Henshaw's Blind Asylum Henshaw's Blind Asylum
occupied a site beside Boyer Street in Old
Trafford. Today the site is home to Greater
Manchester Police Headquarters and dominated by its
multi-storey office block called Chester House (seen on
the far left beyond the Old Trafford Football Ground).
In 1837 it was home to Henshaws' Blind Asylum, named after Thomas Henshaw, an Oldham hatmaker, whose bequest had made the institution possible. Beside it a Deaf and Dumb School was added also in 1837. At that time the school and asylum sat next door to the Botanic Garden. Twenty years later, in
1857, the serene Botanic Gardens became the site of the
Art Treasures Exhibition, which attracted 1.3 million
visitors over 142 days. After the Exhibition
closed, the site was transformed into the White City
Amusement Park.
Below you can see the
buildings in 1953 by which time the White City Amusement
Park had long since gone and the only remnant of the
site was the stadium, seen at the bottom of the
image. If you compare the map with the aerial
photograph you will note that by 1953 additional
buildings had been added to Henshaws.
In the image below Henshaws is indicated by the red dot. Henshaw's are still
prominent in the education of the blind but the asylum
and deaf and dumb school in Old Trafford closed long
ago. The buildings were demolished in 1972.
In 1979 Greater Manchester Police moved into the site
establishing it as their Headquarters. Ironically
they are due to move out in 2011 to take up residence in
a new building in Newton Heath.
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