IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Wellington Road, MANCHESTER, M16 8EX

This building, part of St Bede's College, is called the Henshaw building. This was constructed circa 1930s and housed Science laboratories.

This piece of grassed-over land behind the railings used to be occupied by some large houses. The land is part of St Bede's College. See http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/633140 for pictures of the houses

This semi detached Victorian house at 7 Wellington Road no longer exists, nor do any of the houses on this side of the road. St Bede's College - the "Beck" building is visible in the background - bought the houses and the ground is now part of the school. Snow in Whalley Range, Manchester, was a rare event.

The house on the far left, No 5, was owned by St Bede's College, the main buildings of which are situated on the opposite side of Wellington Road. This house was used in the distant past for the preparatory class of pupils at the school - the "Lower Third". The next house, number 7 was owned by the Salford Diocese and was rented out. An author, H W Timperley who wrote "A Cotswold Book" lived at 7 Wellington Road in June 1929. L S Lowry contributed twelve drawings for this book and corresponded with H W Timperley at this address. See http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/download/GB%200425%20u52 The other houses were privately owned. The land at the end of this side of the road was owned by the College, which later acquired all these properties which were then demolished. This road used to be unadopted, but was later tarmaced in the 1970's? by the local authority. Also see Image] Image] Image]

The St Regis building was part of the complex of buildings which formed the Cenacle Convent. This building was later used by the school opposite, St Bede's College, which also acquired land along Wellington Road. I believe that the top floor was used as dormitory accommodation by the nuns of the order.

Up to the 1970s, this road in Whalley Range was unadopted, so had potholes and dirt/gravel pavements, etc. In the Autumn, none of this mattered when the leaves were falling from the lime trees and the road took on a park-like appearance. Alexandra Park, a Victorian creation, lies at the end of the road. Also see Image] Image]

The St Bede's College Beck building was constructed in around 1958 and cost £100,000. As well as classrooms, it provided a new refectory.

The main College building on Alexandra Road South. Originally, the intention was for the Building to be symmetrical, but presumably funds did not permit this, so building was ended just beyond the halfway stage.

The Cenacle convent building was based on a French design with a large bell tower. The convent was originally designed to be more or less self sufficient, with large grounds containing fruit trees, greenhouses, poultry sheds, etc. Economic considerations led to the building being demolished in the 1970s, leaving the order running a retreat house on the site. Some of the other buildings were used by the St Bede's College nearby and later large parts of the grounds were sold. A housing development was built on this in about 2006. This photo was taken from the house at 7 Wellington Road, which has now been demolished. Also see Image] Image] Had this convent survived into the 1990s, I feel sure that it would have been converted into architect designed apartments. The ones in the bell tower would have had immense views. A church not far away from here - St Edmunds - opposite to Alexandra Park, now houses many unique apartments. And St Edmunds was not in the same architectural league as the Cenacle Convent. Also see Image] and Image]