Introduction

Botanical Gardens gate, The Mirror, 3 March 1832.png

Entrance to the Botanical Gardens, The Mirror, 3 March 1832

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.

Introduction