorated by William Burges.
It is highly unusual and decorative; being predominantly pink, the pews are decorated with carved animals, including kangaroos and whales, and the walls are riotously colourful, and include frescoes of dodos and peacocks. Its stained glass windows were to have been designed by John Everett Millais, but Burges rejected his designs and entrusted the work to Henry Holiday.
Wikipedia
My first visit to Oxford and the centuries wide cornucopia of architectural styles and fashion.
See also: St Catherine’s College, Materials Science, and The Florey Building.
I visited St Catz on a student open day, and wandered amiably around the accessible areas – restricted by the refurbishment work being undertaken.
To better illustrate the beauty of Arne Jacobsen’s 1961- 68 Grade I Listed buildings I searched the RIBA pix archive.
In 1956, with University considering plans for expansion, Alan Bullock obtained approval to transform St Catherine’s Society into a fully residential college – the search for a site and funding began.
An ambitious fundraising campaign began, focusing on the national shortage of scientists and on Bullock’s proposal of an increased number of science students at St Catherine’s than was usual for an Oxford college. In 1960 almost eight acres of Holywell Great Meadow was acquired from Merton College and the College’s chosen architect, Arne Jacobsen of Denmark, began to implement his design. His modernist masterpiece was to become the most important 20th-century collegiate buildings in Oxford, and is now Grade I listed.
In 1962 St Catherine’s College opened its doors – while still under construction, with Alan Bullock as its Master. The first undergraduates were admitted, and were quickly dubbed the ‘Dirty Thirty’ owing to the lack of running hot water. 1964 saw the ceremonial opening of the College by the then Chancellor of the University, Harold Macmillan, and ten years later in 1974, staying true to its forward-looking ethos, it became one of the first colleges to admit women.
This is what I saw:
As a footnote – it’s possibly not a great idea to rush around an unfamiliar city trying to snap as much as possible on a very hot day time limited by budget train bookings largely underfed and thirsty.
