98
Wilmslow
Road,
Rusholme

Asset type

Asset type

Mixed-use

Quantum

Quantum

42 homes & 6 retail units

Status

Status

Planning approved

Architect

Architect

Ollier Smurthwaite

Planning consultants

Planning consultants

Ashtonhale

Transport

Transport

Curtins

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It
wasn’t
only
for
the
run
of
half
a
dozen
picture
palaces
that
Rusholme
was
dubbed
“Jollywood”.

In 1947 John Blakeley set up the “The Mancunian Film Distributors Ltd” in a converted Methodist chapel on Dickenson Road. Mancunian Films were cheap and cheerful, trading on inuendo and double entendre; end-of-the-pier stuff that made stars out of George Formby, Frank Randle, Diana Dors and Jimmy Clitheroe. Northern audiences lapped them up.

The Methodists would not have approved. The National Film Finance Corporation, that had loaned Mancunian £50,000 was sniffy. After a run of shoe-string productions, from “Over the Garden Wall” (1950) to “It’s a Grand Life” (1953), the shoestring snapped, and the Dickenson Road Studios were sold to the BBC. Which is why, on 1st January 1964 the Rolling Stones performed “I Wanna Be Your Man” at the opening of the first ever Top of the Pops, in a Methodist chapel on Dickenson Road in Rusholme.

Rusholme 04

Historic
Rusholme
has
high-end
residential
developments
in
the
mix
throughout.
There
are
substantial
Georgian
villas
behind
tall
walls
at
the
top
of
Platt
Lane,
and
smaller
late-Georgian
houses
from
the
1830s
on
Moon
Grove
off
Dickenson
Road.

Wilmslow Road is lined in wonder. Opposite the park is Appleby Lodge, apartments built in the late 1930s in the style called Moderne. Same architect designed the Manchester Apollo Theatre.  Still one of Manchester’s starriest addresses, Appleby Lodge was home from 1943 – 1963 of Sir John Barbirolli conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, and somewhat later, to Steve Coogan, creator of Alan Partridge.

Before
it
was
Curry
Mile,
Rusholme
served
exotic
and
ethnic
food
to
the
adventurous
clients
of
Rusholme.

L’Auberge de France was at 2 – 4 Platt Lane, on the ground floor of mansion flats, each of which had an upstairs room for servants. L’Auberge served Coq au vin and snails in garlic on blue gingham tablecloths from 1964 into the seventies. Around the corner, with its entrance on Grandale Street was Casa Espana, which introduced Manchester to Paella.

Rusholme’s
pubs
were
full
of
Irish
music.
Manchester
University
Halls
of
Residence
spanning
East
of
Wilmslow
Road
into
Victoria
Park
underpinned
a
youthful
and
engaging
scene
that
connected
the
pubs
and
burgeoning
curry
houses.

To the west were the endless straight terraces of working-class houses that chased around Main Road stadium, home of Manchester City FC.

Rusholme and Fallowfield have history, energy, variety, and cauldrons of character. That the cafés, restaurants shops and street life are, today as much Eastern as Southeast Asian is only steps in the road. No promenade in all of Manchester says more about the nature and vitality of the city than the ever-buzzing Wilmslow Road.