Which brewery was that, Greengate Girl? I remember there being one in Strangeways as we could smell it from our school - it smelled just like the cornflake pie we had for school dinners sometimes. Was there another one further up Cheetham Hill, or was the Levy Brothers' warehouse near the Strangeways brewery?
I'm told Cheetham Hill has changed enormously since I left in 1973. I only remember the good old days when, as Blusal says, we had nowt but were happy. Those days seemed destined to end with the demolition of the big, older houses on Heywood Street and around.
There used to be an Irish club, the Ardri or Airdrie (it means High King, in Gaelic), situated near the Ice rink. I went there once with a cousin but it didn't really get going until around midnight and we had to leave by then as we were under age ...!
I remember the Assembly Rooms on Cheetham Hill Rd, with their grand glass canopy, to allow people to alight from carriages and not have their finery rained on. I went to a lovely Polish wedding reception there once. Wonder if it's still standing? There were some hints of grandeur and majesty amongst the shabby old buildings. The Spanish & Portuguese synagogue was also a masterpiece of architecture. The Sephardic community seemed to be much wealthier than the Ashkenazim, or so it seemed to an outsider.
I saw a recent episode of 'Location, Location' where Kirsty and Phil were trying to persuade two chaps to buy a flat in a former warehouse in Cheetham, as it is in a 'regeneration' area, but they thought Cheetham Hill Rd was a bit rough still. So the neighbourhood might still rise from the ashes?