The History of Britain's Most Notorious Slum Development 

Hi Ollie lived in Hulme 1990-94. I know I've posted it before but here's my poem about Hulme: "Streets in the Sky" The streets in the sky have all gone... The concrete, the crustys, the Crescents are no longer there.. All the hippys and punks And droputs and drunks and weirdoes and junkies have all done a bunk! The Eagle's been grounded, The Checkered Flag's been flown, The Spinners stopped spinning and the last film's been shown at the Aaben cinetheque. The streets inthe sky have all gone.... And now no trace remains of the cube shaped estates They threw up for twenty years and then threw away, "Dreamscapes" of reinforced concrete and glass, with gas central heating in every flat and maisonette, It's so easy now to forget the graffitti scrawl wallpaper, The deck access walkways, The squatters, Punx picnics on hot summer days, The streets in the sky have all gone.... So goodby Charles Barry, the memories we carry are with us wherever we move, Farewell William Kent How much time was spent collecting the poll tax from you? Adieu Robert Adam... Good times we had 'em There was always something going on, it's true! So long John Nash How much hash was scored through your steel shuttered doors? The streets in the sky have all gone!

I visited Manchester today for the first time in 50 years. Shock and disbelieving at the massive blocks of flats everywhere you looked in architecture designed from a psychotic episode. My old Victorian slum house I grew up in was still standing however ! ! Pleased to see it before I pass into oblivion.

Great video. I'm an architect and it is refreshing to hear the reality that buildings aren't the cause for social housing failures, its deprivation. Park Hill in Sheffield is a good example, now it is not deprived of maintenance, not deprived of transport to employment and not deprived of local services, and it is a desireable place to live.

Thanks for this Ollie. I lived in Hulme on and off between 1978 and 2015 and I think this is the best synopsis Ive heard. Its not the best place to get old so I bailed, but I also missed the buzz that existed in the 80s 90s which felt like a community both under siege and neglected at the same time. The fact that it was colonised by the youth of the time gave it real attitude and was something to witness. Keep it up anyway. Seen all your vids. Top marks.

One of the longer-term impacts of WW2 / the Blitz was a near-suicidal approach to planning and novel housing approaches. Out with the old, in with the new. Without much consideration for the lost organic communities and at the expense of the pedestrian.

I worked with a bloke in the 1990s who lived in a flat in Hulme in one of those blocks. He rented it for just £5 a week !

Ollie, I know I live a bit over 5000 miles away, but we went through a very similar thing. Many major cities back about the same time built large residential areas with tower blocks that have mostly failed. One that was a success, post war and it's huge, is Park La Brea Apartments, they're at 6200 W 3rd Street, Los Angeles. For me it's the working class that makes a city great. Another well researched video with enjoyable narration........

No place like it!!! Glad it's made a come-back!!! It always had a vibe regardless of planners!

An architect said once "The estate looked lovely as a model on the table".

I grew up in hulme the second reincarnation i loved it It was scary for outsiders but everyone knew each other I don't know it now it's changed that much

From recent articles on studentification/gentrification of Hulme: "We've lost everything,... We have nothing in this area. Everything is for students. We have one bar, but when older people try to go in they've been told this is not really for you."; "There’s a lot of students here and the rents have gone up because of the students and there’s a lack of accommodation.". And on how it may be losing its desirability: "Since 2022... those looking to purchase a property in the M15 postcode, which covers Hulme, can now expect to pay around £256,840 for the average home, which is a reduction of a huge £62,000, around 19 percent."; "...the houses here are not really the kind of houses you would buy now and expect to have the same value in 30 years... like they’re made out of paper, they don’t have any inherent value." And drugs: "... It’s very visible that people are using drugs. It’s sad because sometimes they do it in the morning when I’m taking my children to school which is not nice.”

A mighty very well produced documentary of this Manchester suburb, Ollie. It's so interesting to see how this place has had it's ups and downs from slum clearance in the sixties to uncomfortable blocks of flats of the seventies to a more settled present day atmosphere. Full marks for this presentation, and if you ever cover any other Manchester districts, that would be most welcome to many followers of yours, I'm sure.

Brilliant video. Really enjoyed this. Thanks for sharing. Your knowledge is amazing 😊

Great content & keep up the great work from a fellow northerner. I did guess Joy Division, but yes what you document here can be repeated in many Northern towns, their best intentions fell foul, please keep up the great work.

An excellent documentary. The YT algorithm isn't entirely bad it seems. Subbed with best wishes.

We were one of the first families to move into the crescents - we moved there in 1969 and moved out in 1978.

What a great documentary. I grew up on a very small council estate (21 houses) in a village in Kent. These ex-council houses now sell for £600,000 or more because of the location of 'Pretty rural village' My siblings can not afford to live the place they grew up in and this will be the same for other children. I never believed that the selling off of social housing was a good thing. The beautiful place I new as a child in the 1950,60's is now only available to the well off. Social housing does not have to mean poor housing.

Very interesting and well presented, thank you enjoyed it.

Fantastic documentary. Thank you.

Great video as always

Hulme sweet Hulme , one of the best communities ive ever lived in , true neighbours who looked out for each other , to those looking in a concrete ghetto , but for its residents a place of friendship and warmth ,,,,its the people that make a place , and we made Hulme brilliant now its a place where that community spirit struggles to exist , we even have folk sleeping rough there , this was never allowed when the crescents was up as we would open an empty flat and give that person a home , now its for those that are willing and able to pay for living a mile from the city centre ,,, it is no longer Hulme sweet Hulme ,

Great video, I remember the bull rings in hulme, and to be honest I’m glad they’re gone.

Used to give me the creeps seeing that please

This shows to perfection how the people of the North were treated by the southerners. It's not much different now, just prettier on the surface.

top video

My father was born and grew up in those slums

my kids are at least the 6th generation of my family to live in Hulme

@ 18:00. Oh please. Don’t talk noble twaddle about criminals and squatters as if they were some sort of Robin Hoods. They intimidated and victimised people.

It was a den of violence and crime. Not changed much either You must work for an estate agent with the choice of words in how you describe the place. I grew up in an area next door to it in the 70's that was demolished so as to move the community that was excellent,but the homes just needed modernization. But the town planner's & so called architects in there wisdom came up with this abomination. Glad I got out of the urban jungle 👍

22:30 top down policies never work, that's why communism has and/or will fail(ed) 100% of the time 100% of the times it's been tried and so of course the "new" urban design of Hulme failed as have similar projects in the west, not just in the UK, From Glasgow to Chicago (Illinois) to many places in the Paris metropolitan region.

As a kid, we visited an 'auntie' in Hulme, mum and her nattering in the kitchen while us kids played in the first Hulme conversion building site from bricks and mortar to concrete. I first lived in Hulme as a squatter high up on Epping Walk where, in a single week, a man had battered his missus over a balcony where she fell twenty or more feet and a five-week-old baby was found in one of the big old bins - nice. Not all bad, though - I was part of a ragtag theatre troupe and we put on Snoo Wilson's The Beast onstage live at the Russell Club - that confused the hell out of the locals!!. I finally came back just over 7 years ago to the place I always could see or walk through but they were older, brick-buiult, full of musos and artists with loads of trees all around and I thought I wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting one - but here I am - greetings from The Redbricks!! Great vid. Thanks

I lived in one of those houses until 1963 - you show a filthy house with a disgusting toilet and and grimy kitchen scene and call it 'hell on earth' - my mum kept the house spotless - the toilet never looked like that. All the houses in that street I'd been in were scrupulously clean and the women used to use a sort of 'chalk' to colour doorsteps white or sometimes orange. The toilet was outside and we had only cold running water - we had to boil water if we wanted it hot. But we did not know any better and I remember it as a happy time with my parents.

Thank you for this, being from a "timber, sawing, CMC" part of Sweden, I really feel this. And I love Manchester! So much to love, even after a "trying to rob me". Didn't work at all. We had a pint and he cried. Withington is where I stayed, nice place.

I know of a play that begins with a surveyor with a labourer and string. He turns to the audience and says "We're marking out the land for Dwellings for the labouring classes!" The labourer turns to the audience and says "They're really for teachers and civil servants. Not the likes of me"

An excellent account, spot on. Great archive footage, well written script, full of information. Small point: Princess Parkway is only south of the Mersey! North, it's Princess Road. Hulme is a fascinating district. I went to the Russell Club and saw Joy Division there.

I bet Tony Wilson would be proud of all these videos of Manchester. Keep up the good work, Ollie.

I don't even live near Manchester, but I'm aware of the Hulme flats through my interest in that kind of unforgiving architecture - I find it fascinating that these types of estates promised the Utopian dream, and yet delivered the complete opposite - misery and deprivation. This is an excellent video and account of what went wrong with Hulme. I loved the archive material as well.

My older brother was married in 1969, and he and his wife moved into the 14th-floor flat of St Georges Court in Hulme. As a 13-year-old, I cycled from Ladybarn on my Raleigh Chopper to visit them. I remember cycling over the newly constructed bridge on Bonsall Street and through the Hulme Crescents construction site; it was just as hellish before they were built as after! A few years later, around 1977, I did voluntary work at Proctors Youth Centre for a few months.

What an excellent documentary. I hope this gets more views!

Excellent bit of work. Highly informative and well documented. Well done.

But where have the working class gone?

This is one of your best videos yet!!! Thank you Olly! Me and my partner are always searching your name and waiting for your uploads, we’ve watched every single one. Keep up the brilliant work, it’s appreciated and enjoyed 😊

Bringing back many memories, in the 80’s I had lived in Hulme council house for two years. The worst and best time of my life.

I had many good friends, went to great parties and even DJ-ed in the Crescents! Good times! That picture of the Henry royce at 17:56 was taken by me! It's an honour to see it in one of your great productions!

I lived in the Redbricks and miss Hulme’s boho mix and strong sense of community; no matter your background everyone spoke to each other. But I got priced-out and had to leave Manchester. F*ck Landlords and Capitalism.

My grandparents and my mum left Hulme for Benchill, Wythenshawe in 1933 when my mum was just four years old. The forward planning started well before 1945.

Really enjoyed this video. It was very well presented in a factual, non-emotive way which is sadly not how a lot of mainstream TV is presented. Well done.

Thanks for this. I started work in 1968 in central Manchester and used to get the 222 bus home to my parent;s house in Sale in the evening, from Piccadilly. The bus went along the southern edge of the building site (probably along Stretford Road) that was the Hulme Crescents under construction. They looked pretty grim even then.

In the late 80s to the mid 90s I found Hulme fascinating. All the squats. Travellers, remember the unofficial Hulme taxis? I didn't live there myself but I knew a few folk who did. I occasionally parked up in Otterbourne. I had a black Vega bus followed by a nato green commer van. It was handy for a night out in Manchester. I'm sure the big party when it was all pulled down was good.. only I can't really remember it. 🤔

Great video ..I used to visit friends there in the 80s some place were bad other were OK..but I don't know if memory fails me but I am sure there was an art Cinema there..

Visited Manchester a few times, but this is a very good, well researched and presented post, it could apply to many towns in the UK, thank you for a super watch, loved it.

Fantastic video! ❤ reminds me of Ashfield (Ashy) Valley in Rochdale which had a similar fate with its 1960s urban living dream....

Excellent work again. I always find the slum clearance after The Second World War fascinating, no matter what cities they took place in

Am I right? The original Hulme slums were back to backs? I once went into one, and it was a horrible experience. Anyone who wants to know, google “back to back” and you’ll have a shiver down yer spine. Anyways, me point: the 1960s brutalism was shite, but long way better than the hell that people lived in before. Ok, RU-vid comments, I’m ready for yer…

Loved it But a 4 minute intro felt excessive!

Excellent work. Cracking little documentary, must have been a lot of work.

A fascinating insight into post war Britain architecture up to modern day & a place that is mostly unknown to southerners such as meself. Great stuff.

An excellent video as always. Very interesting and informative, keep up the good work.

Great video, i visited the crescents as a kid in the early 80s, my cousin briefly lived their, they were truly horrific. Poorly built and ill though. Glad to see Hulme finally getting the housing it so deserves. Albeit i find gentrification slightly disappointing, but thats the way of the world i guess.

Lived nrby in the lat 80s early 90s when i was a Pup... absolute hellscape, the noises from 'Fort Ardwick' at night would scare a Vampire to death..... awful

It's wet

Brilliant! Loved that! So well made 👏🏻

I was baptised at St. George's 1958

What a great video! Thanks for the knowledge 👊🏼

Nice one

Another superb video mate, I used to get Hulme and Cheadle Hulme mixed up, couldn't be more different eh!!! 🤣🤣 Wasn't the famous photograph of Joy Division taken on a snow covered bridge over Mancunian Way in Hulme?

Your films just keep getting better. Well done, mate.

The Hulme Crescent's are arguably the 'Pruitt Igoe' of the U.K...

What a fantastic and well-researched documentary - thanks so much for putting it together! I totally agree with the final point you made about the threat from gentrification - Manchester's recent redevelopment has largely pushed out working class people in places like Ancoats, and consequently Hulme is one of the last places surrounding the city centre to still retain its social mix. However, the shedding of its negative reputation over the last 10-15 years has led to an increase in desirability and consequently rising rents - sadly I can see it becoming an exclusively middle class neighbourhood within another decade without some kind of intervention.

I remember going to one of the museums in Liverpool and being so shocked that large areas there had a similar experience. Such radical, non stop change just doesn't seem to be something that works for humans.

Brilliant Documentary that thank you, i lived in Hulme 1981 to 1983, I loved every minute.. An important part of my life

Another excellent documentary. I love your radical, humane and ultimately optimistic worldview.

My parents and grandparents lived in Hulme until the mid-60s when they moved to a new council estate. I was six months old when they moved. Thank you for a very interesting video of the part of Manchester I came from.

Cant believe ive not seen this one yet. Hulme has always fascinated me for many reasons. And, weve had family in& out of there since very early 20C. Gna watch this on my night shift later. 👊

Love this video, spent most of my childhood in Hulme and it was great to see this! You never disappoint with your brilliant videos

Great video pal. Lived In John Nash crescent in the early-mid 1980's. Loved it.

great video!

My grt. grt grandfather raised his family there, working as a packer.

Great video, I have lived in Hulme for the past 16 years, super convienient for the city centre and a melting pot of all kinds of people. it is areally good place to live.

Good stuff as always.

First

Another fantastic video Ollie, loved this ❤

Brutalist architecture, especially flats and dwellings never work. Depressing, too many rat runs, encouraging crime. Soul less places. You question the mentality and short sightedness of the council ‘architects’. Bloody thick.

Hulme looks rather Humiliating in the 1970s, but then with a 3 day working week and coal strikes, life was fairly bleak everywhere. Sadly, the Gov.t seem to want the streets to return to this state, or at least, seem to do nothing to stop the ASBO mob. Around my way, the shop owners are so fed up with idiots smashing the shop windows, they just leave them smashed. Life was at lease more hopeful back then, sadly.

Architects make homes. It's the people who make them slums.

Sorry but i was born an bred there till i was about 12. Now its nice i havnt a chace to get a flat there.. ye they took me an ma mqm an 2 siblings. It destroyed my mum an my gran who lived there. My nan got me an we moved into abnother new housing project, called West gorton, where they eventually started to film Shameless. A year later after them spending 7 thound pound, then because the MANCHESTER COUNCIL, WERE EMBARESSED WHEN THE AMERICANS PUCKED UP THE SCRIPT AN WENT WITH IT.. THEY SPENT YEARS ON w/gorton, BUT 7 MILLION POUND WAS SCRAPPED AN RIPOEDapart an area that was a community.. the same ere in Birkenhead.

Lived in Hulme 2005-2014. Still had a chilled out, art and hippie vibe about it at the beginning, with not developed, green areas. Rents were affordable and I loved the close proximity to the city centre. But then they've built the MMU campus in 2012 (over green space). Rents had shot up, students moved in, with their party lifestyle, and it stopped being a good value for money place to live for professionals and families. It's a student village now.

You put people with nothing in grey buildings under a grey sky who walk on gray roads enough said .