Manchester - Titanics

Joseph Abraham Hyman established Titanics in 1913, a year after the famous ship Titanic sank. He was a passenger on the Titanic and managed to survive, he was going to America to set up a new life. His wife and five children were due to follow on from Manchester, but after the disaster neither Joseph nor his family wanted to go on a boat! Eventually friends got him drunk and put him on a boat back to England!

Back home Joseph started a business which became a delicatessen similar to ones he'd seen in America. People used to whisper "there goes the man from the Titanic" and before long the business was known as Titanics. Today the business is run by Joseph's great grandson and the shop still has memorabilia from that fateful voyage:

There's also old photographs from the area, and even old street signs. One customer I spoke to, who was born and bred in the area, hadn't noticed the street signs. The signs have been up for over 20 years, maybe she was too busy looking at the food?
The main attraction is the deli counter.
There's a large Jewish community in the area, and you can buy traditional Jewish food like Kugels:

chopped liver

and falafel.

Most of the deli items, including the smoked salmon, are prepared in house.

I was a bit intrigued by the "bug free" iceberg lettuce:

I used to know a horticultural adviser who used to look for aphids on lettuce (to make sure it hadn't had too many sprays)! I gather that in this case they'd been checked by the Manchester Beth Din for religious reasons.

They sell white eggs:

There's a kosher butcher:

They also sell whole marinated herrings:

and their own pickled cucumbers:

As you leave the shop, there's a large poster with information about Joseph Abraham Hyman and the Titanic disaster:

J A Hyman (Titanics) Ltd

123-129 Waterloo Road

Cheetham

Manchester

M8 8BT

Tel: 0161 792 1888

Fax: 0161 792 7670

Web: www.titanics.co.uk

Email: info@titanics.co.uk