Tapestry Themes #4: Health, Housing and Reform

 

Theme Four: Health, Housing and Reform

In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, life for those working in Manchester's cotton industry was really difficult.

This team has researched Angel Meadow and Little Ireland, two of Manchester's biggest slums. Despite the excitement of innovation and invention, we realise that we must recognise the terrible living conditions for many of those who lived in industrial areas.

Some of what you read below, you may find upsetting. Thank you so much to this team for approaching the topic with such care and consideration.

St Michael's Flags and Angel Meadow is situated near Shudehill in Manchester today. If you visit today, you will find a serene park surrounded by new sky-high apartments.

However, the team created a timeline of Angel Meadow's history and publications:

1788–1816: The lower section served as a massive pauper burial ground, with roughly 40,000 poor people buried there.

1840s: Became one of Manchester's worst slums, described by Friedrich Engels as "Hell upon earth".

1844- 1849: Described by journalist Angus Reach as the "lowest, most filthy, most unhealthy and most wicked locality in Manchester".

Friedrich Engels, who worked closely with Karl Marx visited Manchester in the 1840s. He was appalled by what he saw and wrote about the lives of workers in Manchester:

'Friedrich Engels, socialist reformer and author of the The Communist Manifesto described Angel Meadow - an area he called the Old Town of Manchester - in his hugely influential book, 'The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.'

By 1854, more than 16,000 people in Manchester were living underground in 4,600 cellars. Six years later, the number had jumped to over 17,000.

Each had a fireplace, which shrouded the rooms in toxic smoke. If the cellar was below a privy, human waste would leach down the walls.'

The team also referenced the novel 'North and South' by famous Mancunian Elizabeth Gaskell, who lived and worked in the area and wrote about the inequalities between factory workers and mill owners.

'The novel was published in 1854 and is set in “Milton”, a fictional industrial town resembling Manchester. It deals with the issues of status and money through a love story between a displaced and disinherited southerner, Margaret Hale, and a wealthy northern manufacturer, John Thornton.'

Elizabeth Gaskell's house is still situated in Longsight in Manchester today and is open to the public.

We understand this was a difficult topic for our team to cover, however we think they did an outstanding job and it is truly so important to cover all areas of history in this project, even when those themes are bleak (to say the least).