Well, we started off in what was called Granada House in Water Street, you know the building in Water Street? It’s now the Royal Bank of Scotland, opposite the college. Because the offices were there, the first studio like where they are now, across from Quay Street, but the next one was the main entrance on Quay Street, next door to it was a petrol station. So you had the petrol station there, and then along the side of Atherton Street were all these small garage, repairs, servicing. There mist have been about seven or eight companies in these ramshackle old buildings, you know. It was only a few years later when Granada had bought them and cleared them all out and built the building that’s there now, where the main reception used to be until a few years ago. But yes, like I said, the post room at the time was in what was called Granada House, which was right at the bottom. If you go down Quay Street, you know when you come to the Globe and Simpson building, turn right there, and right again onto Water Street, on the right hand side, as Water Street goes right down on the left, it also crosses over, and if you just go down there… I had a walk round last year actually, just to see, because it’s changed so much round that area. The college is still there, just before the river, just this side of the Irwell, is a college, and then facing it now is the Royal Bank of Scotland. The actual building has been knocked down, it was just a three-storey building, and on the corner there was a pub actually called the Bollocking Donkey, which one or two people used to pop into. Like I said, it was three storeys, not a very big building, and accounts was on the top, that’s Frank Clarke on the top floor with a chap called Roy Montrose, the two of them, they were like the… they were probably the accounts department at the time.
So it was a small, close-knit group?
It would be. Have you ever seen the Year One book? I’ve got one at home somewhere. If I remember rightly, it’s got a list of the Granada staff from the opening night, and there’s quite a lot in there when you look through it, if you come across a copy sometime, have a look – there are quite a lot of names there.
