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T hird T ime L ucky : T he H ulme E state A n A rtistic A nd C ultural R egeneration S tory

Tobias James Plunkett




#W1278165 University Of Westminster Architecture and the Built Enviornment M.Arch | Masters Of Architecture (RIBA. Pt II) Contact: tobyp@live.co.uk Dissertation Tutor: John Bold 4ARC740.1 : Dissertation


Third Time Lucky: The Hulme Estate An Artistic and Cultural Regeneration Story Tobias James Plunkett 2014-2016



Abstract The following dissertation presents a factual narrative of the Hulme estate in Manchester and how - despite multiple demolitions - it developed its own niche culture; and ultimately, how this culture was used decisively to aid the third and final regeneration scheme. It investigates the often overlooked and undervalued artistic responses to urban renewal, compared to the much more common infrastructural reaction to problem estates and their need for regeneration. By investigating the desires of the residents, rather than those imposed by the authority; it intends to demonstrate that the destruction of these estates in turn for a new architectural response is not a guarantee for a successful regeneration, and that cultural programmes are often a much more appropriate response either unaccompanied or when integrated alongside extensive master-planning endeavours. This discourse focuses on one estate in particular, The Hulme estate in Manchester, which throughout its history steeped with demolition has been subject to two major redevelopments, becoming one of the biggest urban redevelopments in Europe. It has developed a strong cultural following both within its residents and wider audience alike. This determined following was a crucial component to its regeneration and perhaps made more of an impact to its successful re-attachment to Manchester than the architectural interventions alone. This dissertation will comprise multiple parts, organised as a chronological narrative; it first describes the rise of the Estate and its history before going onto its physical demise - but cultural ascent - and ultimately its regeneration process. The outcome of this dissertation will be an increased awareness of how art and regeneration can work in cohesion, and how they can play an increasingly important role in British Urban regeneration.



Acknowledgements Thanks and sincerest gratitude are due foremost to my tutor, Dr. John Bold, for the continuous support he has provided throughout my research and writing. For his patience, motivation and knowledge has been a guidance which has helped in all the time of research and writing - Without his encouragement and effort this thesis, too, would not have been completed or written. Besides my tutor, I would like to thank all those of the Hulme community, Manchester City Council Members and Architects who took the time to discuss my thesis, answer questions and provide first hand encounters of the subject matter. Without them, my writings would simply be a collective reproduction of others observations. My thanks also go out to my fellow classmates, Andrew Peckham and his students, for their stimulating discussions and outsider insight of my subject. I am also indebted to Imogen Braddick, Fredi ReĂŠs and Dani Reed for their kindness and patience during the cross-examination of this work and for their understanding and observations which transpired. Finally, I thank my parents for supporting me throughout all my studies at University, past, present and future and for encouraging me to pursue my passions.



Contents Introduction 01 The Estate & its Histoy

The Crescents, Their Problems & Their Downfall 07

The Art of Hulme

The Art Before the Final Straw and how the culture emerged

25

The Regeneration

The Hulme Study, (Hulme) City Challenge, Housing and Art

35

Art & Regeneration

The Community and their Art

59

Capital Investment & Cultural Regeneration Differences, Advantages and Disadvantages

71

Conclusion 83 Bibliography 91 Appendices 99



Enjoy.


fig.i: View Into Charles Barry Crescent

14


Introduction “Hulme was an urban dream designed along Corbusien architectural concepts; modern proletariat cities in the sky. He said: ‘space and light and order, those are the things that men need just as much as bread or a place to sleep’. More worrying, he also said: ‘Designing a city is like playing with the objects on your breakfast table”’ - Al Baker (Hulme Resident)

Over the past few decades, Hulme in inner Manchester has become a byword for the failures of British public housing policy; particularly those of the Crescents - Hulme V - which took the form of four elongated blocks, comprising over 900 ‘deck-access-flats’, which have come to epitomise the discredited, system built estates of the 1960’s and 1970’s1. A product of 1960’s slum clearances, it was to be Britain’s largest public housing development. Yet within a year, marred by design flaws as well as inadequate heating and pest infestations, the scheme was deemed unsuitable for families and plans for a third regeneration scheme were well underway. There is more to Hulme however than being yet another forsaken concrete estate; indeed, what makes the Hulme estate so unusually fascinating is the culture and artistic prowess which came about as a result of its checkered history. The resulting creation was a unique mix of people, young permanent residents and travelers alike, all determined to stay together as a community through its redevelopment. It was quite unlike anywhere that I’d ever lived before. It looked like a fascist dystopian nightmare. Only one peopled by Rastas and Anarchists. - Hulme Resident

This dissertation examines the history of the Hulme site in Manchester over its three most recent manifestations, from the Victorian Slum dwellings of the 19th Century, to the archetypal deck-access concrete estate of the 1970’s-1990’s and finally its culmination in its current form (ironically almost full circle) of a mix of nostalgic flats and more familiar mock terraces. Organized as a chronological narrative, this work offers a broad overview of the estate’s history throughout its first redevelopment

1


fig.ii: ‘Hulme is where the art is’ Graffiti, unknown artist on unknown garage in Hulme.

2


Introduction

completed in 1972, the problems that quickly arose and ultimately their downfall into what is the main focus of this text, the art and the community that made it. Its denouement is an in depth investigation and analysis of the regeneration process and how the culture of the Crescents was used as a positive in aiding the third - and so far final - regeneration process. The focus is the often overlooked and undervalued tool of artistic response to urban renewal in the form of Cultural Programmes compared to the more common infrastructural reaction such as those found with Capital Investment. Hulme Estate provides a perfect example of this due to its development of a strong cultural following within its residents when faced with complete destruction of their estate once again. It is this dissertation’s argument that without the complete and utter bohemia caused by the artistic influence within the crescents, in the form of squatters, musicians, students and the like, Hulme would have just been yet another council development similar to Park Hill or Broadwater Farm. Yet due to its iconicism countrywide, which came about through the egalitarianism of all who resided, and the sheer grit and determination of its residents cultural beliefs, this became a successful regeneration. Art and its cultural impact in estates is not unique to Hulme, nor is it unique in the regeneration process. Since as far back as 1945, British cities have experienced a profound restructuring of their economic and social fabric. Some factors have been obviously economic, such as the decline in traditional manufacturing. But apparent social changes such as the drift of populations from city centre to suburb have had an impact on local community and economy alike2. In the past, urban renewal initiatives have tended to overlook the importance of social factors in their pursuit of economic growth, yet with an ever accelerating erosion of individual commitment to the city, new ideas in regeneration schemes have begun to arise and this situation is beginning to change. As a consequence of this cultural turn, arts, public art and cultural industries have been advocated as positive contributors to urban restructuring and regeneration. Campaigners have produced investigations through case studies to highlight the positive impact that art can have on communities within a relatively low budget; their aim is to encourage a wide use of these

3


fig.iii: ‘New’ Hulme North British Housing Association (NBHA) development, Chichester Road

4


Introduction

practices to tackle social exclusion3. These have been referenced in the closing pages of this dissertation intended as a resource for further reading regarding their benefits outside the case of the Hulme estate. Unsurprisingly, much has been documented about Hulme estate throughout it’s life, including many Government and independent reports which can be found referenced/appendixed in the end of this book, yet there is a substantial lack of documented evidence about the everyday happenings on the estate. A simple explanation for this is perhaps the distance of any authoritarian body normally responsible for this data, with the council and police force ‘scared’ away from this dysfunctional behemoth. Or from a more sociological viewpoint, that the ephemeral nature of the art discussed in a pre-digital era, there was simply had no need for it to be documented; those who it was intended for, the residents, were surrounded by it day and night, documented or not. Fortuitously, due to the relatively new nature of the subject this paper, it means many primary sources are still accessible and this has been capitalised through first hand encounters with past the present residents and other such sources of primary research. Fundamentally, the methodology of the research found in this dissertation is a combination of critically seminal writings augmented by further reading and reinforced and directed through a series of interviews, conversations and other encounters with those who experienced the happenings of Hulmes urban regenerations.

Notes 1. Rowntree, 1994 2.

Landry et al., 1995, p.1

3.

Tornaghi, 2014, p.1

Notes -

5


fig.iv: 1896 Hulme, view of Back Ann Street, from Hargreaves Street

6


The Estate & its

Histoy -

The Crescents: ‘Old Hulme’, before it first became a target for public health and planning, could aptly be described as the ‘classic slum’1 and throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s the Victorian dwellings which had come to epitomise slum housing were slowly demolished. This was to be the first of two major redevelopment schemes in the space of a mere 30 year period. With huge local resistance by both tenants and property owners alike, fearing eviction to the newly conglomerated Wythenshawe estates, the demolition fractured the community leaving few of the original tenants behind. Manchester Council’s priority at this time was demolition, and with 15% of all unfit housing of England and Wales attributed to Manchest2er, Hulme was a particularly good example of inner city degradation. By the early 1960’s Hulme had become one of the largest redevelopment projects in Europe. With a now expansive area of empty land and the imperative need to rehouse a large number of people quickly, the council were encouraged to commission high density architecture that used industrial and standardised building techniques3. A new building technique that had been developed in Europe for mass housing consisting of prefabricated concrete frames as structure, cladded to protect the interior. It was a system vigorously pressured onto the local authorities by the government and in 1965, the local authorities were asked to submit their four-year Housing plans, the Ministry made it clear that it would look kindly on system built housing schemes4. Despite this, at the time, Manchester Housing corporations had one of the finest housing records in Britain. Wanting to avoid the same problems associated

7


fig.v: Panelled system built construction of The Crescents, 1971

8


The Estate & its Histoy

with tower blocks both around Manchester and the rest of the country, they proceeded with commissioning a new and much praised type of architectural design; the deck access estate. This was a system of streets built on top of each other, or ‘streets in the sky’, much akin to the theories Le Corbusier and Team 10. Soon championed by architects like Alison and Peter Smithson - The English cohorts of Team 10 - the concepts of buildings as streets were received from Le Corbusier and his proposals for Rio de Janeiro and Algiers developments soon became one of the salient proposals of mid-20thcentury urbanism5. The Smithsons were instrumental in championing this new design ideal, their purpose to offer a new architectural alternative to the earlier housing estates which were rife with failures. These ideals were articulated at the 1953 C.I.A.M. conference, where the Smithsons proposed their ideal city as a combination of different activities positioned within the same area, envisaging modern housing being built as ‘streets in the sky’6. These ‘Streets’ would comprise artificial decks built outside the front doors of tower block flats, offering panoramas and wide enough for deliveries - as opposed to those gloomy and enclosed corridors offered by Le Corbusier. Providing areas for children to play and neighbours to interact with each other, just as they did on a traditional street, in turn encouraging a sense of belonging and neighbourliness within the residents. This concept was used a year earlier in their competition proposal for the Golden Lane housing project is London, but unfortunately was not to be embraced by the judges. It was not until 1972 with the completion of Robin Hood Gardens in London, that the Smithsons own ideological developments culminated, legitimising decades of ideas into a built form which had influenced the ideas of Team 10 and many other housing schemes along the way7. Schemes such as Park Hill8 - in Sheffield - completed in 1961 by Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith were inspired by the Smithsons unbuilt schemes and became one the first built examples of the ideology. To them its assets were social, not architectural; it appeared to promise the rebirth of the the street9. Embodying the ‘streets in the sky’ concept, the decks were wide enough for not only social interaction, but allowed milk floats to still deliver to the doors of the residents - These were stopped when a child was unfortunately knocked over and killed10.

9


fig.vi: View of crescents from above upon completion in 1972

10


The Estate & its Histoy

Government subsidisation of systems-construction was encouragement for Manchester Council to think, and build big. Hulme Crescents - as the scheme came to be known - comprised a comprehensive redevelopment area of 350 acres. Designed by the Architecture firm of Hugh Wilson and Lewis Womersley, its design was championed by the principal Architect Jack Lynn. Previously responsible for the Park Hill Estate, he took Park Hills design principles and applied them to a much flatter site11. The resulting scheme comprised five phases of flats and maisonettes with the center piece comprising four great Crescents. “Hulme; a new street pattern, entirely segregated from traffic roads, where all age groups can be suitably accommodated, which will have to serve the needs of five generations of Manchester people”12

Containing nearly a thousand dwellings alone, the four roughly-parallel, five storey crescents comprised almost a quarter of the entire 13,000 person development. Significantly (and perhaps in retrospect rather seriously misjudged) the Crescents were named after famous British architects - Adam, Nash, Barry and Kent - and at the time were seen as state of the art housing. Modeled on the regency terraces of Bath13 and by using the technique of deck access, Manchester Council thought it would remind the rehoused residents of the intimate living of their old streets in the terraced slums. Despite the intent to rekindle the intimate settings of terraces past, this redevelopment was the imposed as the political ideology and architectural fashion and local people were not involved in the assessment of needs. “In our zeal to erase the evils arising out of lack of proper water-supply, sanitary shortcomings harboured a social structure of friendliness and mutual aid. We had thrown the baby out with the water”14 - Jack Lynn

A ‘scorched-earth’15 policy was implemented and any positive features that contributed to social cohesion, continuity and a sense of identity were lost alongside the dilapidated slums. Unfortunately no research into system built housing in Britain existed at the time, and neither the success of this technique nor the potential for social problems were ever fully explored. When completed in 1971 the Crescents were initially hailed as an

11


fig.vii: View between Robert Adam Crescent and William Kent Crescent (to left), 1976

12


The Estate & its Histoy

architectural success story and seen in a utopian light by all; unfortunately when the first residents moved into the scheme, problems were found so fundamental that it called into question the entire design ethos. The Problems: The Crescents: Manchester Council, after already rejecting tower blocks, were persuaded to build horizontally instead and four imposing crescents were the result. The form was an ill fated reference to the Georgian crescents in Bath but despite the shape, it formed no other similarities; with Bath,s crescents being designed for a few select families of the 18th Century middle-classes and Hulme’s crescents for some 900 working-class households that had been rehoused from the slums, it showed just how out of touch the architects were with the community. “We feel that the analogy we have made with Georgian London and Bath is entirely valid. By the use of similar shapes and proportions, large-scale building groups and open spaces, and, above all, by skilful landscaping and extensive tree planning, it is our endeavour to achieve at Hulme a solution to the problems of twentieth-century living which would be the equivalent in quality that reached the requirements of eighteenth-century Bloomsbury and Bath.”16 - Lewis Womersley

Streets in Sky: Alongside the theoretical ideology, the architects had good reason to design Hulme with common walkways. The economic effect was that it allowed a greater number of people to be housed in a smaller space and allowed them to make a major cost saving by reducing the number of lifts. However, with the flats designated as family dwellings, the socioeconomic effects of these ‘streets in the sky’ were a much more sobering affair. Manchester planners classed living on these raised decks the same as living on the ground floor accommodation; many amenities that were available to the lower floors - such as the vast landscaping surrounding the crescents - were out of reach to those above and there were no planning requirements to offer an alternative. With nowhere to play but the decks and stairs, much of the stress experienced by the tenants in Hulme was due to the children the estate was intended for. These problems were only magnified with the dissatisfaction of having to live next door to, on top of, and below, antisocial families - a common problem with many high rise houses.

13


“The streets are thought of as places with a communal feel, a place with houses, gardens and the like. Hulme was not like this, it had the housing and the ‘street’. but not much else..” - Hulme Resident

Not only were these decks a cause of social-angst, but more physical complications arose with many residents declaring the design to be explicitly dangerous. A multitude of vestibules established a labyrinth in which social injustice and misbehaviour could breed within, and numerous passageways and escape routes which were almost impossible to police. In 1974, just four years into the Crescents’ life, an event made national headlines which brought into account the architecture itself. The decks which were praised for allowing children to play freely - being supervised only by those neighbours, who soon became annoyed by the reality gave a five year old child the ability to climb the ledge via a horizontal aperture in the balustrade, subsequently falling to his death. A resulting 643 residents signed a petition, demanding for rehousing to more family suitable accommodation17.

fig.viii: Princess Road footbridge, over the sunken Princess Parrkway

14


The Estate & its Histoy

Exclusion From Manchester: It’s possible to recognise that Manchester made a series of planning mistakes throughout the regeneration. Perhaps the most perplexing of which was how they managed to disconnect the site from the rest of the city at least, or even more as effectively as the previous slums. Described by the city’s planning department as: “The first major comprehensive project to be conceived within the framework of an overall town design.. Deliberately planned to allow as many people as possible to live near and have direct access to the centres of community life, the shops, the clubs, libraries, public houses etc.. So as to encourage social contact and contribute to a sense of community”18

However, there was a much more sober reality to the new layout. The Princess Parkway, a new and partly sunken dual carriageway, replaced Upper Murdoch Street, bisecting the district and separating it from the City itself. Subsequently, Stretford Road, the previous main artery into the area was severed and demoted to the status of a lonely footpath over this obstacle19. Until 1965, Hulme already had the largest range of shops outside the city centre, consisting of pubs, Churches and even its own town hall. Stretford road was a major shopping street, and had been described

15


fig.ix: View across the decks 1984

16


The Estate & its Histoy

in the Manchester Evening News as ‘perhaps the most famous shopping centre in south manchester’20. But these all went in favour of the new ‘council provided’ shopping facilities in the three precincts; at Moss Side district centre and in two smaller neighbourhood centres. They contained many shops and services just as promised by the council. However, shared by the deprived area of Moss Side and with the crescents islanded in seas of open space - ‘generously planted with trees’ - it made no endeavour to encourage the sense of community and social contact the planners had boasted21. It was not just a problem with the masterplan which managed to exclude the residents from the wider society of Manchester. Internally, disillusionment with the community of their estate and even their own insular tenements was abundant. As a result of the industrialisation of the estates design, the standardised materials and units, each flat was much the same as its neighbour creating what could be adequately described as a swathe of repetitive indefinite clones encased in a sea of concrete. Consequently the residents established no sense of ownership with their new ‘homes’, offering no individuality, sense of property nor any belonging. Ironically, one of the ‘forefathers’ of Hulme’s Crescents, Ivor Smith, in a recent Architecture Journal article describes “What makes a house a home”: “It is a place to feel secure, sheltered emotionally as well as physically, a private place apart from the world outside. A house is where people come together, it is also where they may choose to be alone. Sometimes it is a place for peace and quiet, at other times a place to party. A house requires its own outside space, its garden, courtyard or terrace, large enough for sitting around. On both the outside and the inside, every detail is seen close-to, and consequently the colour, texture and touch of every material has a strong impact on the feeling of homeliness. Above all, the house is a place to belong, to have a sense of identity.”22 - Ivor Smith

...from which it is evident that Hulme lacked these in abundance. Mechanical problems: Ultimately the coup de grace resulting in the downfall of the Crescents happened on the other side of the country, three years before the completion of Hulme. In 1968, Ronan Point, London, suffered a large gas explosion, demolishing a load-bearing wall and subsequently causing the collapse of one corner of the building entirely23.

17


fig.x: View into the Hulme estate, 1985

18


The Estate & its Histoy

Though the casualties were relatively light - four killed and 17 injured and the cause largely blamed on poor design and construction this incident not only led to the complete loss of public confidence in public high rise buildings but affected legislation which would resonate throughout the entire public housing sector. The result of this in the case of Hulme, was that gas was no longer favoured by the authorities for risk of this disaster reoccurring and the intended gas central heating was replaced by an ‘electrical blow air system’; unfortunately this came to be described as “The most effective and expensive ways to thermally discomfort ever invented, and was to provide the downfall of the Crescents”24

In defense of the architects, they were not to envisage the 1973 oil crisis which led to the dramatic rise in the price of electricity. However, design flaws in the system build construction methods and the experimental, inefficient, underfloor heating system also went some way to making electricity bills of £500 per quarter a regular occurrence25. These resulting bills meant that residents could not afford to run these systems; with consequent disconnections, the Crescents became a bitter and damp environment. Condensation arose and mould, bronchitis and pneumonia were soon ubiquitous. Mice and cockroaches thrived in the warm environments of the ducts which housed the water pipes, wiring and underfloor heating systems; it allowed them to spread effortlessly throughout all parts of the estate while relying on the backflow of sewage which leaked into these ducts as a food source26. Attempts were made to remove the vermin, but due to the use of asbestos in construction it was almost impossible to treat with pesticides due to the risk of disturbing the asbestos27. Hulme Crescents soon obtained a national notoriety for its failures. Symbolically the aerial walkways which had been so praised in theory became filthy and unhygienic as residents refused to clean ‘communal’ areas. The Guardian described Hulme as: “A morass in which design faults and tenants revulsion at their environment have combined to produce staggering maintenance demands and angry howls of neglect.”28

19


fig.xi: Fight in Hulme between two mothers, child behind holding handbag, 1984

20


The Estate & its Histoy

Even the Architects’ Journal which had been a leading protagonist for these new architectural building types was moved as a result describing Hulme as; “Europe’s worst housing stock… hideous system-built deck-access blocks which gave Hulme its unsavory reputation.”29

Hulmes downfall was apparent and with the 1969 Housing act30 embraced by Manchester council, it could only deteriorate further The Downfall: It is hard to decipher whether it was the physical or social fabric of Hulme that started to degrade first. Within months the physical became apparent; the buildings construction had been rushed and with poor supervision of unfamiliar building techniques, reinforcing bolts and ties which held panels together were found to be missing and leaks soon started to occur31. On a rare foray into the estate - only two years after completion in 1973 - the city’s Director of Works was driven to virtual literary heights when describing his encounters with the “resident dog”, “phantom piddler of the lifts” and the vacant garage turned “cannabis den” with an “atmosphere of abandonment that pervaded the whole of Hulme”32. Following the visit, tenants and outsiders alike began to coordinate and a flat in the crescent was taken over for what became the ‘People’s Right Centre’; it became hugely effective at exposing conditions in Hulme to the media and through some skillful manipulation, coerced the council into making some improvements to the decks - although these were not well received by all residents33. A reduction in noise and vandalism was attributed to moving some of the ‘problem’ families from the decks, instead replacing them with childless couples or single households. The underfloor heating system which failed innumerable times was to be ripped out and the decks themselves were to be divided off every 50-yards; essentially changing each Crescent to four separate blocks themselves34. However, these changes could not stop the demise of the estate and two years later, a survey indicated that 97.3% of the residents wanted to leave Hulme with:

21


“Many people suffering from loneliness, depression and anxiety, finding the estate an intimidating place in which to live. Due to worry about street crime, drugs abuse and break-ins makes many people, particularly women and elderly people shut themselves up in their homes.”35

Manchester Council, still revelling in the victory of demolishing the 19th Century slums, rapidly faced the same battle to save its newly unloved slums of the 1970’s. The recently passed 1969 Housing Act - brought upon the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in London due to the disasters at Ronan Point - was a move toward the refurbishment of schemes rather than the wholesale demolition and rebuilding36. Encouraging the renovation of existing buildings, Manchester encountered a situation in which it could not afford another demolition, politically or economically, and made the decision to move all families off the crescent, alternatively populating the estate with all adult households. Bringing a second life to the estate, but perhaps not one the Council had envisaged, nor desired. This commitment was fulfilled by the 1980’s and with the removal of all children, Hulme soon became a dumping ground for the undesirable members of society. The Crescents were soon overcome with students, artists, travellers, squatters and drug addicts. This concentration led to an ever increasing crime rate. But it was not only the living that were subject to this treatment, with murdered cadavers dumped within the grounds it soon spawned an estate that appeared to exist without any connection or reference to the outside world. Continued deterioration through the 1980’s combined with rather lackluster rescue attempts by the city meant that relations between the council and tenants were so turbulent that ‘there must have been times when simply abandoning Hulme to the forces of nature would have seemed the easier option’37. Subsequently, the Crescents were recognised as one of the worst social housing schemes in British History; they severely challenged the viability of the ‘Streets in the Sky’ ideal after falling foul of both design and practical problems38.

22


The Estate & its Histoy

Notes 1.

Hulme Community Council, 1953

20. Parkinson-Bailey, 2000, p.192

2.

Ravetz, 2001, p.229

21. Ravetz, 2001, p.229

3.

I ndustrialised building techniques consist of mass produced and standardised construction parts and systems; often subsidised by the government. This reduces the cost and time taken for construction dramatically and thus allows building on a larger scale than previously capable in housing estates.

22. Smith, 2015 23. Griffiths et al., 1968 24. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.5 25. Ravetz, 2001, p.229 26. Middleton, 1991, p.26 27. Burridge and Orm, 1993, p.278-281

4.

Parkinson-Bailey, 2000, p.192

5.

Eisenman, 2004, p.41

6.

Design Museum, no date

7.

Eisenman, 2004, p.43

8.

Park Hill is a council estate in Sheffield, designed by Ivor Smith and Jack Lynn it was built between 1957 and 1961 it replaced the previous back-to-back housing which was synonymous with violent crime. Inspired by Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation and the Smithsons unbuilt schemes. It was seen as revolutionary at the time, with its concept resembling streets in the sky.

30. 1969 Housing Act was a responsive the Ronan Point collapse, in which the Ministry of Housing and Local Governments countrywide moved away from the total demolition and rebuilding of housing in turn of the renovation of existing buildings. This was supported by central government grounds landscaping, play areas, parking, et al.. Often, general improvement areas and housing action areas created a patchwork of refurbishment.

9.

Esher, 1981, p.206

31. Parkinson-Bailey, 2000, p.195

28. Views from the Crescents, 1991 29. Architects’ Journal, 1994, p.16

10. Hamilton, 2009

32. City Of Manchester, 1973

11. One of Park Hill’s leading design principles was that each floor had direct access to the ground at either end of the ‘decks’. What differed on the Hulme site was there was no bank for the crescents to be placed into. As a result of this instead of direct access to ground, what lay end of the decks was a less inviting service lift and stair core connecting them to the ground.

33. Ravetz, 2001, p.230 34. Beckham, 1978 35. Department of the Environment, 1990, p.13 36. Parkinson-Bailey, 2000, p.192 37. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.10 38. Parkinson-Bailey, 2000

12. Hulme Views Project, 1991 13. Hulme Views Project, 1994 14. Lynn, 1962 15. A scorched earth policy is a military strategy that involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. 16. Hackney, 1990, p.21 17. Rowntree, 1994 18. Manchester City Council, no date, p.7 19. Ravetz, 2001, p.229

23


fig.xii: Extract from Tenants_Representatives’s Year Two Review, showing some of the art present within the crescents.

24


The Art of Hulme The Art: By 1984 the council had essentially abandoned the Crescents, given up in their attempt to collect rent from those who were unable to pay along with maintaining the grounds and Hulme became the easiest place in the North of England for one to get tenancy. Its saving grace was its close proximity to Manchester’s educational complexes and with a glut of property and a dire shortage of student halls, the Crescents quickly became home to a new bohemia1. Hundreds of young, setting up home for the first time, were attracted by the cheap (or no) rent, its close proximity to the city centre and its surprising luxuriousness compared to the bedsits and shared houses available in the private sector. While it could not quite be described in the same light as the Left Bank of Paris or Greenwich Village in New York, it did have a unique appeal for anyone seeking an alternative urban culture. As such, along with students came artists, musicians, designers and photographers2, all embracing an ‘alternative lifestyle’ available on the Crescents. As the decks were classed as private property, policing was lackluster and most forms of illegal activity seemed perfectly acceptable; it was perhaps the impression of residents that in the M15 postal district the law of the land was not applicable. Crumbling buildings and general disarray of the area meant it was circumvented by the nine-to-fivers and with the authorities practically surrendering Hulme leaving it to its own devices, an apocalyptic charm prevailed running with a sort of ‘organised anarchy’. These new non-conformists made the Crescents their own, illicitly knocking flats together and forming shebeens, workshops and recording studios. Strange and unsolicited works of sculpture would appear overnight in walkways and public spaces3. Impromptu ‘Punxs Picnics’4 and dog shows were hosted on the open space with drugs and all night drinking freely available in this alternate society.

25


fig.xiii: ‘The Best Of Joy Division’ Album cover, photo on Princess Road Footbridge, Hulme

26


The Art of Hulme

Through these times, the music, art and subculture that emerged from Hulme created its own niche in the mythology of youth culture. This underground mecca of all things creative, a magnet for young people, was a catalyst for much of the emerging talent in Manchester; in the shadow of the concrete high-rises’, the Russell Club - a West Indian night-spot on Royce Road - was the venue in which Joy Division chose as the birthplace of their now infamous Factory Records club nights5, ultimately leading to the creation of the Hacienda in 1982 just north of Hulme. In fact, it seemed that every band and creative enthusiast associated with Manchester passed through Hulme: Joy Division, Simply Red, Lemm Sissay, Steve Coogan, Community Charge, and most pertinently a variety of Inner City graffiti Artists6. Graffiti was a dramatically important part of Manchesters street life and Hulme was the perfect stimulant to turn the cities shameless flirtation with the tantalising ‘art of the street’ into a long lasting connection of its culture. Graffiti was everywhere in the Crescents: “There were some fantastic murals on the sides of the walls and some people had done incredible things with pens and posters” - Hulme Resident

With creativity breeding creativity, the low - or non-existent - rent allowed the impoverished artists to settle, and combined with the freedom provided on the concrete island, encouraged and attracted artistic experimentation. Bringing life and colour into the community along with being fundamental in keeping the estate’s shops and pubs in business, the substantial number of remaining long-term residents got along with a suspicious tolerance. There was however, an underlying awareness that this was a precarious and transient phase in Hulme’s history. The People’s Art: Despite becoming an apparent mecca for artistic exploration and radical self-expression, not much was documented past the residents own anecdotes or recollections. Whereas art is typically monumentalised, the case in Hulme was quite the opposite. Individuals involved in these ephemeral art pieces instead conformed to an underlying informality and the distinctiveness about the art produced was it was designed for the

27


fig.xiv: Example of Hulme Graffiti, ‘Crusty fashion hints’, Hulme 1991

28



fig.xv: DJing in Hulme Courtyards, 1992

30


The Art of Hulme

proletarians and not the hierarchy it usually pandered to. As such, the fact there is little, or in some cases no documentation of what occurred within the crescents and its ground is simply because it wasn’t needed. The oeuvres benefits were for the community, driven by self-expression in an environment that not only allowed but encouraged it, rather than one which it was simply indulging. Much the same is to be said about the music scene; synonymous with the electronic squelching baselines of the Roland-303 synthesizer, Acid house had made its way from Chicago and took Manchester by storm. Born from the Crescents and a mere ten minute walk away, the Hacienda was not only the epicentre of this movement in Manchester, but became the symbolic homeground for its British convergence. However, the Hacienda may have well been in Chicago, as the real ‘soiree’ would be found in the kitchen. On the third floor of one of the crescents awkwardly with a pickaxe, three flats were knocked together creating a ‘super-squat-club’. It was to represent the epicentre of the musical movement within Manchester, attracting those as far as the Hacienda did, just with no entry fee and with illicit drugs even more readily available It is perchance no surprise that this urban wildlife was not documented in any other form today than the lucid dreams of those who were involved. The Change: This change came swiftly as Hulme became a magnet for heroin addicts. The lack of policing meant it was easy to score and the new relatively affluent residents were easy targets to burgle or mug to provide their next fix7. An architectural clothing for this excrescent lifestyle was found and unfortunately as such these activities appeared acceptable. These peripheral figures of society became more so and these outsiders became secluded and excluded. Hulme seemed to exist without connection or reference to the outside world, and even the inhabitants began to refer to it as ‘Planet Hulme’8. The Atmosphere changed from one of a certain apocalyptic charm to one of fear and oppression. As Hulme diminished, residents were no longer tolerant when returning to find their flat burgled once again, or flooded as a result of boiler thieves taking advantage of unoccupied properties overhead.

31


fig.xvi: Princess Road, Hulme, after the demise but before improvements, 1990

32


The Art of Hulme

Punks, goths, anarchists and urban philosophers alike decamped from the Crescents and headed to the estate agents - using deposits they sourced by not paying rent - and fled to the comparative safety of the southern suburbs9. Universities now warned students against venturing into the ‘social badlands’ they might see from the lofty windows of their lecture theatres or Halls of Residence and void levels started to escalate out of control; the population fell below the critical mass needed to support the local traders and business and left a socially and economically starved community in a blighted and deserted physical environment10. It appears that throughout the life of the crescents there was no simple architectural or social panaceas to the creation or maintenance of viable communities. The rapid social decline may be seen as a failure of the laissezfaire model, which was then present in the crescents after the abandonment of an ‘authoritarian figure’. Yet it is clear that this abandonment was only due to the failure of the traditional British direct provision management11 itself. The crescents and their decline suggest that, in this case at least, there is no defined perceptions of the nature of cultural poverty and how it manifests in the environment and we are nowhere nearer knowing how architecture might help create or enable communities, how it might help them to be sustained. Although the Crescents had become sufficient for the new skeleton community, life was by no means easy. The isolation of the estate and the economic decline of the area attracted problems of escalating crime, and for Manchester City Council, it had come to symbolise the problems of inner-city deprivation. Despite fights by the new community of tenants, in 1989 the council set out to find the funds needed to demolish the Crescents.

Notes -

1.

Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.8

2.

Ibid., p.8

10. Ibid., p.8

3.

Ravetz, 2001, p.230

4.

Punx Picnics refers to when a large gathering of ‘Punks’ in which music and drinking occurs.

5.

Hulme Views Project, 1994

6.

Chambre, 2011

7.

Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.8

11. The way Social Housing is structured, in particular its direct provision and management by local governments, sets the British housing system apart from its European neighbours whom channel state subsidy through independent housing authorities (and so are not a direct clients of the state)

8.

Ibid., p.8

9.

33

Ibid., p.8


fig.xvii: Dogs Of Heaven ‘Burning Phoenix’ celebration for the new Hulme Arch reconnecting Hulme to the rest of Manchester, 1997

34


The Regeneration Hulme Study: Tenant groups had become surprisingly adept at politics during this time of unrest with many of the ex-students who had stayed in Hulme past their studies becoming involved alongside the long standing residents. They began to organise the previously disjointed groups into an alliance, gaining a more effective and representative voice. Although soon to be successful, these alliances were not always popular with older campaigners, who felt that some of their concerns were being overlooked in favour of the endeavour. However, these new crusaders were starting to suggest a comprehensive approach to the redevelopment of the crescents looking further than just housing, but considering both the social and economical effect if Hulme was to go through demolition once again1. A perseverance with the crescents and a desire to ‘hold on to what we have’ was augmented through fears of being dispersed again and later turned to be a recurrent theme throughout the process of regeneration. These newly coordinated resident groups approached the Department of Environment who rather remarkably agreed to pay £200,000 for a comprehensive two-year study aptly entitled ‘The Hulme Study’2. There had been many studies of the estate before this time, even as far back as 1981-1984 with ‘The Hulme Project: “During the Hulme Project, officers from the various departments involved in the Hulme Project have been working with tenants across the area on a variety of proposals. These range from the demolition and redevelopment of some estates to relatively minor but essential building and landscaping works. Proposals are being developed in response to local needs and the views of local people. An overall strategy for Hulme, of the kind which existed when it was last redeveloped, has been avoided.”3 - Hulme Workshops

35


But what made a difference now was the acceptance that something drastic needed to be done; none of the previous and comparatively small ‘fixes’ had gone anywhere near repairing the problem which was laid in front of them. The Hulme Study, employing a full-time development worker alongside a series of consultants, was a unique government funded exercise into the structure, future and essentially the viability of a community on the site. Overseen by a tripartite supervisory group - social and economic, environmental and housing divisions - chaired by Valerie Karn, the then head of the Housing and Environmental Health department at local Salford University, the exercise was divided into two phases: First of which was to provided a snapshot of the area, allowing suggestions for immediate remedies. Second was to devise a longer term strategy, in turn hoping it would attract funding for further redevelopment4. Tenants placed an almost touching amount of confidence in the ‘Hulme Study’ which was long awaited and highly anticipated; unfortunately when published it was nothing but a disappointment and did by no means reflect the considerable amount of work not only carried out by the officers but by unpaid tenant volunteers5. The process itself was regarded as one of the most successful outcomes of the study; providing a forum from which tenants and officials could discuss the problems and achieve a consensus. Throughout the process it deepened the trend of professionalising tenant activists who soon became vastly knowledgeable about the housing, social and economical issues they were campaigning for, alongside the actual hierarchy and process within the central and local government divisions. With no resources of its own, combined with recommendations which were either simplistic or idealistic and without specific projects of focus, both the Department of Environment and Manchester City Council lost patience with the ‘Hulme Study’ and in 1990 the final phase was abandoned6, giving way to a bid for City Challenge.

36


The Regeneration

City Challenge: “A pilot exercise to encourage and assist imaginative, comprehensive plans for the regeneration of key urban areas that would have significant impact on their cities”7

For the first time since their conception, local authorities would have to enter a major competition to secure public funds. An approach radical in the 1990’s, with councils throughout the country denouncing it as an asinine ‘beauty contest’ that wouldn’t be able to address the predicaments facing the most desperate inner city communities. However, Michael Heseltine - the ‘Architect’ of the scheme - believed instead that it would address the dire state of the current framework for funding urban regeneration, which at the time was simply compounding problems. It offered no real choices, failing to stem the exodus of both residents and business from inner cities and essentially subsidised further failure rather than providing incentives. Heseltine’s City Challenge scheme intended to change this threefold by changing the culture within the local authorities themselves, drawing up a costed programme from the outset alongside the major spending department and finally decentralising government departments into regional offices to reinforce a more strategic approach, aimed at encouraging a common political vision for strategically important areas. Essentially: “providing the framework for a partnership involving the City Council, local residents, the private sector, Government and a range of agencies, to create a community and business mix which is sufficiently diverse to be self-sustaining and which will have strategic significance for the Cities as a whole”8

Manchester was one of fifteen councils invited to partake in this proposal, ten of which subsequently submitted detailed action plans on how they would spend the £37.5 million fund over a five year period. Manchester’s logical choice, of course, was Hulme. It finally offered the opportunity to put together a comprehensive vision for the area, building upon the otherwise fruitless Hulme Study. So important was this opportunity for Hulme, Manchester’s submission was hand delivered to the Department of Environment just a few hours short of the deadline; It’s contents, representing as much dedicated work from the unpaid tenant

37


fig.xviii: Hulme Noli Map, 1951 Victorian Dwellings, 1991 Hulme Crescents and 2000 Redevelopment

38


The Regeneration

representatives as it did Manchester Council’s own officers and by this time, all parties were so deeply implicated in a future for Hulme that no policy could possibly be allowed to fail9. “City Challenge is a unique opportunity for people to transform their areas. It will bring out the best in our cities by: • Co-Operations: City Challenge is a partnership between local authorities, local communities and business, voluntary groups and other organisations active in the area, backed by government support • Concentration: City Challenge puts resources to work in target areas, making programmes work together more effectively. • Competition: City Challenge restores civic pride as competition for resources bring out the enthusiasm and commitment of those living and working in the inner areas.”10

In August 1991, Manchester was declared a winner. A culmination of years of protests, debates and talking, the City Challenge scheme would be the vehicle to drive through the second comprehensive demolition and redevelopment of the Hulme site in 30 years. Finally, concrete plans for the demolition of the Crescents and surrounding lower decks could begin. “Hulme City Challenge Vision Statement: To bring about the lasting regeneration of Hulme, by providing the framework for a partnership involving the City Council, local residents, the private sector, Government and a range of agencies, to create a community and business mix which is sufficiently diverse to be self-sustaining and which will have strategic significance for the city as a whole.”11

£37.5 million represent a standardised ‘winnings’; it was a fee awarded to all winners of the scheme, taking no account of local conditions, It was a sufficient fund for most other projects, but was to be nowhere near enough the amount needed to meets Hulme’s needs. However, this initial injection of money was enough to successfully leverage substantial amounts of private funding; Housing Corporations, English Partnerships and practically all mainstream public sector programmes contributed to what was estimated to become at least double the original City Challenge amount12. The City Challenge project was managed by a new sovereign association, Hulme Regeneration Ltd. (HRL): an amalgamation of Manchester Council’s Hulme Subcommittee - a ternary partnership of the city’s

39


fig.xix: ‘Hulme; The Final Years. RIP’ Graffiti on abandoned car within the Hulme Crescents, 1991

40


The Regeneration

housing department, the housing associations operating in Hume and tenants - and the multinational development company AMEC. Their housing objects for the scheme were to: • •

Demolish 2,900 deck homes Construct a thousand plus new homes for rent, by partnership of housing associations • Construct 1,500 new homes for sale • Improve 600 city council owned homes develop initiatives to increase tenant influence over both the design of housing and its management, involving both new and existing houses13

Despite the apparent success, Hulmes residents were once again sceptical. Even after investing so much of their own time and resources into the scheme, they were strongly opposed to the demolition. Engraved in the Hulme psyche was a theme of holding on to what they had through fear of being dispersed again and it appeared that in this regeneration structure, the tenants had even less formal representation than before. Formal tenant representation resided in the Hulme Tenant Participation Project (HTTP), a unique and autonomous body composed of past and present residents and liberally funded by City Challenge and the Housing Co-operations14. HTTP experienced many familiar difficulties on top of possessing an ever diminishing number of constituents, due to those being rehoused simply losing interest. It was the women of the estate who played a crucial role, going to exhaustive and extensive lengths to prove their claim to be representatives and taking particular effort into finding previous residents who for a limited time had a right to return15. Despite the immense endeavour of HTTP to rescue Hulme ‘as-it-was’, they were unsuccessful, settling instead for a series of compromises: To avoid dispersion, the rights for current tenants to a tenancy - with an option to stay near existing neighbours - in the new Hulme was granted alongside the promise for as many squatters as possible given the right to stay and converted into new regular tenants. Previous tenants had the rights to return (over a given time period) and advanced allocations of tenancies, so occupant had the ability to prepare for their new homes before they were built and the ability to specify certain design details was granted. An

41


fig.xx: Hulme Masterplan Map, Victorian Dwellings, Hulme Crescents and Redevelopment

42


The Regeneration

affordable rent campaign was successful to the extent that rent levels were migrated to the base value of the land, likewise a demand for a one move only system for households during the redevelopment was advocated, but not practical for everyone16. Perhaps it was unsurprising given the history of conflict and disempowerments that the HTTP were only partially successful in their demands. However, the HRLs role was to plan monitor and coordinate the City Challenge programme and its component projects in accordance with an annually agreed action plan, and so they had to pay attention to demands proposed on them by the HTTP. Acting as the accountable body for City Challenge expenditure, HRL did not only liaise with many of the organisations with an interest in Hulme, but were able to exert influence over planning policy for the area. Desires of the residents were absorbed into what became the Hulme City Challenge’s Strategic and Operational Objectives. Only some of which specifically referred to housing provision, but all were concerned with ‘establishing Hulme as a strong residential and business community thriving in a transformed environment’17:

43


HULME CITY CHALLENGE’S STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES: 1 . Strengthen the local economic base • sustain and expand existing businesses • encourage new industrial and commercial development • build enterprise capacity within the local community 2. Improve access for local people to employment opportunities • expand and improve the quality of training provision • develop pre-vocational training initiatives and guidance • develop the transport infrastructure, including public transport • increase employment opportunities for local people 3. Improve the condition of the housing stock • demolish unfit housing • modernise and improve the retained Council housing stock 4. Increase housing choices for local people • Develop new housing for sale or rent, including low cost home ownership initiatives • development of local management of new Housing Association and existing City Council housing (including estate management boards, co-operatives) • promotion and support for tenant participation in the development and management of social housing in Hulme 5. Improve the quality of the the physical environment • environmental improvement strategy • develop new local public open spaces for recreational users 6. Sustain and develop local fabric • improve community safety and crime prevention initiatives • improve educational attainment in Hulme schools • improve the quality and accessibility of health services in the area • develop existing or new community facilities in response to changing residential patterns and demands • support local people through the re housing/redevelopment programme • resource the local voluntary sector more effectively and strategically • develop services and facilities for children and young people

44


7. Manage the City Challenge Programme effectively and with the widest involvement of local organisations and residents ...meaning that, by 1997, Hulme should be an area in which: • Local people (both the existing community and those moving to Hulme) will be housed in accommodation which meets both their housing needs and their aspirations. • There will be a greater range of housing choices available within the area, for those who wish to rent as well as for those who aspire to homeownership. • The built environment will be safe, clean and attractive to both local people and the strategic location of Hulme within Manchester. • The physical environment will be safe, clean and attractive to both local people and to those who wish to live, work or invest in the area. • The community will be better balanced in terms of household size and type, with significantly higher proportion of families with children. • Local employment opportunities will have been expanded significantly by the development of industrial and commercial enterprises and workspace for new small firms. The science park will become a centre for high technology excellence. • The level of unemployment will be no greater than that experienced generally within the city. • The are will be integrated with the rest of the city both physically though the road and transport infrastructure, and psychologically for those who live or work in the area. The local population will be stable and will have a long term commitment to the area. 18

45


fig.xxi: Demolition of the first of four Crescent in Hulme, 1994

46


The Regeneration

Alongside the delivery of Hulmes regeneration programme, it was recognised that it was Hulme’s image that also had to change drastically in the eyes of its residents, the public at large and any potential investors. Change had to be seen to happen and to happen successfully. As such, the monitoring of the City Challenge programme was built in from the start19. An independent monitoring team from Liverpool John Moores University’s European Institute of Urban affairs department was appointed through a tendering process. Throughout the five year period of the city challenge scheme, regular monitoring reports were to be undertaken on top of the internal reviews that the government required. These reviews built upon the exceptionally detailed baseline study in place at the start of the City Challenge and provided an invaluable depiction in monitoring the changes. The resources put into monitoring this regeneration were a rarity. Local authorities and regeneration agencies often wish to replicate successful programmes, but little is often recorded past the planning phases and records that do exist, do so with difficulty in attributing causes to effects with any certainty. The unpredictable and site specific nature of regeneration programmes often make factual results few and far between but these attempts to monitor and quantify the achievements (or failures) vastly help to establish successful future programmes of regeneration. Leveling the Crescents: On the night of March 27th 1993 Hulme was saying goodbye to the Crescents the ward’s monumental estate, equal parts concrete, shame and creative furor. While some visions of the future then existed, a ‘blank canvas’ approach and the demolition of the crescents still caused a shockwave of resentment through all those involved. Taking longer to demolish than it did to build with further engineering investigation shows that the robustness of the construction was much the same as the community behind it. The crescents were not content with letting go easily, complications arose during the demolition of the concrete giants and Manchester Council had to significantly increase the demolition budget. After three years, it was time for the first step in the complete rethink of Hulme as a community. “The long term inhabitants of Hulme have gone through several experiments and have been the victims of those experiments. They understand I think the value of what the modernists were saying about the light and air and space and I think that’s

47


fig.xxii: Crescents above under construction, contrasted between new Hulme development below

48


The Regeneration

been fully understood by the people who inhabited the crescents. They see there is a communal dimension to the decks, if they were properly built, and that’s what they want - because basically life is communal.” - Hulme Resident

The razing of the crescents became a symbolic event, staged by the local performance group ‘Dogs of Heaven’ commissioned by HRL it was the send off that the crescents deserved. With a more than generous budget of £13,000 provided by both HRL and the Arts Council, it attracted 10,000 members of the local and far out community. An event which may be seen to have lacked a specific story line and consisted of a spectacular display of pyromania and wanton destruction; Using the crescents as a theatrical backdrop to climbing acrobatics, dancing kinetic sculptures and even cars thrown from the top of six-storey blocks with an ‘ambience’ of live music and the booming sound of ‘napalm fireworks’. As described by one of the organisers: “We just had a lot of fun, blowing things up.. basically”20 - Charlie Baker

Despite the vast attendance not much of the demolition is documented. Video footage of the ‘Dogs of Heaven’ show has been lost over time, with only fragmentations appearing online and despite its importance countrywide, an apparent effort had been made to discourage the national press from sending reporters and video crews. Perhaps Manchester Council had learnt from the legacy which arose from the demolition of Pruitt Igoe (St Louis, Missouri, 1979) in which footage of the explosive demolition has been continually monumentalised over history to represent “the day modern architecture died”. Instead Manchester chose to celebrate this demolition by involving the community and their art. Holistically and carefully demolishing the crescents, as an act of encouragement and understanding the fact it will take time to build up this community once again, instead of simply blasting it with dynamite. On the other hand, with the show culminating in an: “Enormous effigy of Margaret Thatchers head, built Gerald Scarfe style off the front of a caravan and the climax of the show was reversing her head into this pre prepared big frame of pallets made to look like her haircut. So that as it went in we basically burnt Maggie Thatcher.”21 - Charlie Baker

49


fig.xxiii: North British Housing Association (NBHA) Stretford Road shops redevelopment, July 1999

50


The Regeneration

It was possible the local authorities just wanted to minimize the social, economic and political damage done by these crescents, even after their lifespan had come to an end. Housing the Tenants: All involved, not only the tenants found the regeneration process a difficult and unfamiliar one, the city’s housing department was also forced to abandon the long established management and design principles. A new design code commissioned by AMEC was based on the grid plan reminiscent of the Victorian town Manchester first demolished. Following the debate provoked by this apparent step-backwards, HRP appointed two community representatives to work alongside what was to result in a new Hulme design code. The concept behind this was ‘permeability’, rejecting the current fashion of the Radburn school of design22, instead favouring linkages and accessibility over the culs-de-sacs - fearing the same isolation found with deck-access would be repeated with a certain ‘island’ quality of these. Promoting a higher density rather than high-rise environment, streets were to be lined with terrace houses and small forecourts with gates and railings separating public and private domains. There would be limited parking provisions and a 20mph speed limit in residential areas and to add even more evocations of Victorian townscapes, a recreated ‘mini high street’ was developed with the supplement of a major supermarket taking over the former failed business centre. Small, informal parks were positioned to serve housing clusters and a new larger city park was placed favourably on the edge of Hulme23. Although the new principles were not accepted without considerable difficulties by the various bodies operating in Hulme, debate around road safety and accidents turned out to be, “one of the most emotive and rancorous that Council Chambers had seen for some time”24

and planning officers in particular feeling that they were simply being told to: “ignore national legislation, breach good faith, be deceitful and invent county policy that does not exist”25

Subsequently resulting in the resignation of Manchester City’s chief officers of engineering, planning and land and property. In Hulme however, the

51


fig.xxiv: ‘Make Hulme your next move’ advertising hoarding for new private housing development, 1997

52


The Regeneration

housing associations were coerced into this new strange school of design and were won over26. Extraordinarily after this, one of the more remarkable legacies of the Hulme regeneration was its lasting influence on housing policy for the rest of the city. Likewise the abandonment of ‘traditional’ planning strategy was shared in its management approach. But it soon came to attention that regardless of the tenants wanting better management, they didn’t necessarily want to undertake it themselves. “Tenant involvement is no longer seen as a ladder with full tenant management on the pinnacle. Indeed, such a solution could rather be interpreted as a failure on the part of those whose job it is to manage housing”27

Instead it was left to the Housing associations to govern and despite the understanding that simply replacing the crescents with new housing was never going to be the final solution to the problems, the social housing development was of necessity, a prominent feature of the plans for Hulme’s regeneration. Social housing providers were notably influential in the delivery of objectives, previously being seen outside of their remit, much of the early visible transformation and the correspondingly crucial strengthening of the local community was to be brought about by these bodies established to deal with the social housing programme28. Rather than simply a body to allocate units - as was common place from the sixties - all objectives given to them related to the success or failure of a resident’s ability to not only live, but thrive in this ‘new Hulme’. In fact, there was barely a single aim or objective of Hulme’s regeneration which was associated with what social housing providers’ responsibility usually encompassed in the nineties29. Everyone involved in the social housing element of the regeneration was prepared to go further in Hulme that they had gone before in the pursuit of a genuine transformation. It was probably no surprise then that there was to become a total of eight housing associations involved, including two large national associations and two completely new ‘community’ associations - who were still intent in saving some artifact of the crescents.

53


THE HULME HOUSING ASSOCIATION PARTNERSHIP North British Housing Association • responsible for building 610 properties • managing 243 Guinness Trust • building 405 properties • managing 155 Manchester and District Housing • managing 77 Mosscare Housing • Managing 90 Family Housing Association (Manchester) • Managing 90 Arawak Walton Housing Association • Managing 50 People First Housing Association • managing 250 properties Homes For Change Co-operative • Building 75 • Managing 75 34

HOUSING OBJECTIVES • Demolition of 2,900 deck-access homes • construction of a thousand plus new homes for rent, by a partnership of housing associations • construct 1,500 new homes for sale • improvement of 600 city council owned homes • development of initiatives to increase tenant influence over both the design of housing and its management, involving both new and existing houses.

54


The Regeneration

All were forced into working collaboratively in ways entirely new to them; with all associations involved obliged to follow practices such as, uniformity of rent, advanced allocations and a more lenient policy on pets30 - for many tenants owned ‘large number of very large pets’31. It was questionable why more than one needed to exist in the first place, as any advantages of diversity were virtually canceled by the successful negotiation of common standards and ultimately the numbers involved were described as: “partnership and diversity gone mad”32

Yet perhaps this multitude of providers hampered the culmination of an autocratic leadership and so provided the results wanted and needed by the Crescents residents. Unlike the overall aims of the Hulme City Challenge, the detailed tasks set by the housing authorities, as their part in achieving the aims, could not be so easily laid out as the start of the process. Some were clear and concrete, such as the housing objectives33. Yet others could only emerge as the regeneration processed and some unforeseen solutions came about after unforeseen situations arose. It was the housing associations - through Housing Plus Group - and the private housing developers, rather than the council who made significant contributions to the new Hulme. Ten corner shops were commissioned alongside a community centre and surgery, to help boost the local economy with a promise that 20% of the contractors would be sourced locally. Alongside infrastructure, there was an inclusion of household insurance schemes, support for the disabled and youth and enterprise schemes; which included a credit union and furniture project with the community cafe35. However, one of the most unexpected and most dramatic achievements of these housing associations materialized from the alternative urban culture of the infamous crescents, in the form of Homes for Change. A tenant led housing co-operative, placed under the jurisdiction of the Guinness Housing trust - one of the most large and venerable trusts involved - at great insistence from the Housing corporation, comprised of ‘such an unlikely collection of articulate and informed residents in a deprived

55


fig.xxv: ‘Homes for Change’, ‘Work for Change’ and ‘Build For Change’ founding members inside the Homes for Change courtyard, 1996

56


The Regeneration

area’36. Housed in what was the greenest building in Europe at the time37, it was designed to reproduce the community that developed on the crescents, with their: “Tolerance of different lifestyles and the rich mixture of living, working and playing which characterised them at their best”38

It accommodated two smaller, sister, co-operatives, Build for Change and Work for Change all of whom worked collectively, holding community building classes, a small theatre for local performances and a workshop in which the aforementioned youth and enterprise schemes could take place. Despite the complex forming a privileged enclave for young, white, middle-class ex students, therefore sitting rather uneasily in the traditional working-class Hulme, it formed one of the extraordinary British housing developments of the decades39.

Notes 1.

Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.10

2.

Ibid., p.11

3.

Hulme History, no date

4.

Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.11

22. Radburn school of design led the way with the then current fashion of Culs-de-sacs, which gave priority to the separation of vehicles and pedestrians, while their layout and pedestrian paths were also supposed to deter break-ins.

5.

Ibid., p.11

23. Ravetz, 2001, p.233

6.

Ibid. p.11

24. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.81

7.

Department of the Environment, 1991

25. Ibid., p.82

8.

Manchester City Council, 1992

26. Ravetz, 2001, p.233

9.

Ravetz, 2001, p.230

27. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.105

10. Department of the Environment, 1991

28. Ibid., p.20

11. Manchester City Council, 1992

29. Ibid., p.20

12. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.18

30. Ravetz, 2001, p.232

13. Manchester City Council, 1992

31. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.97

14. Ravetz, 2001, p. 231

32. Ibid., p.27

15. Ibid., p.231

33. Manchester City Council, 1992

16. Ibid., p.231

34. Ibid.

17. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.18

35. Ravetz, 2001, p.232

18. Manchester City Council, 1992

36. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.59

19. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.20

37. Ravetz, 2001, p.232

20. Hulme-History, 2014

38. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.59

21. Ibid., 2014

39. Ibid., p.59

57


fig.xxvi: Gaiai Bloom Arts Event, 1992

58


Art & Regeneration The Arts as a Regenerator: Arts and Artists both have a long history of contributing to places and communities experiencing change. The arts and their subsidiary forms are uniquely able to comment, reflect, interpret and inspire harmoniously and are increasingly recognised as a key part of a process that can help shape new environments and engage communities1. Emerging from an established tradition on public art, it appears that the visual arts are more traditionally associated with regeneration, with a large variety of imaginative responses that visual artists are able to make to regeneration initiatives throughout every stage in the process. It is important to highlight the diverse range of art forms contributing to physical, social and economic change; Contributions from other art forms such as performance and multi-disciplinary arts hold powerful roles in bringing together new and existing communities in a positive and meaningful way2 which should surely be considered the fundamental notion of a successful regeneration. By nature, regeneration is never finished, arguing that even with the most successful schemes, regeneration only begins once the project is actually complete. Whilst regeneration can take many years - even decades is some acute instances - to fully embed itself back into the environment, artistic interventions are often judged in a much shorter term. Many wrongly use arts as a means of regeneration and it is necessary to stress the existence of different regeneration models, underlying that a lot of urban intervention projects under this umbrella of ‘regeneration’ are simply redevelopment initiatives, holding a strong focus on solely infrastructure, new residential development and facilities. Proper regeneration should also integrate specific social actions within these physical features: educational training, 59


fig.xxvii: Training local people for jobs, Work for Change 1998

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employment support and community building initiatives. Hence, cultural led regeneration, should instinctively use culture as a tool in all its strategic action. Public art can act as a vehicle to integrate social and physical dimensions of cultural regeneration, namely contributing to place-making, education and job creation, along with cultural participation and civil engagement3. It’s important to note that public art defined within this concept includes different manifestations - sculptures, videos, music performances, etc - located outside of the conventional premises - museums, galleries and so on - instead of in the public spaces. These arts may be permanent or temporarily positioned or performed within the overall public sphere. In such spaces art imposes a presence upon the general public, often conveying meanings and raising social or political issues and so participates in or stimulates and encourages the public debate.Hulme Project have been working with tenants across the area on a variety of proposals. These range from the demolition and redevelopment of some estates to relatively minor but essential building and landscaping works. Proposals are being developed in response to local needs and the views of local people. An overall strategy for Hulme, of the kind which existed when it was last redeveloped, has been. Community Art: One of, if not the greatest assets of Hulme has traditionally been its artistic talents. With many of the young inhabitants practising photographers, painters and sculptors, the flats of the crescents made perfect studios - in fact some of the studios could be considered works of art themselves - and the Housing Associations were rather quick to acknowledge this. A planned percentage for art policy was originally to be taken out of the development but, unfortunately this was never to be fulfilled through the City Challenge budget. But there was still a great desire and determination to incorporate works of art on individual schemes; in fact the associations were to take some considerable financial risks in commissioning work when presented with only ‘seedcorn’ funding4. At the ‘Community Planning Weekend’ - a weekend between the 19th and 23rd of November 1992, organised by HRL and the Hulme Tenants Participation Project, its intention was to get the community to come 61


fig.xxviii: Planning during the Hulme Community Planning Weekend, 1992

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together and discuss how to create ‘the heart of Hulme’5 - a workshop on Arts and Culture was well attended by Hulme’s artistic colony It was acknowledged early on that there was great potential to bring visitors and investment into the regeneration area. ‘Building on the weekend’6, a report published after this event had a specific heading for culture, outlining the specific wants of those who attended; “-Establish cultural umbrella organisation to promote Hulme-based events, including performances, and perhaps many other associated with the park - Suitable building(s) should be identified for community use and ownership. A prime example would seem to be the North Hulme Centre, although the Hippodrome and Romany City/Labour Club on Bonsall Street are also unused at the moment - Trust could act as holder on behalf of an existing group or a new building management group.”7

However, as appears to be common in the underfunded arts world, there was no one group to offer specific focus or strategy, with the HRL not providing an Arts and Culture officer - as paradoxically it was not seen as a delivery mechanism8. Nonetheless this lack of strategy and direction did not result in a lack of art; indeed in much the same ad-hoc and ‘for-thepeople’ mentality that preserved in the crescents, this new Hulme would come to hold a vibrant legacy of artistic interventions. A rich mix of traditional tenants’ audacity and determination coupled with the new urban culture of students’, artists’ and squatters’ outrageous creativity, alongside support from the Rowntree Foundation, brought a flourishing of public and community art projects to the redevelopment9. Hulme’s environment itself was celebrated with the ‘Signs of Life’ project, which was the first commissioned by the North British Housing Association: residents themselves selected local artist Jane Poulton to carry out a series of motifs in artstone10. The motifs were reminiscent of many symbols that can be found integrated into the older buildings on the site and evoked an emotional significance in the way of peace, friendship and prosperity11. Indeed, considerable amounts of the earlier artwork commissioned was entrusted with conjuring impassioned memories of the past. History took an important role throughout the regeneration: the Centenary Project again by Jane Poulton but on a different scheme - commemorated the past trades of Hulme, as Poulton identified twenty past residents of the site in 63


fig.xxix:窶右xtract from Hulme Views Project, 1991

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1985 and their trade at the time represented through symbols carved into relief12. ‘Hulme Sweet Hulme’ run by the Public Engagement Fellowship of Manchester School of Arts involved works with residential groups, creating a living history exhibition of past and present. Its emphasis was on the act of working together rather than the final outcome13. Additionally, media publications were written and circulated in the form of the Hulme Views Project. Over 15 months and two volumes it gave a place to submit memories, photographs and illustrations of all those ‘Hulmans’14 who wished to contribute15, it was a way of recording people’s experiences and feelings about living in Hulme, and perhaps most importantly their aspirations and expectations of the future16. The Hulme PIG (Public Information Gazette)17, a local estate newspaper initiative for the people living in Hulme, which was produced during the years in the Hulme Community Activities Centre18, gave a more satirical yet journalistic view of the happening past and present. It was not only the North British Housing Association funding these artistic projects, nor the residents lending their memoirs, Guinness Trust commissioned a stained glass window for their new estates office in memory of a colleague which sat alongside a large structural mural from glazed brick donated to the new community centre19. With most of the artworks commissioned undertaken by local artists, considerable interest and participation from the community was spawned, a process which allowed a greater self-expression from an unanticipated number of residents. The Aquarius Community Central Mural involved local teenagers visited the brickworks factory, abetted by artists from the local Fine Arts Department, they were to cut their own bricks for the construction. Furthemore, all users of the community centre were to cast hand or footprints to be incorporated into the walls20, which was perhaps meant to psychologically go some way in associating these new developments with part of the community from the outset, giving them a sense of worth and a discouragement of vandalisation. Local graffiti artists - who had been operating in Hulme for years - were now legitimately allowed to spray away with near careless disregard. Young locals under the tutelage of the experienced artists created exquisitely beautiful, yet temporary, works of art21.

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fig.xxx: Bonsall Street prior to demolition after community grafiti session, 1992

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Likewise established entirely by Hulme residents, Gaia ‘92, started life in the form of an article posted in a 1992 issue of the PIG. Campaigning for art in City Challenge, simply asking for the missing 1% of the budget that should have been devoted to the arts. “We all know that the housing, social and economic problems are the priority and with tight budgets and hard pressed public agencies it is difficult to argue for the arts. But Gaia does not argue for art for arts sake. It believes that the redevelopment will be all the more successful if the arts are taken seriously as a regeneration tool.”23

Later renamed ‘bLoOm arts’, it championed the use of arts in regeneration and ran a series of community based art projects which ran alongside the redevelopment, despite their lack of funding from City Challenge. Hulme today probably. has a greater number of artists per square mile than any other part of Manchester and possibly the country. There are also writers, photogra­ phers, musicians, actors and video artists. The role of art in our cities is now widely accepted, it brings life to the streets, it makes a place unique, it adds character, interest and humanity. The role of art in regeneration is also increasingly recognised as a powerful tool to show confidence in an area’s future, to improve the environment and the image given to the outside world. bLoOm will enable local artists to get involved in the Hulme City Challenge process.”24

Whilst HRL didn’t support these activities financially, one thing they did lend their assistance to was that of the legacy of organised or spontaneous festivals that were prevalent in the crescents lifetime. HRL continued to support the events during the regeneration with both the ‘groundbreaking’ and openings of new buildings companioned with celebrations and parties. Even the demolitions were turned into works of art, such as seen at the crescents demolition - with the Dogs Of Heaven event. Yet their interest was untowardly in using cultural renewal as a means for investment22. Requiring major capital investment from City Challenge, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the private sector, high profile projects such as the Nia Centre for African and Caribbean Culture, the Zion Performing Arts Centre and proposals for the old hippodrome, were built on essentially commercial enterprises, relying on Hulme to be promoted as a quality arts venue, rather than subsidising an ‘artists quarter’ for the specific use of the locals and community25. Although Capital Investment schemes and Cultural Regeneration plans both use the role of art as a regeneration tool they could not be further apart in their

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programmes. However in its totality, art as a tool in regeneration should not be dismissed lightly. Its role has many commercial benefits alongside near universal utilization with all ages and maintains an accessible, participatory and educational process that has the possibility to engage all residents in producing valuable and cared for assets for all the community. Social Inclusion of Arts: For Hulme, having suffered severely from social exclusion in its past life, it was of paramount importance that this was not to be allowed to happen again and these newly formed (albeit originating from prior cultural origins) co-operatives held the potential for a positive integration of social and cultural regeneration policies. Social life itself is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon which affects different aspects of social and collecting life to different degrees. A manifestation of social exclusion can appear alone or in any such combination of social or economic antagonism; an exclusion from labour market or social and education services often leading to poverty, a lack or weakness of social relations and their networks and even a lack of participation through stigmatisation or non pro-active attitude towards social life itself26. Exclusion can also be associated with physical elements, not only through spatial segregation but also generally poor environmental quality and urban decay27. To tackle this exclusion the housing co-operatives of Hulme aimed to encourage a wide range of practices, and the contribution of public art and their process as a regeneration activity - through the involvement of citizens in the place-making processes - featured prominently to achieve the social benefits in their manifesto28. Place-making itself can have an extensive influence on the social inclusion - or exclusion - of local communities and art is capable of becoming a constitutive element of regeneration, providing a particularly unique relation with public space it can have an often positive social impact. As such, it is the assumption that public art, particularly when intentionally integrated with the regeneration and social policy as a whole, can combat both the physical and nonphysical dimensions of social exclusion. With the physical a more conventional matter; a contribution to place management and beautification of public spaces, aimed at improving both environmental quality and psychological place attachment29. The nonphysical provides a 68


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more broader contribution; community and personal involvement in artmaking can be a vehicle to learn new abilities and provide new perspectives and potential roles in the labour market - suggesting the potential for a more appealing avenue of educational training or even directly providing opportunities for participation in cultural production30. Any positive effects in tackling the physical and nonphysical dimensions of social exclusion through the arts may occur only under the conditions that public art and urban regeneration initiatives have specific ‘participatory’ features. With the assumption that relational and participatory public art can better promote multiculturalism and citizens’ engagement in social issues, integrating its potentials into the delivery of the regeneration policy. What results is an art practice committed to social intervention, rather than merely aesthetic aims, and a reduction in social exclusion and isolation31. Interestingly enough this is exactly what was being practised in the previous life of Hulme, during the height of the crescents bohemian timeline and before any regeneration initiatives - if not in a ‘slightly’ less regulated manner.

Notes -

1.

Arts Council England, 2007, p.1

2.

Ibid., p.1

16. Ibid., 1991

3.

Ibid., p.2

17. Ravetz, 2001, p.236

4.

Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.65

18. Hulme history, no date

5.

Hulme history, no date

19. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.65

6.

Hunt Thompson Associates, 1992

20. Ibid., p.66

7.

Ibid.

21. Ibid., p.66

8.

Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.65

22. Ibid., p.66

9.

Ravetz, 2001, p.236

23. Hulme history, no date

15. Hulme Views Project, 1991

10. Artstone is often comprised of a selfhardening clay or powder which can be used to cast sculptures or statues that resemble made out of stone.

24. Rudlin, 1993 25. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.66 26. Tornaghi, 2014 27. Ibid.

11. Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.65 12. Ibid., p.65

28. Ibid.

13. Setterington and Manchester School Of Art, no date

29. Ibid. 30. Ibid.

14. ‘Hulmans’ became a local moniker for those who lived in the Hulme estate

31. Ibid.

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fig.xxxi: Graffiti artists in an underpagge in Hulme, 1986

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Capital Investment & Cultural Regeneration Welcome to Britain: Cultural projects have played an increasingly important role in British urban regeneration since the mid-1980’s with developments soon moving away from that of capital projects and more onto the cultural; using the facility of arts activity to support and develop community-led renewal. Britain in particular has shown an ever increasing interest in participatory arts programmes, due to the flexibility and responsiveness to local needs along with their comparatively low cost. Use of arts coincides with a shift in emphasis in regeneration strategies towards seeing local people - rather than solely the architecture - as the principal asset through which renewal can be achieved. Arts programme have been shown to be effective routes to a wide range of social policy objectives; However, regeneration agencies wishing to harness the arts are experiencing difficulties in replicating previous successes due to the often insufficient documented evidence. Funding initiatives, such as the National Lottery etc., also favour large scale capital projects due to their perceived publicity1, in turn severely limiting

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sources supporting urban renewal through cultural activity in many of Britain’s most disadvantaged communities. Artists and cultural organisations have always contributed to the vitality and character of cities, essentially becoming urban regeneration catalysts themselves. In fact this was by no means a new discovery in the eighties; since the late 1960’s America showed how effectively they can contribute to urban renewal through the creation of artists studios’ and ‘cultural quarters’ in run down districts. The dilemma with large cultural regeneration projects based on solely capital programmes was that they were often costly by nature with a comparatively long time scale. It was only in the aftermath of the 1981 recession that British governments began to look upon these American and European parallels. However, instead of utilizing these for community regeneration, the use of cultural activity to fuel urban regeneration was principally economic in concept and purpose2. Art in its entirety as a regenerator was given a significant legitimacy boost by a Policy Studies Institute Survey: ‘The Importance of the Arts In Britain’, which presents the arts as an economic body employing 500,000 people and representative of the fourth biggest invisible export earner3. Alongside, the British American Arts Association hosted a series of contemporary conferences which contributed to the positive perceptions of art amongst both local authorities and private developers. Citing the redevelopment of Liverpool docks, into the TATE of the north, maritime museum and TV Studios, as a successful example of cultural regeneration via capital projects. Likewise, with major cities such as Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham committing millions of pounds towards cultural development strategies, the notion of the ‘cultural industries’4 had landed in Britain. Capital Investment vs Cultural Regeneration: Although there was no doubt that capital investment were a much more important catalyst, leaving worthwhile and lasting impressions in the areas it was located, the Capital projects appeared to leave unpublicised drawbacks. With major infrastructure needed, they were costly ventures, not only in their construction but often requiring substantial public sector revenue and support upon completion. It often economically benefited 72


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the construction industry and wider community rather than the locals themselves and there was regularly an animosity left between the two. The growing awarenesses of these limitations and their inappropriateness for smaller town schemes was enough of an incentive for professionals to investigate the links between urban regeneration and cultural activity5 - so began the change of response, from Capital to Cultural. With a focus now on renewing citizenship through cultural activity, many specialists began to see the human potential of a community as its most important asset. Wealth creation, social cohesion and quality of life all ultimately depend on confident, secure citizens who feel empowered and thus are able to fulfil their potential - The Arts were being turned into both a physical and psychological mechanism able to activate individual community development6. Cultural programmes were soon prioritised over capital investment - not only were they comparatively much cheaper and cost-effective, but they were able to be deployed quickly into a variety of completely different environments and develop instantly in response to local needs and ideas. Offering potential high return at very low risk7, the impact that they could provide was out of all proportion to their costs. Since their use in Hulme, Britain now has many more examples of the successful use of cultural initiatives in urban regeneration, each showing a number of important benefits. By comparing these instances of positive contribution to local vitality and urban renewal, it is clear to see why the use of arts is such a special force in urban regeneration. By no means do arts programmes have a monopoly on contributions to urban renewals and of course other methods of social programming can be equally effective, however, they do encompass a psychological uniqueness of character. Encouraging creativity results in a better understanding of problem solving; art often has an underlying ambiguous meaning which encourages a dialogue between different people and social groups who perhaps would not normally interact. This ambiguity encourages questioning and the imagination of other possibilities, leading to a positive output for self-expression - an essential characteristic of an active citizen. Above all these programmes were both unpredictable and fun for those involved, often a fundamental feature in success with any public scheme8. What is established is an attraction to those who have found conventional educational opportunities ‘inappropriate’ to them. The participation in 73


fig.xxxii: Hulme Crescents on a ‘usual’ day, 1989

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arts can improve and widen their life choices and give them confidence in a positive manner and these members usually become key agents in restoring vitality and confidence within the wider local communities9. Although Arts programmes should not be considered an alternative to accepted alternative regeneration initiatives - such as environmental improvements, training schemes or youth developments - but can, and have been, a vital component to transforming a given situation. Culture of Arts: It is important to state that obviously our culture is more than arts; it is about a lived experience of place and time. Culture focuses on what is special about the town and its people along with how its history can foretell its future, in this case, everything about a town can then be considered a potential resource for regeneration: its artistic and archaeological history is as important as its built form and architectural heritage. The landscape, topography, amenities and landmarks are as crucial as the attractiveness and legibility of the public spaces they encompass. Indigenous and recent ethnic traditions, accent and dialect as imperative as local products and manufacturing, craft skills and services. The quality of retailing, leisure, sport and entertainment hold as much significance to the culture as the traditions of the public social life, civic traditions, festivals and rituals. Along with the new subcultures and cultural industries - including those brought by the youth - film, music and digital technology as prominent a feature as the skills in the traditional arts, performing and painting. Culture is a summary term which describes the atmosphere created by people in context with the place they live in10. It is rarely expressed in literature, instead expressed with physical form and activity. Creating a successful partnership between all three aspects discussed arts, culture and urban regeneration - requires a more imaginative and applied understanding of the inner working of culture than the normal traditional architectural educational focus on aesthetic values generally allows. Enigmatically, art in a cultural regeneration setting is concerned with not the quality of art produced but with only what the artists are trying to achieve, who they are trying to achieve this with and how it relates to themselves, those around them and their needs and aspirations11. Essentially this public art produced as part of a regeneration is not bound for galleries and auction houses expecting high price tags, nor was it ever 75


fig.xxxiii: Homes for Change (left) and Otterburn Close.1996

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intended for these situations. This art is simply a way in which residents are able to communicate more efficiently in a controlled environment beneficial to all those around them - rather than defacing the newly completed community centre they are housed in with these messages. The Crescents Legacy: Twenty years on from the demolition of the crescents, their artistic and cultural spirit lives on as strongly as ever in the form of the housing co-operative, Homes for Change. A product of the ‘cultural activist’ community that thrived in Hulme though the seventies, eighties and nineties as the Crescents fell into disrepair Co-founded by Carlie Baker one of the leading participants in what was as close as one could get to an organised community group during the crescents’ lifetime, Dogs of Heaven - Homes for Change is a physical embodiment of the character of the Hulme community that created it. Although much smaller, dramatically less dangerous and less anarchic and as some say, perhaps not as creative or exciting as it used to be, the legacy survived the demolition and still remains today12. Built in the same brutalist architecture, system built style, its physical design echoes the Crescents deck access features and stands out in the new Hulme which is otherwise dominated by low-rise flats, traditional-style terraces and student accommodation. Dominating the heart of Hulme, to many, the building is a symbol of the area’s rebirth. It is based on a recognition that, whilst the Hulme build in the sixties may have failed, a byproduct was that it had nurtured a strong and unconventional community13. This rather unconventional community still resided in the area, and in fact they had fought to stay. They liked Hulme; the proximity to the city centre, the tolerance of the community and the close network of neighbours14. These were the positive aspects of urban living which for them comprised their sense of community and place-making, even in the centre of what was considered to be one of the country’s most notorious system-built housing estates. Its original vision, Homes for Change was to create secure housing for those who had enjoyed the vibrancy and creativity of the Crescents, building upon the cultural businesses that had flourished in the area - in turn hoping to bring the ‘’blue collar’ work back into the inner city and to develop rather than criminalize its grey economy’15. Opposite is Hulme Community Garden Centre, run by the sister co-operative, Work for Change - housed within 77


fig.xxxiv: Homes for Change building, 1998

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the Homes for Change building - it provides for green space and work and volunteering opportunities. A cafe at the entrance of Homes for Change, Kim by the Sea, now passing through a range of iterations it provides one of the only animated street corners left in Hulme. When launched, the City Challenge funded development brought the same fear of community destruction as the first slum clearance; parts of the local community feared that these benefits might be lost and so conceived Homes for Change as a lifeboat to preserve at least part of the local community. The co-operative sought not to reject the past - as was appearing to happen through City Challenge - but to build upon it, reusing the best points of the Crescents. Simultaneously they used their (very practical) experience of its failings to ensure that these same problems would not be repeated in the new development16, providing a “Fighting chance to make a genuinely socially sustainable place, that will last longer than the 20-30 years anywhere else in Hulme has ever lasted since it was first laid out in the 1890’s” - Charlie Baker

Homes for Changes relevance is not so much the architecture of the building, despite its striking design and systematic resemblance to that of the Crescents, but the process by which it was built. What is illustrated is that when local people are given a full and informed choice over their environment, the result need not be the blandness which has characterised so much community architecture17. It has been suggested that this development is the result of a unique combination of circumstances of people, both past and present. By using their knowledge and experience they have managed (with this co-operative) to create a vastly successful community model of regeneration, using a combination of public arts, place making and tenant involvement, which many groups have subsequently sought to copy, with varying success. Replication: Recently regeneration and redevelopment policies, targeted at reducing economic decline, are increasingly looking at the presumed power of art and its cultural impact to lead the ‘urban renaissance. This new so called ‘cultural’ way - consisting of either/or culture-led regeneration and cultural regeneration itself - is considered to become one of the most successful strategies to counter the urban decay which has followed the 79


post-fordist turn in the Western city’s economy18. It’s approach advocating the arts, claiming that public art can positively contribute to regeneration policies less engaged with social justice and designed around a softer model of ‘social inclusion’ is expressed in the ‘third way’ political approach19. Regeneration agencies wishing to harness the arts experience problems because the models of success and key factors in replication are insufficiently known. The difficulty encountered by many local authorities and regeneration agencies when faced with the potential of the arts is often a practical one: where to begin. Successful initiatives are still relatively few, and often known only locally or among specialists. Where they have been reported, it is anecdotally. Attempts have rarely been made to quantify their achievements, or compare their cost-effectiveness with other forms of intervention. The key factors in their success - which are central to the question of replicability - are not analysed. The problem is not made easier by the relatively unpredictable nature of arts activity20. The outcomes of an initiative cannot be foreseen with the reliable detail of a capital investment. However, even now in view of the recent financial crisis we might question the reliability and stability of capital programmes; investment in either sense, cultural or capital, is not a scientific certainty by any representation. “The market is not driven by experience or technology but by emotion”21

Regeneration is as individual as the place in which it happens. It means very different things and is not surprising that it should be triggered or supported by an equally wide range of cultural catalysts 22. Hulme was home to so many unique and iconic features of regeneration that it is hard to see in it a pattern that could be followed by estates throughout the country. It contained a cultural mix not to be found anywhere else and its location close to a vibrant city centre makes it almost impossible to find a site quite like it. Hulme and its story mattered to its authority, partly as a degree of compensation owed for past planning mistakes and partly Manchesters attempt to modernise and redeem its own image as a city23. Despite Hulmes successful reconnection with Manchester providing no guarantee of estates throughout the country having equal success, there are some lessons which can be readily transferred.

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Neglected inner-city or small town estates, do not have Hulmes special advantages and instead have to rely on an assortment of housing policies, now in force partially as a result of the Hulme estate, to remedy poverty and its manifestations in social housing. An increased diversity of tenure on estates and increased investment of repair and modernisation go some way in stopping the failures which were found in the Crescents. Along with stricter management and a firm forecast on rising rents, Housing Association have started to block from the right to buy in an attempt to stop the gentrification of the area. Policies providing such economic initiatives for jobs and training are becoming more generally accepted for areas of deprivation with the hope that in the long term these would impact on difficult estates24. Hulme is by no means the end for experimental regeneration of estates by means of one policy measure or another, yet it has become a model for the regeneration of other distressed neighbourhoods; with new ideas for neighbourhoods governance and culture, now exported in the wider practice of ‘urban regeneration’25. Whereas it remains to be seen if any policy alone will be able to eventually shrink poverty ro vanishing point, the old idea of using the estate dwelling themselves as tools to eradicate poverty has now gone for good.

Notes 1.

Landry et al., 1995, p.1

14. Ibid., p.263

2.

Ibid., p.2

15. Kidd, 2015

3.

Myerscough and Staff, 1988

16. Rudlin and Falk, 2006, p.263

4.

Landry et al., 1995, p.2

17. Ibid., p.263

5.

Ibid., p.2

18. Tornaghi, 2014

6.

Ibid., p.2

19. Stevenson, 2004

7.

Ibid., p.3

20. Landry et al., 1995, p.13

8.

Ibid., p.3

21. Fainstein, 2001, p.66

9.

Ibid., p.31

22. Landry et al., 1995, p.32

10. Ibid., p.3

23. Ravetz, 2001, p.235

11. Ibid., p.3

24. Ibid., p.235

12. Kidd, 2015

25. Ibid., p.239

13. Rudlin and Falk, 2006, p.262

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fig.xxxv: ‘Reasons to be cheerful’ advertising hoarding for new social housing development, 1995

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Conclusion Hulme City Challenge ended in March 1997, although work continued on the development for many years to come. Hulme Regeneration Ltd gave way to the Moss Side and Hulme Partnership and whilst it incorporated many of the HRL team it was not known how far the work of HRL would guarantee a sustainable future for Hulme. It resembled many other regeneration projects, such as the valiant rescue programmes of Meadowell and Broadwater Farm along with countless projects where tenants became responsible for the design or management of their own estates. However, there was a special intensity about Hulme because of its long - and long remembered - history of clearance, failed redevelopment and struggle1. “Those who stayed through it all emerged from a ravaged area of the very fringe of society, through years of uncertainty, demolition and reconstruction, to a newfound dignity and security in homes they regarded as ‘superior to most of the private housing that has been built”2

What made Hulme significant and quite possibly unique was the coming together of community as professionals, the housing associations replacing the council as ‘social landlords’ and a particularly dogges tenant experience which held a long tradition of resistance and protest - which until these event had not yet been able to realise their potential3. It’s regeneration was going to be tough and the outcome by no means guaranteed yet notably, some 70% of Hulmans elected to stay on, some second or even third generation council tenants returners from a sixties diaspora. Although the travellers and others who had used Hulme as an urban-crash-pad were shed, an understandable fear of being swamped by homeowners proved unfounded. But members of the alternative urban culture who first came as students or squatters now became settled and family-orientated citizens and even former protest groups transformed into established service and care providers.

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fig.xxxvi: ‘New’ Hulme North British Housing Association (NBHA) development, Chichester Road

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Conclusion

However since Hulmes present embodiment, growing protests from parts of the community who have begun to feel alienated from the increasingly commercial focus of development have appeared. These sentiments were somewhat shared by the Urban Task Force following a visit to the area in 1999; their reaction however was more a disappointment that this new Hulme had failed to live up to all that was promised. Greeted with an unnerving paradox, where the end looked to was not a utopian social order, instead the expectation of mixed-use urban-quarters was met with the somber reality that some parts of Hulme were more akin to a ‘normal’ suburban character4. It appeared that instead of promoting what was good about Hulme and using that to aid in its redevelopment, City Challenge (or the majority of it) simply converted a much disabled environment to one which was normal enough to blend in with, ‘the norm’5. Well 90% of the pubs and people are gone. We’ve gone back to red bricks and through roads. It’s changed forever, but that’s how it is. - Hulme Resident

With the Crescents representing the entropic epicentre of the city’s countercultural scene for over a decade, perhaps the question which then arises is whether Hulme should be criticised from falling so far short of what it could have been, or praised for being so much better than similar schemes elsewhere. Looking at the history of Hulme Crescents within the scope of this work, it can be suggested that the specific problems of individual urban areas can not simply be answered by imposing development that is based exclusively on the contemporary fashions or the then popular ideology of architecture and urban planning. The ‘scorched-earth policy’6 which had been adopted in the first wave development - and throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s in Britain as a whole - is likely to have been severely detrimental to the success of any redevelopment on site as a neighbourhood, causing an irreversible social dislocation and loss of community. As well as this, there was the unwarranted financial pressure from wider government onto local authorities to adopt a building system broadly untested in its prescribed condition. The first of two redevelopments of Hulme became of such scale that the area was to become identified with its buildings, not the people who lived in them7. Thus the failure of the housing created a false presumption, in both government and media, that the community must have failed as well.

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fig.xxxvii: Graffiti on Hodder Square / Bonsall Street, January 1997

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Conclusion

“There was no community, there is no community. There is and was a series of community happenings, events, instalments and shared beliefs within a geographical location that brought people together to participate, engage and exchange.” Michael Mayhew (Hulme Resident & Dogs of Heaven Founder)

Contrarily though, throughout the research undertaken during this dissertation, it has become clear that there was infact an artistic and cultural flowering in these new architectural ruins. The arts were (and still are) a vital ingredient in the quality of urban life - and were one of Hulmes most redeeming features - impacting creativity, imagination, vitality and questioning; unfortunately they can also be some of the hardest to measure or control. A remarkable example of their success before government encroachment, was the previously cited Dogs Of Heaven initiative. One of its founders and long time Hulme resident, Michael Mayhew, describes it as a way he could personally engage with his obsessions; that being, the making of site based performances to sustain a politic that anyone can engage with performance. Envisaging public art as something more than just ‘withers and tissue paper’, instead showing that the production value of community programmes could be high and work could be inclusive, demanding and contemporary - in turn altering the way a location and people were conceived and valued without any architectural or urban infrastructure. Dogs of heaven worked, it was fun, changed lives, galvanized people and place, made the impossible possible, it altered perceptions even went on tour and grew from 3 to 100. It made imaginations real and even kickstarted a process of regeneration with a positive lip. It enabled the community to press a print of identity onto a process of change. - Michael Mayhew (Hulme Resident & Dogs of Heaven Founder)

The process of regeneration mentioned is presumed to be that of the Homes for Change Co-Operative. Founded by Charlie Baker, a previous Dogs Of Heaven member, it was the embodiment of the artistic and cultural character which made Hulme ‘special’. The Homes for Change vision came about from the community engagement during the process of the Crescents regeneration plans, offering a lifeboat for those who embraced the bohemian nature of the site. Although in recent times Charlie Baker compares today’s Hulme as “a travesty of what could have been” and even

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brings doubt upon the future of his own Homes for Change vision despite it still remaining a hive of activity, it is slowly becoming a memory: “I still mourn the loss of the only British equivalent to Christiania or Kreuzberg8” Charlie Baker (Hulme Resident & Homes For Change Founder)

Council housing both then and now has contributed to the devolution of power and resources, new ways of ordering society and even new cultural forms and experiences. However, communities can be destroyed, but not created, overnight. Hulme’s Victorian history suggests that if the majority of local people moved out before redevelopment and replaced with newcomers, it may take decades before any sense of social cohesion or identity re-emerges. Lessons from the latter-day redevelopment, although not perfect, are much more positive. Evidence has emerged that an active partnership between current communities, local authorities and central governments can result in a much more successful redevelopment than simply enforced architectural and urban ideologies. Regeneration is not an end in itself; it is about the people and the quality of lives they will be able to lead. As a result, unless the projects involve and win the support of local people, they can simply not be sustainable over time. With planners usually defining the terms by which regeneration occurs through their control of local plan, they are not able to see the town through the lived experiences of its residents. Redevelopment plans then tend to become infrastructure led and limited through professional constructs and political restraint9s. By broadening the scope of planning as was allowed to happen in the case of Hulme City Challenge, the potential value of culture and arts to urban renewal becomes evident and complex nature is soon to become recognised. Hulme itself occupies a crucial role in Britain’s collective imagination as a physical and metaphysical entity. Concrete architecture, interconnecting walkways with few through roads, culminating in a fortress feel to the development. Yet it contained a cultural melting pot of people, attitudes and arts, all huddled together under a truly classless umbrella and so manages to serve as a microcosm of British society as a whole. It is kept alive by the memories of those who lived there or at least had spent time exploring the grounds, which has led to a limited scope to the amount one

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Conclusion

can actually determine about the day to day happenings of the Crescents. Much more certainty about this field could be learnt if benefited from rigorously documented accounts, yet it is not in the nature of Hulme if its nostalgia for something that really existed, or the expression of the human need to remember and long for simpler, better times that never actually existed - the lessons learnt still very much leed to the same outcome. Despite an apparent ‘tailing-off’ of artistically curated cultural momentum, it was clear that a mere simulacrum of the old did not automatically bring it back to life; Hulme can no doubt show how important and effective the community and their art were in the successful regeneration and cultural reinclusion of Hulme into Manchester. Ultimately, Hulme goes some way to demonstrate the potential value of artistic responses within urban renewal programmes if its complex nature can be recognised. “As with many good stories, the end becomes another set of questions and possibilities - perhaps even a new beginning.”10

Notes 1.

Ravets, 2001

2.

Ramwell and Saltburn, 1998, p.83

3.

Ravets, 2001, p.239.

4.

Rudlin and Falk, 2006

5.

Ravets, 2001, p.239

6.

A scorched earth policy is a military strategy that involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area.

7.

Rowntree, 1994

8.

Freetown Christiania is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood in Copenhagen, which, according to its 1971 mission statement, had the objective of creating “a self-governing society whereby each and every individual holds themselves responsible over the well-being of the entire community”. Kreuzberg, in the centre of Berlin, is still renowned today for its alternative scene and counterculture.

9.

Landry et al., 1995

10. Ravetz, 2001

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-

Architects’ Journal, April (1994) . Arts Council England, S. E. (2007) Arts and Regeneration: Creating Vibrant Communities. Arts Council England. World in Action: There’s No Place Like Hulme (1978) Directed by Michael Beckham [Documentary]. Available at: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=S1qpf9hogI0: British Film Institute. Burridge, R. and Orm, D. (1993) Unhealthy Housing: Research, Remedies, and Reform. Edited by R. Burridge and David Ormandy. 1st edn. New York: Taylor & Francis. Chambre, P. (2011) Hulme is where the art is. Available at: http:// mancunion.com/2011/09/28/hulme-is-where-the-art-is-webexclusive-2/ . City Of Manchester (1973) Report on Operation Clean Up - Hulme and Other Areas. Manchester: Manchester City Council. Coleman, A. M. (1990) Utopia on Trial: Vision and Reality in Planned Housing. 2nd edn. London: Hilary Shipman. Department of the Environment (1990) Hulme study: stage one: initial action plan. London: H.M.S.O. Department of the Environment (1991) City Challenge - Government Guidance. London: H.M.S.O. Design Museum (no date) Alison + Peter Smithson / - Design/Designer Information. Available at: http://design.designmuseum.org/design/ alison-peter-smithson .

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Eisenman, P. and Rakatansky, M. (2004) Eisenman Inside Out: Selected Writings, 1963-1988. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Esher, L. (1981) A broken wave: the rebuilding of England, 1940-1980. London: Allen Lane. Evans, G. (2005) ‘Measure for Measure: Evaluating the Evidence of Culture’s Contribution to Regeneration’, in Routledge (ed.) Urban Studies, Vol. 42, Nos. 5/6. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis Ltd, . Fainstein, S. S. (2001) The city builders: Property development in New York and London, 1980-2000 (studies in government and public policy). University Press Of Kansas. Griffiths, H., Pugsley, A., Saunders, O., Britain, G., Pugsley, S. A. and Great Britain: Department of the Environment (1968) Report of the inquiry into the collapse of flats at Ronan Point, Canning Town; presented to the Minister of Housing and Local Government. Edited by Dept. Of Environment. London: Stationery Office Books. Hackney, R. (1990) The good, the bad, and the ugly: cities in crisis. 1st edn. London: Random House Adult Trade Publishing Group. Hamilton, D. (2009) Social Engineering Through Architectural Change. Available at: http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/ frm/42007/sec_id/42007 . Hulme Community Council (1953) Official Handbook, Coronation Year. Manchester: Hulme County Council. Hulme-History (2014) Dogs of heaven shows at the crescents - Charlie Baker by Hulme-History . Available at: https://soundcloud.com/hulme-history/dogs-of-heavenshows-at-the-crescents-charlie-baker

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Hulme Regeneration Ltd and Manchester City Council (1991) A Guide to Development, Hulme Manchester. Manchester: Manchester City Council. Hulme Views Project (1991) Views from the Crescents: Writing, photographs and illustrations by people from the Crescents area of Hulme. Hulme,Manchester: . Hulme history (no date) Hulme history. Available at: http://hulmehistory. info/ . Hulme Crescents - The End (1994) Directed by Hulmes Views Project [Documentary]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=7tVEyrUcuaM: . Hunt Thompson Associates (ed.) (1992) ‘Building on the weekend’, in City Challenge: Creating the New Heart of Hulme. Manchester: Manchester City Council, . Kidd, M.-C. (2015) ‘Hulme’s co-op cluster continues to develop’, Co-operative News, 25 March. Available at: http://www.thenews. coop/93366/news/general/hulmes-co-op-cluster-continues-to-develop/ . Landry, C., Greene, L., Matarasso, F. and Bianchini, F. (1995) The art of regeneration: Urban renewal through cultural activity. United Kingdom: Demos. Lynn, J. (1962) RIBA Journal (November), . Manchester City Council (1992) City Challenge - Hulme Action Plan 1992/7. Manchester: City Planning Department. Manchester City Council (no date) A New Community: The Redevelopment Of Hulme. Manchester: City Planning Department. Manchester History (no date) The Hulme Crescents. Available at: http:// manchesterhistory.net/architecture/buildingindex.html . McKellar, E. (2013) Battersea. Public, commercial and cultural & houses and housing. 2 vols. Edited by Andrew Saint and Colin Thom. New Haven: Yale University Press.

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Middleton, M. (1991) Cities in transition: the regeneration of Britain’s inner cities. 1st edn. London: Michael Joseph. Myerscough, J. and Staff, P. S. I. (1988) The economic importance of arts in Britain. London: Policy Studies Institute. Parkinson-Bailey, J. J. (2000) Manchester: An Architectural History. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Ramwell, R. and Saltburn, H. (1998) Trick or Treat? City Challenge and the Regeneration of Hulme. York: North British Housing Association and Guiness Trust. Ravetz, A. (2001) Council Housing and Culture: History of a Social Experiment. United Kingdom: Routledge. Rowntree, J. (1994) Lessons From Hulme. York: Joeseph Rowntree Foundation. Available at: download?token=obRR2LbE

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Rudlin, D. and Falk, N. (2006) Sustainable urban neighbourhood, Second edition: Building the 21st century home. 2nd edn. Oxford: Architectural Press. Rudlin, H. (ed.) (1993) Gaia: The book. Manchester: Hulme Community Arts Co-Operative. Setterington, L. and Manchester School Of Art (no date) Hulme sweet Hulme – Lynn Setterington – Manchester school of art. Available at: http://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/profile/lsetterington/projectdetails/326 . Smith, I. (2015) Ivor Smith: What makes a house a home?. Available at: http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/ivor-smith-what-makes-ahouse-a-home/8685430.article . Stevenson, D. (2004) ‘Civic gold’ rush: Cultural planning and the politics of the Third way. .

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Tornaghi, C. (2014) Questioning the social aims of public art in urban regeneration initiatives. The case of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead (UK). University of Newcastle. . (no date) Available at: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/17134/2/Hulme_10_ years_on.pdf (Accessed: 14 October 2015). urban villages group (no date) urban villages. .

Illustrations: Fig.i: View Into Charles Barry Crescent (1986) Richard Watt. Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.ii:‘Hulme is where the art is’ Graffiti, unknown artist on unknown garage in Hulme. (1989) Al Baker. Available at: www.albakerphotography. com . Fig.iii: ‘New’ Hulme North British Housing Association (NBHA) development, Chichester Road (no date) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk (Accessed: 1998). Fig.iv: 1896 Hulme, view of Back Ann Street, from Hargreaves Street (1896) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester. gov.uk . Fig.v: Panelled system built construction of The Crescents, 1971 (1971) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.vi: View of crescents from above upon completion in 1972 (1972) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.vii: View between Robert Adam Crescent and William Kent Crescent (to left), 1976 (1976) Available at: Visual Resources @ Manchester Metropolitan University: www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk/visualresources .

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Fig.viii: Princess Road footbridge, over the sunken Princess Parrkway (1985) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester. gov.uk . Fig.ix: View across the decks 1984 (1984) Adam Burton. Available at: www. adamtburton.com . Fig.X: View into the Hulme estate, 1985 (1985) Al Baker. Available at: www.albakerphotography.com . Fig. xi: Fight in Hulme between two mothers, child behind holding handbag, 1984 (1984) Adam Burton. Available at: www.adamtburton.com . Fig.xii: Extract from Tenants_Representatives’s Year Two Review, showing some of the art present within the crescents. (1994) Available at: Hulme City Challenge Tenant Representatives’ Year Two Review . Fig.xiii: ‘The Best Of Joy Division’ Album cover, photo on Princess Road Footbridge, Hulme (1979) Kevin Cummins. Available at: NME . Fig.xiv: Example of Hulme Graffiti, ‘Crusty fashion hints’, Hulme 1991 (1991) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester. gov.uk . Fig.xv: DJing in Hulme Courtyards, 1992 (1992) Al Baker. Available at: www.albakerphotography.com . Fig.xvi: Princess Road, Hulme, after the demise but before improvements, 1990 (1990) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images. manchester.gov.uk . Fig.xvii: Dogs Of Heaven ‘Burning Phoenix’ celebration for the new Hulme Arch reconnecting Hulme to the rest of Manchester, 1997 (1997) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.xviii: Hulme Noli Map, 1951 Victorian Dwellings, 1991 Hulme

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Bibliography

Crescents and 2000 Redevelopment (2008) Available at: Buttress Architects: www.buttress.net . Fig.xix: ‘Hulme; The Final Years. RIP’ Graffiti on abandoned car within the Hulme Crescents, 1991 (1991) Al Baker. Available at: www. albakerphotography.com . Fig.xx: Hulme Masterplan Map, Victorian Dwellings, Hulme Crescents and Redevelopment (2016) Toby Plunkett. Available at: Authors Own Image . Fig.xxi: Demolition of the first of four Crescent in Hulme, 1994 (1994) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.xxii: Crescents above under construction, contrasted between new Hulme development below (1992) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.xxiii: North British Housing Association (NBHA) Stretford Road shops redevelopment, July 1999 (1999) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.xxiv: ‘Make Hulme your next move’ advertising hoarding for new private housing development, 1997 (1997) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.xxv: ‘Homes for Change’, ‘Work for Change’ and ‘Build For Change’ founding members inside the Homes for Change courtyard, 1996 (1996) Available at: A Sense Of Space Blog: https://asenseofplaceblog.wordpress. com/ . Fig.xxvi: Gaiai Bloom Arts Event, 1992 (1992) Available at: Hulme History: http://hulmehistory.info/ . Fig.xxvii: Training local people for jobs, Work for Change 1998 (1998) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.xxviii: Planning during the Hulme Community Planning Weekend,

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1992 (1992) Available at: A Sense Of Space Blog: https://asenseofplaceblog. wordpress.com/ . Fig.xxix: Extract from Hulme Views Project, 1991 (1991) Available at: Hulme Views Project . Fix.xxx: Bonsall Street prior to demolition after community grafiti session, 1992 (1992) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images. manchester.gov.uk . Fix.xxxi: Graffiti artists in an underpagge in Hulme, 1986 (1986) Al Baker. Available at: www.albakerphotography.com . Fix.xxxii: Hulme Crescents on a ‘usual’ day, 1989 (1989) Available at: CoOperative News: http://www.thenews.coop/ . Fig.xxxiii: Homes for Change (left) and Otterburn Close.1996 (1996) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.xxxiv: Homes for Change building, 1998 (1998) Xavier de Jauréguiberry. . Fig.xxxv: ‘Reasons to be cheerful’ advertising hoarding for new social housing development, 1995 (1995) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.xxxvi: ‘New’ Hulme North British Housing Association (NBHA) development, Chichester Road (1998) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester.gov.uk . Fig.xxxvii: Graffiti on Hodder Square / Bonsall Street, January 1997 (1997) Available at: Manchester Image Archive: www.images.manchester. gov.uk .

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Appendices

Appendices Apendix A : City Challenge Hulme Action Plan 1992/97 Appendix B: City Challenge ...A response from the lcoal community

Suggested Further Reading:

Arts Council England, S. E. (2007) Arts and Regeneration: Creating Vibrant Communities. Arts Council England City Of Manchester (1973) Report on Operation Clean Up - Hulme and Other Areas. Manchester: Manchester City Council. Hulme Regeneration Ltd and Manchester City Council (1991) A Guide to Development, Hulme Manchester. Manchester: Manchester City Council Ramwell, R. and Saltburn, H. (1998) Trick or Treat? City Challenge and the Regeneration of Hulme. York: North British Housing Association and Guiness Trust. Rowntree, J. (1994) Lessons From Hulme. York: Joeseph Rowntree Foundation.

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