Hulme
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| Hulme | |
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  Hulme shown within Greater Manchester |
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| Metropolitan borough | City of Manchester |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan county | Greater Manchester |
| Region | North West |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | MANCHESTER |
| Postcode district | M15 |
| Dial code | 0161 |
| Police | Greater Manchester |
| Fire | Greater Manchester |
| Ambulance | North West |
| European Parliament | North West England |
| List of places: UK • England • Greater Manchester | |
Hulme is a district and electoral ward of the City of Manchester, in North West, England.
Just south of Manchester city centre, it is a predominantly residential suburb with a significant industrial past.
Contents |
[edit] Geography and administration
Hulme is represented on Manchester City Council by Councillors Mary Murphy, Vanessa Hall and Nigel Murphy
Hulme neighbours Moss Side.
[edit] History
[edit] Etymology
The area received its name from the Danish expression for a small island surrounded by water or marshland which, in fact, it probably was when it was first settled by Norse invaders from Scandinavia.[citation needed]
[edit] Early history
Hulme was evidenced as a separate community south of the River Medlock from Manchester in 15th century map prints.[citation needed]
Until the 18th century it remained a solely a farming area, and pictures from the time show an idyllic scene of crops, sunshine and country life. The area remained entirely rural until the Bridgewater Canal was cut and the Industrial Revolution swept economic change through the neighbouring district of Castlefield where the Dukes' canal terminated, and containerised transportation of coal and goods rose as an industry to support the growing textile industries of Manchester. It was this supply of cheap coal from the Dukes' mines at Worsley that allowed the textile industry of Manchester to grow.
[edit] Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution eventually brought development to the area, and jobs to the urban poor in Hulme carrying coal from the 'Starvationer' (very narrow canal boats), to be carted off along Deansgate.
Many cotton mills and a railway link to Hulme soon followed, and thousands of people came to work in the rapidly expanding mills in the city. Housing therefore had to be built rapidly, and space was limited. Hulme's growth in many ways was a "victim of its own success", with hastily built, low-quality housing interspersed with the myriad smoking chimneys of the mills and the railway, resulting in an extremely low quality of life for residents. Reports of the time suggest that even in an extremely residential area such as Hulme, at times air quality became so low that poisonous fumes and smoke literally "blocked out the sun" for long periods.
The number of people living in Hulme multiplied 50-fold during the first half of the 19th century and the rapid building of housing to accommodate the population explosion meant the living conditions were of extremely low standard, with sanitation non-existent and rampant spread of disease.[citation needed]
By 1844, the situation had grown so serious that Manchester Borough Council had to pass a law banning further building. However, the thousands of "slum" homes that were already built continued to be lived in, and many were still in use into the first half of the 20th century.
[edit] Recent history
At the end of World War II, the United Kingdom had a need for quality housing, with a rapidly increasing "baby boomer" population increasingly becoming unhappy with the prewar and wartime "austerity" of their lives, and indeed, their living space.
By the start of the 1960s England had begun to remove many of the 19th century slums and consequently, most of the slum areas of Hulme were demolished. The modernist and brutalist architectural style of the period, as well as practicalities of speed and cost of construction dictated high rise "modular" living in tower blocks and "cities in the sky" consisting of deck-access apartments and terraces.
[edit] Crescents
In Hulme, a new and (at the time) innovative design for deck access and tower living was attempted, whereby curved rows of low-rise flats with deck access far above the streets was created, known as the 'Crescents' (which were, ironically, architecturally based on terraced housing in Bath). In this arrangement, motor vehicles remained on ground level with pedestrians on concrete walkways overhead, above the smoke and fumes of the street.
High-density housing was balanced with large green spaces and trees below, and the pedestrian had priority on the ground over cars. The 60s redevelopment of Hulme split the area's new council housing into a number of sections. Hulme 2 was the area between Jackson Crescent and Royce Road. Hulme 3 was between Princess Road and Boundary Road based along the pedestrianised Epping Walk, Hulme 4 was between Princess Road and Royce Road and Hulme 5 - the 'Cresents' themselves were between Royce Rolls and Rolls Cresent.
The names of the 'Crescents' gave a nod to the Georgian era, being named after architects of that time: Robert Adam Crecscent, Charles Barry Crescent, William Kent Crescent and John Nash Crescent, together with Hawksmoor Close (a small straight block of similar design attached to Charles Barry Crescent).
At the time, the 'Crescents' won several design awards, and introduced technologies such as underfloor heating to the masses. They were also popular because they were some of the first council homes in Manchester to have central heating. The development even had some notable first occupants, such as Nico and Alain Delon.
However, what eventually turned out be recognised as poor design, workmanship, and maintenance meant that the crescents introduced their own problems. Design flaws and unreliable "system build" construction methods, as well as the 1970s Oil Crisis meant that heating the poorly insulated homes became too expensive for its low income residents, and the crescents soon became notorious for being cold, damp and riddled with cockroaches and other vermin.
Crime and drug abuse became a significant problem in Hulme, as police did not patrol the long, often dark decks, due the fact that they were not officially considered streets. The decks made muggings and burglary relatively easy, as any crime could be carried out in almost total privacy, with no hope for quick assistance from police below.
The crescents became troublesome very shortly after their construction - within a decade, they were declared "unfit for purpose", and several plans were drawn up that suggested various differing types of renovation and renewal for the blocks, including splitting the buildings into smaller, more manageable structures by removing sections.
After over 25 years, the decision was made in the early 1990s to demolish the blocks completely and replace them with more traditional housing. See 1990s regeneration of Hulme.
[edit] Rolls Royce
Famously, In 1904, two businessmen known as Henry Royce and Charles Stewart Rolls created a business partnership after meeting at Manchester's Midland Hotel and decided to start to build their own versions of the relatively new invention of the motor car - and chose Hulme for their first Rolls-Royce factory, though moving to Derby shortly afterwards.
Many street names in the current Hulme commemorate this little piece of history, such as Royce Road and Rolls Crescent, though the Royce public house, a popular drinking establishment with a distinctive ceramic historical 'mural' was razed for the creation of modern flats, in the 1990s regeneration of Hulme.
[edit] Present day
Changing the reputation of Hulme that was gained in the 1970s and 1980s has been a long process, but one that appears to be being achieved. A green area, the Birley Fields, has been partly developed for a series of office blocks, and partly retained as urban parkland. The office development houses companies such as Michelin, Laing O'Rourke, and the University of Manchester data centre.
Once significant part of 1970s Hulme that still exists is the Moss Side Sports and Leisure Complex. Upgraded for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the centre has a gym and a variety of other sporting facilities.
Hulme is only 20 minutes walk from Manchester city centre, and so has become a popular place to live for a new generation of city dwellers; students of the University of Manchester are also choose to live in many of the student-focused residential developments in the area.[citation needed]
Hulme also enjoys a very diverse population, both ethnically (the main groups being White British and British Afro-Caribbean), and in age spread and lifestyle.[citation needed]
[edit] Notable residents
- Alan Igbon. An actor of West African and Irish descent. He is best known for playing Loggo in Alan Bleasdale's television drama 'Boys from the Blackstuff', set in recession ravaged, early eighties Liverpool.
- Morrissey spent his childhood in Hulme and neighbouring Moss Side. He released a video compilation entitled 'Hulmerist'.
- Hulmanoids; a local band involved in squatting scene and first 'punk's picnics' in 1980s - still playing and hosting 'hulmanoids.com' - which contains some Hulme archives.
- Lemn Sissay Published poet, presenter on radio 4
- Kevin Davy Jazz cornet player.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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