Angel Meadow, Manchester

[Lindsay]

Interesting article in the Independent about Angel Meadow, Manchester, apparently one of the worst slums in the country in the nineteenth century.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/my-forefathers-life-in-manchesters-slums-discovering-family-roots-in-the-hell-on-earth-of-angel-a6896021.html

[Olde Crone]

I ought to have found this interesting but I didn't! By 1861, 4 sets of my 2 x GGPs were living in Manchester (not in Angel Meadows though, admittedly) in working class areas.

The photos attached to the article showed remarkably clean streets and housing, which wasn't luxurious but did not look in the least bit slummy for the time. The lodging house looked positively palatial, with mounds of bedding and a WINDOW

The article didn't really give any sense of the time and place. A disappointing piece of journalism in my opinion.

OC

[Lindsay]

Agreed, the photos didn't match the descriptions.

Most of my family lived in the East End of London, and there's so much written about the dreadful conditions there that it's easy to assume that was as bad as it got. So I was surprised that death rates were significantly worse in Angel Meadow.

I doubt if the author's forefather had a whole two storey house - one room at the most I should think.

[Merry]

I agree about the photos. Not even a smashed window in Charter St (the last photo) and nicely hung curtains and blinds at the windows.

The trouble is once something doesn't look right in an article I start picking other holes... when the author says of the walls between adjoining properties 'just half a brick thick' what does he mean? I don't see any such walls in the photo where they are standing in the ruin. If he truly means half a brick thick that would be about 2" and I doubt the wall would stand up by itself. If he means a single skin brick wall (ie half the length of a brick, not half the width) then wouldn't that be normal for the time for an internal wall with no concerns about fire prevention etc? I would have also questioned how long William Kirby lived in the same house/room as it would be unusual to find someone at the same slum address two events running, but I won't ask that as OH's ancestors lived in the same slum for over 20 years in London in the 1820-40s!