IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Broadway, MANCHESTER, M40 3PA

In the 1960s, this building housed a chemist's department where Colin Bickley is now established and - if memory serves - was affiliated to the Co-operative movement.

The A663, Broadway, just after it crosses Moston Lane East, entering Manchester at New Moston.

Some of the shops south of Broadway Baths have mainly sustained the same trades for the past 50 years. Under its 1960s owners, the grocery store was something of an innovator, providing both the first "mini market" (i.e. a diminutive self-service supermarket) in the local area and "Green Shield" trading stamps, an early form of loyalty scheme. The bookmakers seems to have been there for ever.

Otherwise known as "Broadway Baths", the building dates from the 1930s and is proudly adorned with the City of Manchester's crest. Two separate baths were provided, each marked by a peaked roof. Generations of schoolchildren from New Moston and Chadderton learned to swim here - whether they wanted to or not.

All four corners of the junction between the two roads were provided with shops as part of the design when Broadway was built in the late 1920s. There were traditionally a few niggles between those shops on this (Manchester) side of Moston Lane East and those on the north side which benefited from rather lower business rates from Oldham council. Under various names, a chip shop and newsagent have been in business in the same premises for at least 50 years. The curry take-away is rather more recent.

The narrowing of the central reservation dates from Broadway's construction in the late 1920s. The section from Oldham Road (Failsworth) to Moston Lane East was designed with a wide island which could be used to accommodate trams clear of the tarmac, though no tracks were ever laid. Similar designs were applied within the City of Manchester for Kingsway (A34) and Princess Parkway (A5103). Beyond Moston Lane East, jurisdiction passed to Oldham who authorised a conventional four-lane highway, but retained the leasehold for a distance either side of the road's edge with a view to widening the road should it be required.

A view down Broadway (the A663) from the corner of Heppleton Road, in the New Moston area of Manchester - close to the city's border with Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham - in Greater Manchester, England.

All four corners of the junction between the two roads were provided with shops as part of the design when Broadway was built in the late 1920s. In the 1960s, "Incredible Edibles" was a greengrocer's shop, while what appears to be an ordinary terraced house behind the post box was really New Moston post office. The latter was moved to Hollinwood Avenue in the 1980s.