We thought we’d reached heaven then reality set in
A NEW DOCUMENTARY TELLS THE STORY OF SOCIAL HOUSING IN HULME THROUGH THE EYES OF ITS RESIDENTS
THE slums were cleared only to be replaced by a doomed 1960s housing experiment and flawed new homes.
Hulme’s infamous Crescents survived for 30 years before they too were ripped down.
Next came red-brick houses with gardens and low-rise flats.
And through it all lived the real fabric of the community – the residents.
Now their story is to be told in a new film, which has been almost two years in the making.
“HULME – The Documentary” will premier at Whitworth Art Gallery tomorrow with a private viewing and will be screened publicly next month.
The film is accompanied by Hulme to Me, created with the help of Manchester poet, Tony Walsh, in which residents recite their own verses of what the area means to them, set to a backdrop of rare photos. SALLY Casey arrived in Hulme in the summer of 1969.
The Rolling Stones released Honky Tonk Women in the July and The Beatles charted with The Ballad of John and Yoko.
For her, life was matching the brilliance of the year’s music.
“We moved into a brand new three bedroom property, I thought I’d reached heaven.”
The Dublin-born young mum had arrived with her husband and three children from Chorlton-onMedlock. They had left a two-up two-down terrace house on a cobbled street in Belmont Terrace.
“The previous house had no bathroom and no inside toilet, you walked off the street right into the front room. It was really bad.
“We moved into 14 Rakehead Walk and it was lovely. It was amazing, it had an inside toilet and bathroom and underfloor central heating. A lot of families had moved to Hulme from Chorlton-on-Medlock, Cheetham Hill and Ardwick where there had been slum clearance.
“It was fabulous until reality set in.” Within a few years the dream home began to sour. “It was electric underfloor heating and you had to feed it 50p coins into a meter. It was like feeding a ravenous baby, it was a constant battle. If by chance you went away for the weekend when you came home the meter would be empty, you would have to feed it and feed it before you got any heat. It was really bad.
“In those days you couldn’t take on the council. They owned the homes and we were just the tenants. But the bedrooms were becoming damp. The heat was supposed to rise through the ceilings but that never happened, and people would open their wardrobes to find their clothes were mouldy. Then around 1980 we began to kick back and take the council to task, which they did not like one bit. We got help and formed a tenants association, and the council realised we were not going away.”
Sally and seven other women were the driving force behind getting change on the Aquarius Estate in Hulme. “We had 109 people at our first meeting. There were loads of officials there, we put forward our demands and they realised we were not going away.
“They started to decant people from the houses to temporary accommodation and once empty replaced the heating with gas central heating.
“This happened in about 200 homes. It was so wonderful to get change for people.
“We were very successful. We were never abusive – we would try and coerce them.
“Some of our local councillors were very active and would walk with you on the estate. We knew what we wanted. People were nervous of the council, but I’ve never cared what they thought of me.”
Sally and her neighbours also turned their sights on the grim maisonettes on the estate.
“They were walk-up maisonettes with urine-sodden lifts. They were supposed to be fantastic two or three-bedroom apartments, but they were built to the lowest standards. They were brutal places to live in. Infestation was another problem – mice, cockroaches.
“They were so badly built, they were not even put together properly. There was rattling windows and the wind whistling through them.
“People were expected to accept what they had. They became very transient places. When people moved out students moved in and would sell on the keys when they left.
“Five people could live in one at a time. They would have weekend parties and everyone’s life would be disrupted. They had no commitment to the area. There was a lot of social problems – drug dealing, all-night parties. We were trying to raise our children in a calm, nice area, and were being deprived of that opportunity.
“We decided the people in the maisonettes deserved a better deal. The council decided they would demolish them. We said ‘no, you will demolish them and build houses in their place – which they did in the late 80s and 90s.”
The Guinness Trust housing association worked with tenants and built the houses.
Sally said: “We had a great rapport with them. While negotiations were ongoing we said ‘can you build us a few shops’. They said ‘no we don’t do that’. We said ‘go on’, so they did – and a community centre.”
Sally, 73, still lives in Hulme in Studforth Walk, the house she was moved to in 1982 when refurbishment of homes was taking place. Hulme is dong a lot better. I chose to live here. I raised four children here – I had a fourth after moving here. I am proud of Hulme and of its people.”
Sally’s contribution to the poem is: