Hulme shapes ……..

There will be many who do not know the old Hulmes.

And I say the old Hulmes, because over thirty years ago Hulme was the place of the deck access properties with their idea of homes between the stars, all of which went horribly wrong.

Before that Hulme, there were the densely packed streets of terraced housing mostly built in the 19th century, which had obliterated a rural area which could boast on old manor house, at least one farm and what some accounts describe as a pleasant place to stroll.

But the Duke’s Canal cut in the 1760s into the heart of the city, offered opportunities for  entrepreneurs looking to use the waterway as a means of transporting raw materials and manufactured goods from textile mills, dye works, saw works, and timber yards.

So that by the late 1840s,the area south of Chester Road was already full of industrial and residential properties, stretching from Cornbrook across to Chorlton-on-Medlock and out, down to the more upmarket villas with their large gardens.

And with the redevelopment of the area during the 1990s Hulme has in the words of one source becoming a “popular and desirable” place to live”.*

Location; Hulme

Pictures Hulme shapes, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Hulme, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulme