Old photographs, memories and history of Whalley Range.

Thanks to Manchester Image library, Paul, Vera and Joan for photos


Whalley Range from 1926 (year of the General Strike) to end of World War II
Recorded by Vera Llanwarne 9th Sept 2008

• Corner of Withington Rd & Carlton Rd was Sir William Coates’ House (now Crystal House flats)
• Next, West End Cinema later changed to Odeon, it had a cafe and a small dance floor.
• Corner of Withington Rd & Dudley Rd was The Embassy Garage and over the garage was The Embassy Dance Hall
• The Co-op Grocers
• The co-op Butchers
• The Co-op Hall used for Parties, Weddings and Dances
• Painters and Decorators (Vera’s Family business)
• Tailors
• Cigarette and Tobacco
• Martins bank
• Drapers and later had a Post Office in one half
• High Class Bakers
• Sweet Shop
• Dairy and provisions
• Hardware Shop
• George Mason Grocers
• Seymour Mead Grocers
• Seymour Mead Butchers

May Rd
• Corner of May Rd & Withington Rd – Simpson’s Hotel
• Then various small Shops
• Red Cross House (later Nello James)
• More Houses

Other side of Withington Rd
• Wine Shop
• Cake Shop
• Green grocery
• John Denison Butchers
• Fullers Drapers
• Rhodes Paper Shop on corner of Yarburgh St also selling stationary and glassware

Yarburgh St
• Chemist
• Dress Shop
• Haberdashers’
• Radio Shop
• Next a very old house used as the Post Office, pulled down to build Pub (recently pulled down).

Whalley Range 1948

• 2 Carlton Rd St. Margaret’s Remembrance Hall
• Withington Rd - Odeon Cinema
• Withington Rd & Mayfield Rd – Walls depot for ice cream bicycles to fill up, now Netto
• Withington Rd & Mayfield Rd other corner Glengarry Hotel

Withington Rd
• 115 T.E Giles, Green Grocer
• 114 Alexandra Creamery
• 117 Butcher – John Denison
• 17 Henry Kirby & Son, Practical Sanitary Plumbers


Whalley Range 1960

Withington Rd
• 102 Estate Agent
• 108 Range Outfitter & Post Office
• 119 Copeland Chemist
• 134 Sweets & Stationary
• 116 Newsagent & Tobacconist
• 122 Simpson’s Hotel










In 1836 Samuel Brooks bought Jackson’s Moss, a swampy area south-east of the city centre. He drained it and built villas for wealthy businessmen such as himself. The area was named Whalley Range after his boyhood home. A tollbar guarded this exclusive area and this place is still called “Brooks’s Bar”. Whalley Range was one of the first suburbs, creating what Samuel Brooks termed "a desirable estate for gentlemen and their families" where people could escape the increasing congestion in the growing industrial city. Roads were laid out and building plots were sold with certain conditions to ensure that development was appropriate to Samuel Brooks's vision. The estate was laid out between two farm tracks, now Withington Road and Upper Chorlton Road. The tree-lined avenues of Dudley Road, Whalley Road and Chorlton Road form the basis of the estate. Samuel Brooks's own Whalley House (named after the town of Whalley in Lancashire, his place of origin) was built at the south end of Whalley Road. The house was demolished during the 1930s to make way for the Woodlawn Flats development. The eastern side of the conservation area around Alness Road was built in the latter half of the 19th century on land sold by Lord Egerton of Tatton. In 1874, an early example of an aquarium was opened to the public on Alexandra Road. Although twice the size of any previous aquarium, it proved to be commercially unsuccessful, and closed down just two years later. Shortly after closure, the building was incorporated into St. Bede's College, which was itself amalgamated with St. Bede's School in All Saints in the City.