Serendipitous Scintilla

manchesterdailyphoto:

The Grosvenor Picture Palace/Footage pub, Oxford Road and Grosvenor Street - in c.1937 and today. 

Here’s a thing I like to do now and then - take photographs of the same subject as historical images to see what’s changed, or what’s stayed the same. The closer I can get them to line up, the better.

Two things make this possible: first, that Manchester’s wonderful architecture, as varied as it is, retains so much of its past, just as much as it makes room for new buildings. Second, the Manchester Local Image Collection (found here, and on Flickr) has such a huge wealth of images available online, and with fantastically useful metadata.

Incidentally, the wonderful building seen above was designed in 1913 by Percy Hothersall and opened in 1915 as a cinema (or ‘picture palace’, a much grander title), when it seated around 1,000. The interior layout is still quite well-preserved, although you do have to brave the wilds of the busy student pub that it is today.

c.1937 photograph by unknown, copyright Manchester Libraries. The image can be found (and prints purchased) via the Local Image Collection website, or on Flickr.

2012 photograph by Paul Capewell, licensed under Creative Commons (see left).

It is excellent to watch the Man United game on that movie screen.

I miss walking to The Footage from my dorm. <3