Sunday 29 January 2017

Down on Auburn Street by the canal ......... around the corner from Aytoun Street

Now the old brick building on Aytoun Street which in my day was the Unemployment Exhange has gone.

I passed pretty much every day during the week in the early 1970s.

It was planned in the late 30s, held up by the war and completed in 1951 taking three years to build.

At the time I rather thought it ugly and would have agreed with  Pevsner who described it as “brick, thin and cheap.”

Near the end of its life it was run down and not very nice to look at, but casting an eye over old pictures of the place I have to say it had something.

And for those who want to do just that I recommend that thoughtful and always interesting site on Manchester by Skyliner.*

For now I shall close with images taken by my old friend Andy Robertson who was there in 2015 when construction begun after the Labour Exchange had been cleared and was back yesterday to record the new structure.

Location; Auburn Street, Manchester

Pictures; Auburn Street, 2015 and 2017 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*AYTOUN STREET EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGEhttp://www.theskyliner.org/aytoun-street-employment-exchange/





No comments:

Post a Comment