Charming street is trip down memory lane where cottages owned by single family
It’s one of Greater Manchester’s most affluent suburbs, brimming with independent bakeries, shops and cafes, so it’s little wonder that Didsbury is also one of the most covetable postcodes to live in.
If you walk down Wilmslow Road, you’ll find everything from sweet shops and cheesemakers, to trendy fashion boutiques and snug pubs. As well as tree-lined streets, buzzing bars and brunch spots, Didsbury also boasts a fascinating history.
The earliest recorded reference dates back to 1235 when a chapel was allowed to be built here. And, up until the Industrial Revolution, having developed into a small agricultural hamlet, it was a ‘sub-manor’ of Withington.
The onset of the 19th Century brought great change, as businessmen who had benefited from the onset of industrialization built large villas and country houses around Didsbury. The largest, The Towers, was owned by John Edward Taylor, proprietor of the Manchester Guardian
Tucked away just behind The Dog & Partridge Pub, you’ll find a relic of the olden times -Warburton Street, a cobbled lane thought to be the oldest street in Didsbury. It is just a two minute walk from the tram stop, with its original cobbled surface and historic grid covers.
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One side of the charming avenue features four tiny cottages, some which have been converted into businesses, including The Village Physio with its bold electric blue doors and sign, while others remain residential. At the far end, which leads onto Ogden Lane and overlooks the tram stop, are newer properties housing a gift shop, Pilates studio, design centre and hairdressers.
Didsbury Library, Wilmslow Road, was built in 1915 and opened by the late Alderman Fletcher Moss (Mirrorpix)The Manchester Evening News reported that, opposite, old cottages that were once lived in now house businesses including an interiors shop, a neighbourhood restaurant, and a very special bookshop with its own fascinating history. Eric Morten, a bookseller and publisher, set up his bookshop - EJ Morten Booksellers - in the front room of number 4, now the restaurant, in 1959.
He went on to purchase all of the even numbered houses along the street, creating a mecca for book lovers. Today, his son John runs and owns the same bookshop from number six, and the rest of the cottages have all been separated off into different units, which are owned by the rest of Eric’s extended family and rented out to the various other independent businesses.
John said: "The Mortens as a family have been bookselling in Manchester for over a hundred years, over at Shudehill market in the 1920s and 1930s, right up to when they knocked it down. Then my dad set up here in the late 1950s."
“At one time (the bookshop) was the whole street,” he adds, pointing to an old cartoon-like drawing by post-war and contemporary artist Albin Trowski, which shows the street as it was in the 1970s, filled with people perusing books along the whole length of the cobbled lane."
“In the 1980s dad decided he wanted to rent off some of the buildings so chopped them back up into different units, and that’s what we’ve got today."
Along with the bookshop at number six, John now personally owns some of the buildings across the road. On whether his bookshop is in fact situated on Didsbury oldest street, John adds: “It well could be. I did some research a while ago and it’s sometime around 1740 to 1760 it was established, and the buildings a bit later.
“My dad initially rented the buildings from a lady whose family owned Manchester Racecourse, and because she was getting old and he had been a good tenant they let him buy it. The units have been lots of different things, one used to repair slot machines, another used to be an antique shop, one was a video shop for a while.
He added: "It’s all quite quaint really, people will say 'oh Didsbury and the cobbled street'. We even had a Didsbury light switch on and there were hundreds of people down here - and we have our own Christmas tree too, there’s a real sense of community along here.”
The bookshop, albeit smaller now than it was some fifty years ago, still remains important for booklovers and offers a wide range of new and antiquarian books. John travels the world to find rare books and literary treasures. He says: “We have new books and then a second-hand department of rarer stuff. I do fairs all over the place and source books for people, as well as working with institutions and libraries.”
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