Andrew Simpson: “a true representation of the present state of Manchester” …… September 1907

Monday 18 March 2024

“a true representation of the present state of Manchester” …… September 1907

This representation of Manchester I like.

And I guess it is the one countless people have had of our city stretching back to the time when the first smoky factory chimneys rose from the ground and helped coin that description of Manchester as the “shock city of the Industrial Revolution”.*

Certainly it chimed with an H. R., who wrote "I hereby present to you Sept 14. 07 with a true representation of the present state of M/C, as it is presented to our eyes, by night.

Isn’t it really Beautiful? Doesn’t it look a healthy place to live in?”

He/she was writing to a Mrs. McKeilty in Ballynahinch which my Wikipedia tells me is "is small town. On Census day (27 March 2011) there were 5,703 people living in Ballynahinch (2,326 households), accounting for 0.31% of the Northern Ireland total and representing an increase of 6.3% on the Census 2001 figure of 5,363."**

Which I rather think would make it smaller than Gorton where H.R. was living in 1907 at 28 Jackson Street.

Reading the rest of the message I think he/she was from Ballynahinch and so the contrast with Manchester must have been very striking.

The card was published by the The Cynicus Publishing Company of Fife and was established by Martin Anderson, who according to one source was “better known by his pseudonym Cynicus, was a Scottish artist, political illustrator and publisher”.***

His early working life involved producing illustrations for a variety of publications, before setting up in his own business in London in 1891, and from there setting up a postcard company publishing his own designs in 1902.

After a promising start his business like many suffered from a fall in the popularity of such picture postcard and the company went into liquidation with his stocks of prints and original work were sold for a fraction of their real worth.

A further attempt at a similar business also met with failure when the market for seaside picture postcards declined with the outbreak of the Great War.

Mr. Martin produced a series of anti-war posters and cards, which got him into trouble with the authorities.

“In 1924 his Edinburgh shop was destroyed by fire, everything inside it was lost, and he did not have the funds to repair and restock it.

He retired to his castle-like mansion in Balmullo to live in increasing poverty. A final edition of The Satires of Cynicus was published in 1926.”***

He died in 1932, and was buried in an unmarked grave, without a tombstone, and the final indignity was that his home was extensively vandalised after his death.

Leaving me just to say I am a great fan of his work which I have written about on the blog.****

Location; Manchester in 1907

Picture; Lovely Manchester, 19907, from the collection of David Harrop