Future plan for parade left in limbo
PROPOSAL SUBMITTED FOR SUPERMARKET AND HEALTH CENTRE IN DERELICT AREA
SURROUNDED by new housing developments in Salford, just a stone’s throw away from the city centre, Mocha Parade is a place which time has forgotten.
The derelict shopping parade built on the banks of the River Irwell has been in decline for a decade as some businesses went bust while others relocated.
After years in limbo, plans for a new Lidl supermarket and a health centre combining two GP practices have been submitted to Salford council.
The empty shops are all boarded up now, with the last three businesses left - Heron Foods, K’s Chemist and greengrocers McEvilly - leaving late last year.
The site could be cleared later this year, with work set to start in the summer.
But while demolition of this ‘eyesore’ will be welcomed by many, some look back with fond memories of what was once a ‘thriving’ community hub.
Lynne Walker, who has worked at K’s Chemist for nearly 30 years, can still name all the businesses that were on the parade when she started the job.
With a post office, fishmonger, clothes shop, newsagent, chip shop, bookies, butcher, bank, dentist, doctors and two chemists,
Mocha Parade offered the people of Lower Broughton everything they needed right on their doorstep.
Kwik Save closing was a turning point, Lynne says, and in the decades that followed, shops fell like dominoes - turning the parade into a ghost town.
“Now we’ve got nothing,” she said. K’s Chemist moved out of Mocha Parade at the end of 2020, relocating to a unit across the road, next door to the Oasis Aquarium in Great Clowes Street.
But Joe Wagner, who also works at the pharmacy, is still called ‘Mocha Joe’ by his colleagues - a nickname he was known as by many in the community.
“It’s been absolutely awful to see such a thriving community hub go,” he said.
“We’ve seen a lot of old faces disappear.”
The new health centre would serve 13,000 patients registered at Mocha Parade Medical Practice and Lower Broughton Health Centre, as well as accommodating community health services for the Salford Royal NHS trust.