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Hulme (pronounced h-yume)today is a suburb of the city of Manchester in England but it was not always so. It gets 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 the Norse invaders from Scandinavia . It is evidenced as a separate community south of the River Medlock from Manchester in C15th map prints. Early history Until the 18th Century it remained a solely a farming area and pictures from the time show an idyllic scene of crops, sunshine and the country life. And remained entirely rural until the Bridgewater Canal was cut and the Industrial Revolution took off in the neighbouring district of Castlefield where the Dukes' canal terminated and containerised transportation of coal and goods was already happening. It was this supply of cheap coal from the Dukes' mines at Worsley that allowed the existing, but primitive and disorganised, textile industry of Manchester to take off. The Industrial Revolution brought jobs to the urban poor in Hulme carrying coals from the 'Starvationer' (very narrow boats) up the sandstone promitory, that gives Manchester its name, to be carted off down Deansgate. Many factories (known locally as mills) and the railway to Hulme, soon followed by thousands of people. Housing had to be built rapidly and space was limited. The mills, the railway and the myriad of smoking chimneys soon poisoned the air and blocked out the sun. The number of people living in Hulme went up 50-fold in the first half of the 19th Century and the rapid building of housing for them meant the living conditions were dreadful, the sanitation non-existent and deadly diseases were rampant. By 1844 the situation had grown so serious that Manchester Borough Council (now Manchester City Council ) had to pass a law banning further building. However, those that were already built continued to be lived in and many were still in use in the 20th century. In 1904 Henry Royce and Charles Stewart Rolls met and decided to start to build cars - and chose Hulme for their first Rolls-Royce factory though moving to Derby shortly afterwards. Many street names echo this period, such as Royce Road and Rolls Crescent, though the Royce pub with its ceramic historical 'mural' was razed for modern flats. Modern history By the start of the 1960s England had begun to remove many of the 19th century 'slums' and consequently most of Hulme was demolished. The style of the 1960s was for high rise living in tower blocks and curved rows of low-rise flats (the 'crescents', architecturally based on Bath!) where motor vehicles remained on ground level with pedestrians on concrete walkways overhead ('cities in the sky'); where high-density housing was balanced with large green spaces and trees below, and the pedestrian got priority on the ground over cars. The buildings were winners of several design awards and had some notable first occupants such as Nico and Alain Delon. However they introduced further problems, in their turn, after the back-to-backs. Design flaws and the Oil Crisis meant that heating was too expensive and these flats soon became notorious for being cold, damp and riddled with cockroaches and other vermin. Including the tenants as standards went intyo freefall as decent tenants moved out as the new Housing Act allowed anyone a Council flat drug problems and crime rates soared. Soon the Counicl was reduced to handing out keys to all-comers to fill their empties and keys went from squatter to squatter making a mockery of any attempt to manage the properties. For the 60s redevelopment, the neighbourliness of the previously cramped housing conditions had been shattered and any sense of community with it. The council scattered the existing communities in Hulme to the four winds of Greater Manchester, though a lot were sent to Wythenshawe, a large overspill estate. Soon the area became inhospitable for many, too run-down with no chance of improvements or repairs for others, and just perfect for others who were happy to do their own repairs, and to improve the area themselves. In the 70s many punks, musicians and artists lived in Hulme, cheap housing was available to nurses, students and other single people as families increasingly moved out. It made it a very lively place and the club on Royce road had bands such as Iggy Pop playing on weekends. It had a hard edge but did not tip into unlivable until a while later. it was tough on the mix of people to have a drummer who stayed up all night next to an elderly person who had nowhere to move to .Being able to afford a three bedroom flat and walking distance of town made up for the hassle for some of the time. Drugs and red lining the area made it increasingly dangerous. There were also race riots with the SLP and locals incolved. I remember black Marias with the dorrs open police beating the walls with truncheons and chanting. There seemed a lot of distance and fear between locals and police.Various govt initiatives lived in the shopping center to promote jobs etc but they never seemed to achieve a lot.there were some great people and some great parties amongst it all.Grants arms had a huge cockney manager who greeted you with Hows yer belly for spots before pulling a pint of Boddingtons. Unemployment was very high just saying you were from Hulme or Moss Side gave you a great disadvantage when job hunting. Police didn't want to crack down on the drugs as "it just moved the problem"You could not get credit easily either with this zip code and greater Manchester was still pretty racist and judgemental about the community mix in Hulm and Moss Side. Many families that had lived there a long time were trying to make a go of it but incresingly pushed out and the drug houses would push out the families around them. This is shown in the records from the housing dept of the time. We alawys thought it funny that the huge ugly crescent blocks were named after famous architects such as John Nash.When the press and others started visiting for articles like the Bronx of Britain it was a strange feeling and added to the decay. This large squatting community set up community newsletters, pirate radio stations, grand music and firework celebrations, and looked after their neighbours. They also tried to prevent the council's destruction of various community assets - the Victorian Turkish baths, the independent cinema, and so on. The area was the powerhouse behind the Manchester music and creative scenes of the eighties, that in turn influenced the UK and the world. Unfortunately the lawlessness that went with the change in occupation meant it was a no-go area for most. Thus, in the early 1990s, Hulme started its third incarnation when the 1960s housing experiment was demolished and replaced with a new experiment - conventional two-storey houses with gardens and small two or three storey blocks of managed apartments. Some of these were built by Housing Associations to provide social housing and others by private developers for owner-occupation or private landlords. The new 'incomers' (with large incomes) have felt little sense of community responsibility, unlike both the back-to-backs and the crescents, commute in their cars, and shop at Hulme High Street Ltd (huge Walmart Asda and the like) meaning small shops come and close, and the next-door new market struggles to survive. Government and European Community grants have helped to 'regenerate' Hulme and property prices have increased rapidly out of reach of most of the original community as it returned to being seen as a desirable place to live. A restricted number of social housing schemes have allowed some of the original residents to return but many could not now afford to come back. Today Changing the reputation of Hulme that was gained in the 1970s and 1980s has been a long process. A large green area, the Birley Fields, has been destroyed for a series of big empty office blocks, with numerous empty promises of employment. There was a community campaign to save some of this space for continued community usage, centred on the 180 year old rare black poplar, The Birley Tree - eventually the council managed to chop it down for a planned hotel, which never came. The original well-used market was destroyed for the latest redevelopment, the stall-holders messed about for years, and it was replaced by a privately-run French market, attempting to cater for the aspirational housing market that the council was trying to create - it closed down, partly due to the marketing, partly due to it being next door to Asda, and is now run by the stall-holders trying to provide for the poorer people who still live around it in Hulme and Moss Side . The sports complex still exists though many pubs have been replaced by bars or expensive housing developments. There are a few hopeful signs of community spirit, from the Community Garden Centre to the Homes for Change large housing co-op with ethical workspaces opposite, the People's Kitchen often weekly community meal, People First Community Based Housing Association and campaigns to save the last remaining green spaces. Hulme is only 20 minutes walk from the main financial and shopping areas of Manchester and so it has become a popular place to live for a new generation of city dwellers; students of the University Of Manchester are also feeling safe enough to lodge in the area; however a few of the community-minded people of yesteryear still hang on. It is a very diverse place both ethnically (the main groups being white and Afro-Caribbean ), in age spread and lifestyle. Re-building and expansion of the area is still taking place (2006). Famous People From Hulme . Alan Igbon . An actor of West African and Irish descent. He is best known for playing Loggo in Alan Bleasdale 's television drama 'Boy's From 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 Local band involved in squatting scene and first 'punk's picnics' in 1980's - still playing and hosting 'hulmanoids.com' - which contains some hulme archives. Lemn Sissay Published poet, presenter on radio 4 Kevin Davy Jazz cornet player. Find out More Hulme has a lively online portal, which includes an interactive notice board, discussion forums, picture archives and many contemporary articles about current news and events. If you would like to join in the discussions or use the portal , then use theses links |
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