Friday, September 14, 2012

First M&SE Co-op Premises

M&S Co-op 1859 & 1909 Got lots of photos in the archive, and it's about time some of them were published. The first premises of the Manchester & Salford Equitable Co-op were rented at 168 Great Ancoats Street in Manchester in 1859. That's the little building shown as an inset.

The bigger premises are the Central Stores and Head Office on Downing Street, Ardwick and opened in 1864. Obviously the photographs were not snapped in those years, and probably date from around 1909 when the Society celebrated 50 years.

Here's a note about how the meaning of language changes. If you lived in Manchester in the years before the 1960's then M&S would refer to the Manchester & Salford and not Marks & Spencer. That famous company was often referred to as Marks & Sparks. Downing Street would mean the road in Ardwick. It was not used in the media to mean the home of the Prime Minister. They would make reference simply to No.10.

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