- LOCAL STUDIES & ARCHIVE CENTRE
- EXHIBITIONS
- COLLECTIONS
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GUIDES & RESOURCES
- Interactive map: Trafford Blue Plaques
- The First World War in Trafford - Research Database
- Trafford History Trails
- Guide: Research your British Ancestors using Ancestry
- Guide: Research your Caribbean Ancestors using Ancestry
- Guide: Research your Irish Ancestors using Ancestry
- Guide: Research the History of your House
- Guide: Organising your Family History Research
- Guide: Understanding census records
- 'Get to Know Your Grandparent(s)!' Children's Interview Activity Sheet
- CONTRIBUTE
Introduction
Both the area known today as White City Retail Park and the land around it in Old Trafford have been through many dramatic changes over the last 200 years.
In the nineteenth century the site was home to the Royal Botanical Gardens, and offered an area of greenery and fresh air, away from the smog of Manchester. During this time the Gardens hosted exhibitions of incredible scale that were attended by millions of visitors.
When interest in the Gardens waned in the early twentieth century, the site was taken over by White City Amusement Park, giving it the name it still bears today. Punters could enjoy the thrills of water chutes, toboggans and a scenic railway that had been installed in the park, or more troublingly could ogle the ‘natives’ of a Filipino village.
After this came the greyhound track — which many local people will still remember — and then finally the retail park. The white gates that marked the entrance to the gardens still stand as a reminder of the site’s botanical past.