Housing Conditions in Manchester

[Sue G]

Members of my family, George and Mary Watson and some of their chidlren, were living at 32 Worsley Street (ward = St. Clements, parish = At. Andrews) in the 1871 census, and there seem to be six different families living at that address.

Does anyone know anythong about such multiple occupancy? Would this have been something like the tenements of Glasgow?

[Jack Richards]

I do not know of the street to which you refer and would like to offer some help. I was not around in 1871 but was around in 1971 - well from 1962 to say 1982'ish.

I suspect there might be a typo or transcription error re the parish!

I suspect the area was known as ARDWICK. It would help if you can mention about a dozen adjoining streets, so I can pinpoint the location to whiich you refer.

I conject it is an area close by the railway line just as the trains are entering Piccadilly Railway station, Manchester. If travelling by train, almost as the train is entering the station - well within 800 metres or less - look down to the right. Hence, I conject less than 1 mile from the City Centre.

If I have the correct area, again I conject, I suspect the properties would be two up two down houses, in rows etc.

Finally, until I know the correct area, this is pure conjecture but my clues are St, Clements and "ET" (????) Andrews. Should this read "ST"?

Sorry, cannot help further with the sparse info. provided.

Regards

Jack (Richards)

[Annie]

Hi Jack
I've checked the 1871 census on Ancestry, it is in the enumeration district of London Rd
near by are Chadwick St, Portugal St, London Rd, Holbrook St, George St, Travis St.
Many of the properties on Worsley St have Head, Wife, child then lodgers or boarders marked as seperate groups. In one building there were 12 lodgers!

Annie

[Jack Richards]

Reference the request by Sue G. to Worsley Street and my response, Annie has kindly revealed a few adjoining /nearby streets.

My conjecture as to the location was so close as to be "spot on". London Road is one of the main roads in and out of the City of Mancheter and is now on the map as the A6, about say 800 metres from the City centre. The area is around the station now Piccadilly but formerly known as London Road station.

Streets such as Portugal Street and Travis Street still exist and run almost directly off London Road. Nowadays still "dowdy and grim" but the area much improved.

For a young "bobby", a stranger to Manchester in the early '60s it was "bleak and mostly desolate", especially on night duties.

There were still some tall 3 storey warehouse type buildings, but little if any houses on Travis Street. All the older properties had been demolished and part of it was rough, scruffy ground. The church of "St, Andrew" - have I got the name right - was demolished, but I seem to remember a little churchyard existed - about say 50 metres square.

As I mentioned previously, most of the houses were "two up, two down" in a maze of streets and alleys. Very much an industrial area. Many old warehouses existed. Even in the early '60s there were several old pubs in the area, all mostly "scruffy and down at heel".

I conject the old properties that were still standing would have been around in 1871.

Finally, to try and give you a glimpse of around the 1870s, London Road was a wide road with 2 sets of tram lines (one in, one out) for horse drawn trams, the road made up of the small "sets". London Road changed its name to Market Street as it got to "Piccadiily". Shops would close at noon on Saturday and Sunday opening was unheard of. Sunday was for window shopping and thousands would flock into town for that purpose.

Not sure when the railway opened but I conject it was early. The census for 1871 (or other census years) will give a clue of what the workers around Worsley Street were engaged in.

Hope this helps a little.

Jack (Richards)

[Ladkyis]

If you saw the recent TV production of Elizabeth Gaskells novel North and South then you would have seen the conditions that ordinary people endured in Manchester - the city on which the northern part of the book was based. Cotton was king and the workers lived in abject poverty for the most part - and stacking up the lodgers was a way of makng ends meet - if the women were lucky enough to get the rent owed to them.
Ann

[Sue G]

Thank you all for these replies. of course, I should have typed St. Andrews .... Indeed, Chadwick Street and Travis Street also appear on the same census page. There were 30 people living at 32 Worsley Street, in family groups, which makes me think it might have been sub-dividedor tenement-like. George Watson, my greatx2 grandfather was a cabinet maker. He and his wife Mary had come to Manchester from Londonderry in the 1840s (he was a Protestant and she a Catholic). They raised a large family (13 children) in Manchester. Their son, Thomas, was killed working on the building of the London Road station.

Indeed, I saw North and South - very evocative of the hard times people had - and reminiscent of my other anscestors, dying so young from disease and accidents in the Cornish tin mines!

Next time I get a train into Piccadilly, I shall look more carefully!

Sue G Wiltshire