Panel 13: “Building Begins” (1931-1934) Shena Takes Charge of Construction

Following Ernest’s death Shena considered moving back to London, but decided that her heart remained in Manchester. She moved to a smaller home next door to their old house Broomcroft in Didsbury. Their former home was given to the University of Manchester and used by Simon Fellows, visiting academics who were funded by Ernest’s bequest.

In 1964 Shena was awarded the Freedom of the City of Manchester in recognition of her public work, becoming only the third woman to receive the honour. This accolade, however, did not spell the end of her career as a public servant, with Shena serving on the Education Committee of Manchester City Council until 1970, overseeing the city’s move to comprehensive education in 1967. Shena’s retirement from the council offered her a well-deserved opportunity to indulge in her favourite pastimes, going to the cinema and reading detective novels. Shena was not one to reminisce and instead looked forward to the challenges of the future in her older age. She stressed the important role of education in the revolutions in technology to come and continued to argue for married women to stay in the workforce as well as for the expansion of higher education and for the raising of the leaving age.

Shena receiving the Freedom of the City of Manchester. Source: Shena Simon Papers, Manchester Archives+.

(Abover) Source: The Guardian, 28th July 1962, p.6

(Left) Source: Wythenshawe Forum Library local studies.

(Far left) Source: The Architects’ Journal, 11th August 1960, p.27. (Above) Part of the booklet celebrating Shena being awarded the Freedom of the City and her past achievements. Source: Shena Simon Papers, Manchester Archives+.

(Left) Source: Shena Simon Papers, Manchester Archives+.

Shena continued to stay in close touch with developments in Wythenshawe. In 1961 she opened Simon Court, a block of fl ats for older residents named in honour of Shena and Ernest. Shena became the fi rst president of its residents’ association. The nature of parts of Wythenshawe was changing and by the early 1960s several new residential tower blocks were built, at odds in many respects to original garden city ideals. Plans were made for better amenities including a long-promised swimming pool, but the overdue civic centre would still take another decade to complete.

(Below) The zoning of Wythenshawe in the early 1960s. Source: Manchester Archives+.

ERNEST SIMON (1879-1960) – CITIZEN OF MANCHESTER

Born nearly 150 years ago Ernest Simon was a dedicated public servant. Ernest like Shena had a prodigious work ethic and could never understand how people who did not care for the welfare of others remained happy. He combined his work as a successful industrialist with decades of campaigning and progressive politics. He wrote scores of articles and reports, and authored a number of infl uential books. Housing was Ernest’s abiding concern throughout his life, and he became one of Britain’s leading authorities on housing reform. Ernest’s work for the public good can be seen as him following in the steps of his German parents and thus is demonstrative of the rich contribution immigrants and their offspring have made to Britain.

The Simons have always been subject to somewhat unfair criticisms that they were out of touch upper middle-class technocrats who did not understand the needs of the poor. While their wealth undoubtedly isolated them from the disadvantaged people they sought to help, they were adamant in their desire to repay the world for their ‘great good fortune’ and to rectify Britain’s unequal society. Ernest despite his busy work regularly took the time to visit Manchester’s slums to remind himself of the terrible conditions people had to live in. Despite his own admission that he was an ‘autocratic employer’, Ernest was a democrat and believed that educated citizens were vital in not only protecting democracy and freedom, but were also central to driving progressive reforms particularly when it came to housing. Indeed, he that felt that Wythenshawe was a triumph of democracy.

Dictators build tremendous monuments; the[y] ignore the needs of their overcrowded populace for decent housing, and try to make up for it by boastful propaganda. We in Britain carry out the world’s greatest achievement in working-class housing, and grumble because it is not better… I challenge the dictators to show a garden city which can rival in imaginative planning and in the provision of pleasant and healthy homes what Manchester has done in its satellite garden city of Wythenshawe. Excerpt from manuscript by Ernest on British Democracy, 19th December 1939. Source: Ernest Simon Papers, Manchester Archives+.

Ernest Simon hard at work. Source: Shena Simon Papers, Manchester Archives+.

The millionaire industrialist posing for a publicity photograph with a working-class person in Withington during the 1922 General Election. Source: Shena Simon Papers, Manchester Archives+. Ernest in 1922. Source: Shena Simon Papers, Manchester Archives+.

Shena and Ernest Simon at the time of the 1931 General Election. Source: Western Morning News, 27th October 1931. Shena Simon Papers, Manchester Archives+. Ernest was proud of Manchester, and the Simons’ gift of Wythenshawe Hall and park exemplifi ed their dedication to the city; it was for Ernest ‘a unique opportunity to do something for Manchester’. Indeed, Ernest’s fi rst venture into social reform was to address the awful air pollution which plagued his city. Ernest actively engaged in civic boosterism and dreamed that Wythenshawe, as a grand municipal project, could inspire Manchester’s citizens to dedicate themselves to the good of the city. He was nevertheless a hard-headed realist and was always ready to point out Manchester’s shortcomings and crucially offered practical solutions to make it a better place.

Where’s there’s muck there’s brass” was the answer not only of the mill-owner but the mill-workers to any attempt to abate the smoke nuisance, until the overpowering energy and personality of Sir Ernest Simon–a great Lancashire engineer– really got busy in the years between the wars on the job of cleaning the skies of our northern cities. Ellen Wilkinson, Manchester-born Labour politician commenting on Ernest’s campaign to combat air pollution. Source: The Listener, 29th November 1945.