Little Ireland …….. where once “poverty busied itself” …… and now swish bars mingle with smart apartments

Now, if you are at all interested in the social history of Manchester in the 19th century, sooner or later you will dive into the history of Little Ireland, Angel Meadow, and other bits of the twin cities where “poverty busied itself”.*

Little Ireland, 1844

In the case of Little Ireland that “abomination of desolation” nothing is left, save the street pattern and even that has all but vanished.**

It was in that dip of land, bordered by Oxford Road, and the river, and appears in the writings of Frederick Engels, Dr. Kay and other observers from the 1830s, and 40s.

The authorities tried dealing with the slum, but in the end, it was the march of the railway which swept away a chunk of it.

Until recently it was still possible to trace two of the streets which ran off Great Marlborough Street and which had been absorbed into later industrial buildings.  These were Frank Street and William Street, and like many before me I often wondered down there and tried imperfectly to reconstruct the scene.

Great Marlborough Street, 1971

Both were narrow streets, with nine one up one down back to backs on Frank Street and seven more on William Street which in turn gave off along what was no more than a yard and contained another eight back to backs.

Like other such developments across the city it didn’t even warrant a place name and instead was marked on the map as Johnson’s Buildings.

But at least it was dignified with some sort of description, because the street running parallel, and which contained four more back to backs had no name.

The received knowledge about theses things is that usually streets were named after the builder, or speculative landowner who built the properties.  In the case of our two, this was possibly Mr. William Frank who owned the four properties on William Street and four of the seven on Frank Street which were registered in the Rate Books for 1844.

Poll Book, 1836

From these properties he was deriving a weekly rent of between 2 and 3 shillings a week, which given that he owned ten properties back in 1836 qualified him for a Parliamentary vote.***

And while I know he was at Baxter Street in Hulme in 1836 he as yet doesn’t show up on the census records.  Nor can I track any of his tenants on the 1841 census.  But as always there will be a time lag between the compilation of the Rate Books and the census returns, with that strong possibility that people had moved on.

Great Marlborough Street, 2019

All of which is annoying, given that once we find one tenant, we will find the lot, offering an insight into their occupations, ages, places of birth and their families, which in tun will provide answers to the degree of overcrowding and population density.

Until then we are stuck with those well-known accounts, and a few photographs most of which were taken long after Little Ireland ceased to exist.

So, I will keep plugging away, not least because with every passing year the area is changing, and the Little Ireland I knew back in the 1970s has been transformed again, as Andy Robertson’s picture shows.

Location; Little Ireland

Pictures; Little Ireland, 1844, from the OS of Manchester & Salford, 1844, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ extract from the Poll Book for South Lancashire, 1836, Great Marlborough Street, 1971, H. Milligan, no2174,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and Great Marlborough Street, 2019, from the collection of Andy Robertson

* Roberts Robert, The Classic Slum, Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century, 1971, Pelican edition 1973


**Little Ireland; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Little%20Ireland

***Poll Book, 1836, Rates Book, 1844