Home City Centre Midgate New Road and Midgate (1960s)

New Road and Midgate (1960s)

Looking back up Midgate from the point it becomes New Road with Swans Place heading off to the immediate right. Fredrick Morley and Co Ltd are on the corner, at number 16 Midgate. They were an outfitters and pawnbroker. The sign for the Swan Public House can be seen behind the pawnbroker sign on Morley’s. On the other side of the road is Bullman’s Gents Hairdresser, the Smiths Arms (a Steward and Patterson pub), A & W Foulis Ltd. (children’s outfitters) and then Manders Paints Ltd.

From our Facebook group ……..

  • Judith Gow Oh my goodness, I remember my dad taking me to have my hair cut in Bullmans….a gents hairdressers!!! also going to Manders to buy paint and wallpaper. Any idea when Bullmans closed?
  • George Meadows Along there to the left was Radford’s Fruit and Nut shop.
  • Penny Fower O dear for the chance of a new town Peterborough lost so much history
  • Sue Kiddle Mamone Remember Manders but not much else.
  • Sue Kiddle Mamone It is only the villages that have been saved…thankfully.
  • Ruth Smith I think if morleys was no 16 that means the building opposite must have been the dominion cafe at no 17 Midgate
  • George Meadows You are right Ruth, the numbers in Midgate are a bit unusual, they go down one side from Broadway to Morley’s No 16 and then across the road to the Dominion No 17 which later became the Wheel Cafe, and then back up to Long Causeway, instead of having odds one side and evens the other.
  • Trudie Meadows George Meadows I think it was the Wheel Café before it became the Dominion.
  • George Meadows Iv’e just looked it up and it was the Dominion in 1940/1952 and was the Wheel in 1958, but in 1969 just came  under the owners name, Kitchener, so must have been renamed the Dominion then.
  • Ruth Smith I think we sorted that out on another post George , but I had no photos of it , only in my mind , it’s great to see it I can remember the 2 stone steps down into the shop , Maurice & Daisy Kitchener owned it
  • George Meadows We did Ruth, just wanted to remind myself as I couldn’t understand the numbering! I am disappointed that no one has commented on Radford’s the fruiterers. At Christmas they had a sign in the window “This is the nut shop” – there were three brothers that I knew of, one ran the shop, one used to push his barrow up Westgate many times a day to buy from us, and one stayed at home in Brook Street and nobody ever saw him!
  • Doreen Campbell Wasn’t there a fruit and veg shop think 60s on Broadway and  Midgate  was it Needles . That seems to ring a bell.
  • George Meadows Dick Foster was on the corner of Broadway and Midgate later moving to opposite Sheltons, Needles was in Long Causeway near the Bird in Hand.
  • Doreen Campbell Thanks knew there was a Needles somewhere
  • George Meadows They also has a shop in Millfield and a market stall. The names I can remember are Chris Barker and Jack Dove, Mosher Needle I was told lost his life in a motor accident on the A47 Leicester Road. Not sure who the owner of the business was but a Mr Wall from London appeared on the scene in the early 60’s, perhaps he was a relative.
  • Alan Cunnington George Meadows I can remember Radfords you had to make sure the big fella there didn’t sneeze in your bag of apples lol. Also used to go to Bulmans for my haircut, and the wife worked at Manders, when she first left school.
  • George Meadows Did Manders move to Westgate later on Alan Cunnington? If so would your wife have remembered a Mrs Walker there?
  • Alan Cunnington George They had two shops one in Midgate and one in Westgate Mrs Walker certainly in Westgate and the wife knew her well.
  • George Meadows Mrs Walkers husband Charlie was a salesman with GM Ltd Alan, he taught me a lot about the fruit trade.
  • Karen Sparkes What would the view be today?
  • Alan Cunnington Karen Sparkes This google shot is not far off.
Alan Cunnington's photo.
  • Richard Morris Oh how its changed , in my opinion not for the better – the character of the street has disappeared !!!!
  • Stuart Goodliffe probably the worst part of the city centre now. And having to drive through there most days, the positioning of the zebra crossing is awful and considering the lack of traffic hardly necessary.
  • Sue Kiddle Mamone Spot on Stuart !
  • Christine Wadsley Cunningham I used to go to Needles at Millfield with my Gran. She called that shopping
    area ‘The Top’
  • Karen Sparkes Thanks Alan…I drive up to this road every day to work, turning left into the Wheel Yard that leads to the Cathedral Precincts.  I never would have guessed that was the same scene.
  • George Meadows I had wondered where Wheel Yard was. In the 1952 it is listed between Morley’s No 16 and the Dominion No 17 – it is an odd way of numbering as I mentioned in my post 3rd May.
  • Ruth Smith Hence the Dominion was called the wheel cafe first after wheel yard
  • Karen Sparkes Curious to know why this area is called the Wheel Yard now.  Anyone?