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Then and Now: Moss Side

Alexandra Road today without the terraces and shops

Manchester's most famous inner suburb started as marshy fields, then filled up with overflow housing for poor Irish and Welsh arrivals during the mid-19th century.

Former prime minister Lloyd George was born in Moss Side in 1863 and renowned German thinker Frederick Engels rented rooms here for his secret Irish girlfriend, Mary Burns.

In the 20th century the area became home to a thriving immigrant community.

As it was in 1960

Loreto College, which is near St Mary's Church, was the workplace of Oscar-nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite who taught at the convent in the 1960s before entering drama school.

Alexandra Road was an important shopping street for residents and was popular with the West Indian community, who also established their own night-time strip of clubs, restaurants, cafes and houses.

The vibrancy and bustle of the area disappeared when, in the 1960s and 1970s, the district was flattened for tower blocks.

These days this stretch of Alexandra Road has virtually no shops or cafes and the only landmark remaining is St Mary's Church, which has the tallest spire in Manchester.

The photograph above is part of a collection of 77,000 images chronicling the changing face of Manchester. These are stored on an easy to use computer at the Central Library.

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