‘Ghosts’ living in relic of lost utopian dream
Residents fight plans to build student block on site of former pub
HOPTON Court was once the future.
The flats, and others like it, were the concrete answer to the problem of inner-city housing, part of utopian vision of post-war life.
Now the six-storey tower block is a relic.
Most of the council flats that replaced Hulme’s terraced streets lasted little more than 20 years.
Places like Hulme Crescents fell first to decay, and then to the bulldozer, after families left and were replaced by young bohemians.
That left Hopton Court as one of the few, seventies-era survivors of the regeneration programme that brought a new wave of low-rise housing to this part of inner south Manchester in the 90s.
Hopton Court sits in Greenheys, once a distinct area in its own right, now all but absorbed by its bigger neighbours – Hulme and Moss Side.
Now its residents fear they too will be hidden from view, literally, by a new wave of student housing.
The Gamecock was an estate pub which opened in the 1970s but has been closed for several years, the building a reminder of a bygone era.
Plans are afoot to demolish the distinctively shaped building and build a 13-storey student accommodation block with 259 bedrooms in its place.
But Curlew Opportunities, the London-based developer behind the proposals, seems to be losing the battle to convince locals – who fear being ‘encircled’ by student flats on all sides if the development goes ahead.
The feeling amongst some residents their needs are secondary to the younger people who now dominate the area is something that has been bubbling for years.
Concerns have been raised about the lack of affordable housing for life-long Hulme residents – particularly the older generation – who have no option but to rent in social housing blocks like Hopton Court. In recent years a number of residents have been found dead in their homes, their isolation such that their deaths went unnoticed for days.
Other residents have become activists for the rights of social housing tenants in an area which is changing yet again.
For them, the Curlew proposals are the final straw. They fear the proposed student tower would shut off homes at Hopton Court from sunlight and spoil their enjoyment of outdoor space, rendering them invisible in a district where they’ve lived for decades.
Tina Cribbin has lived in Hulme all her life and has lived in Hopton Court, which would neighbour the proposed Curlew development, for the last 10 years. “There’s lots of anxiety around, there’s places where we used to congregate and sit and talk that are not there anymore,” says Tina, who also chairs the Hopton Court residents’ group.
“Everybody I’ve spoken to is anxious about what will happen when they get older, what will happen to their children and if there will be homes for them in Hulme.
“Before there were a lot of families on this estate but now it feels like every single place is now purpose built for younger people. This is a young person’s community now.
“The emotional and physical markers of your life are gone as well, and it makes you feel like, was I ever here?”
Tina is one of several residents from Hopton Court and the nearby social housing block Cooper House who have formed the ‘Block the Block’ campaign to fight back against Curlew’s scheme.
Red and white posters bearing its name have appeared on windows, walls and lampposts in the surrounding area in a bid to drum up support.
Campaigners have also raised £1,421 through Crowdfunder to hire planning consultants to support their case when the plans go before Manchester council’s planning committee.
Roy Bennett, another Block the Block campaigner and long-time Hulme resident says: “We’d be completely encircled by student blocks if this goes ahead.
“We’ve finally got benches outside so when it’s nice weather we can go and have a sit down, but if this goes ahead we won’t be getting any sunlight.
“Our needs haven’t been taken into consideration. I know you can’t stop progress but having met with the developers, it was as if we weren’t there.”
Tina says: “It feels like everybody is fulfilling the needs of students but none of the older people’s needs, and that’s not the student’s fault, it’s the universities.’
“Someone living in our building told me that he feels like we’re a community of ghosts and that’s really stuck with me.
“It’s like your life’s been obliterated really, your identity of who you are and where you came from is gone because the heart is being ripped out of it.”
Curlew says it has undertaken ‘extensive’ early consultation with Hulme residents and Block the Block campaigners, councillors and other local stakeholders about their proposals.
The developer is also planning to give over space on the ground floor of the proposed building for a community hub and gym for the exclusive use of the local community.
But there is still a feeling amongst some residents that their needs are secondary to the younger people who now dominate the area.
Roy remains sceptical about the proposals, and suggests that a purpose-built community centre should be built on the site of the Gamecock instead of more student flats.
He added: “I think that would go a long way to building a community spirit here again, it feels like there isn’t one anymore.
“But through the campaign it feels like we’re building it back up.”
‘People love living in Hulme and they want to stay there’
It is not the first time that plans have been lodged to redevelop the Gamecock site, with Crosslane seeing their 182-flat student block rejected in 2012.
But things have changed since then.
Last year Manchester council set out ambitions to expand the city’s
It feels like everybody is fulfilling the needs of students but none of the older people’s needs
Tina Cribbin
purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) to entice students out of living in private rented housing.
For Hulme councillors Annette Wright and Lee-Ann Igbon it has been a constant battle to push back against more PBSA, as well as the encroach of the city centre’s skyscrapers.
Coun Wright says she is still ‘disgusted’ that plans to demolish another Hulme pub, the Church Inn, and build a nine-storey PBSA block were approved despite being refused by the city’s planning committee three times.
The application was pushed through by Manchester council’s chief executive Joanne Roney in May last year, using delegated emergency powers to approve housing schemes during the first national lockdown, when the planning committee’s meetings were postponed.
Coun Wright says: “I think if you keep pushing more and more student accommodation into one area it reaches a point where you just disregard the rest of the community, and we’ve reached that point.
“There seems to be a pattern here of putting the biggest block possible in the smallest possible space, but you can fit more people in and the developer can make more money.”
Coun Igbon, who is ‘born and bred Hulme,’ says the Gamecock is one of many pubs she used to go to that no longer exists in her muchchanged community.
The idea of knocking down a former community space for student accommodation ‘smack in the middle’ of two social housing blocks filled with older tenants ‘infuriates’ her. “For these residents who have lived here and are already surrounded by student accommodation, they just feel like they might implode,” adds Coun Igbon.
“There’s no homes or accommodation for the over 50s but also the residents just don’t feel heard.
“We’ve lost that community connection to playgrounds, the pubs, the community centres that were previously there, and all we’ve got now is development and student accommodation.
“It just leaves people in the community feeling disenfranchised.”
More than a third of tenants living in Hopton Court and the 11 other social housing blocks managed by Once Manchester are aged 50 and over. The proportion of older people living alone in Hulme – 54 per cent – is among the highest in England and Wales, along with the 60pc of residents claiming pension credits. But Hopton Court is thriving on community spirit, thanks to the hard work of volunteers, who formed the Hulme community group On Top of the World with One Manchester.
Curlew insists they have engaged constructively with members of Block the Block and says they ‘remain open to working collaboratively to ensure our scheme, if approved, will have maximum benefit for the existing Hulme community.’ A spokesperson said: “We hope this open and constructive approach demonstrates our desire for the scheme to contribute positively to the local community and includes the Gamecock Community Hub, to reflect the heritage of the site and meet local needs, and other benefits such as enhanced street scene and landscaping.
“Our early engagement has identified a common acknowledgement that the former Gamecock site is derelict and in need of development. Whilst there may be differences of opinion on the type of development, we remain firmly of the belief our scheme is credible, deliverable and will provide genuine community benefit.”
Manchester council insists Hulme remains an affordable place to live given its proximity to the city centre. The Hulme Park and Birley Fields area is amongst the most affordable part of the city’s apartment market to rent and buy, according to the local authority.
The average two-bedroom house to rent in the area is currently £772-a-month – compared to a city centre average of £965-a-month. Meanwhile, the average sales price in 2020/21 is £166,000 – below the city centre (£265,000) and elsewhere in the city (£205,000).
The council said there were 3,100 social or affordable homes in Hulme, accounting for around 30 per cent of the total housing stock in Manchester.
While there is no extra care housing for older people in Hulme itself, the council points to the Mosscare St Vincent’s scheme in Moss Side and the new Brunswick Village scheme, both within 1.5km of the Asda in Hulme.