When Manchester’s Central Library reopens in St Peter’s Square in 2013 it will be home not only to shed loads of books but also a new repository for the region’s archive and family history collections. Bringing the city region’s records together under one roof for the very first time.

Until that time the Greater Manchester County Record Office (with Manchester Archives) is undertaking Manchester Archive+ a project to inspire community engagement with archives through Web 2.0 technologies.

One such example will be hitting Tib Street in the coming weeks when the Manchester Archive+ team will be sticking QR codes to buildings and shops on this Northern Quarter street. These will be linked to historic photographs of the area, so you can step back in time and get a peek of what life was like before Centro, Northern Flower and Bread & Butter.

Image c/o Cornflake Couture licensed under Creative Commons.