Great story. Samuel Brooks also created Brooklands between Sale and Timperley. This was built up around Brooklands station that he requested should be added as a stop on the new railway line. If you drive down Brooklands Road from the station, it is a long straight road with villas. He originally intended the road to go much further. If you cross the roundabout at the end, you can follow the original route into the countryside. It is now a footpath.
Higher Broughton was developing as a suburb at roughly this time. At first sponsored and built by the Clowes family. There are a number of grade 2 listed villa style buildings on Broughton New Road, that date from roughly 1840. Quite a few were lost in regular landslips in the Cliff area. I wonder which was first. Is the "first suburb" claim for Whalley Range just another example of Southern Mancunian bias?
An ancestor of mine was a butler to Canon Oswald Sargeant (of Manchester Cathedral) at Cliff House in Higher Broughton . From an early map it looked like a very large house and was opposite the zoo that was once there. The butler's family though, lived in much lowlier housing ,Barlow's Buildings, down in Lower Broughton. All found on the 1841 Census. Fascinating place. Cliff House was demolished. I think Cliff Crescent is now where the house was.
A lovely read from David who I had the pleasure and privilege of working with during his time in the City Planning Department.
I well remember Mrs Tipping, always quick to tell us what was right and wrong, mainly the latter, about Whalley Range. As a planning team we were trying hard to listen to local people and their communities. Even though they may not have thought so.
Another strong advocate at that time for the young people of Whalley Range was Carol Packham, and I can well imagine she is still involved working hard for the community.
In the days of Samuel Brooke town planning was clearly a much easier job than presently. Buy some land, put a wall round it and build mansions for you and your rich friends. An entirely private enterprise available to the high and mighty and rich. Job done. No problems with Green Belt !
Pity planners nowadays, striving, in the public interest, to reconcile any number of conflicting and contradictory demands on the use of scarce land and even more opinions on the shape, form and appearance of new buildings, not to mention the value of what’s already standing.
David Rudlin has done more than most to weave a way through this environment in his career and his thoughts on the future of our towns and cities are always worth attention from decision makers. As are his reflections, spiced with personal anecdotes, on how and why we are where we are. Thank you for a welcome and interesting contribution to the Mill. More please.
Loved this article David. I've always been fascinated by this area and enjoy looking at maps showing the huge villas and grounds. I find the National Library of Scotland website so good for checking this out. They have the maps for England too dated from 1840s to 20C. Another resource is Godfreys maps , these are physical maps again from 19C to 20C and cover all of the Manchester area, amongst others, particularly good if you're a map geek as I am .
The gentleman's club referred to was the Athenaeum with doors on to Princess Street which became an annexe of the City Art Gallery* sometime after the Council bought it in 1938.
The Art Galley building on Mosley Street was originally built for the Royal Manchester Institution and was acquired by the Council (under an Act of Parliament!) to become the City Art Gallery - the two buildings weren't physically linked until 2002.
* City Art Gallery is a better name than the anodyne Manchester Art Gallery
If you pine for the days when Whalley Range still had some edge, here are two excellent books featuring dodgy characters living there - Joseph Knox's Sirens and Susannah Clarke's Piranesi.
This was a fascinating piece of social history about an area of Manchester that I have roots to but haven’t spent the most amount of time in. Another great price from the Mill!
How about a article on little old Salford, it only has a population of around 275,000. Surely you can educate the readers on the various districts of Salford which hold storiesstories of a past life full of Dockers, miners or cotton manufacturers. Come on step over the border into Salford, we don't bite!
Great story. I was born in Whalley Range, well actually Withington Hospital, but my family lived on Green Walk. I always believed that it was a teetotal area, slightly disappointed to learn that this is probably a myth. I remember it in darker days when it was a centre for prostitution, full of kerb crawlers. It has changed so much. Still no pubs though, except for the Carlton Club.
Fantastic piece! When it got to describing the villas of Whalley Range, it felt like everything comes back round eventually, given the massive mansions on Wilbraham Road these days.
Great story. Samuel Brooks also created Brooklands between Sale and Timperley. This was built up around Brooklands station that he requested should be added as a stop on the new railway line. If you drive down Brooklands Road from the station, it is a long straight road with villas. He originally intended the road to go much further. If you cross the roundabout at the end, you can follow the original route into the countryside. It is now a footpath.
Another fascinating article. This is why I subscribe to The Mill.
Higher Broughton was developing as a suburb at roughly this time. At first sponsored and built by the Clowes family. There are a number of grade 2 listed villa style buildings on Broughton New Road, that date from roughly 1840. Quite a few were lost in regular landslips in the Cliff area. I wonder which was first. Is the "first suburb" claim for Whalley Range just another example of Southern Mancunian bias?
An ancestor of mine was a butler to Canon Oswald Sargeant (of Manchester Cathedral) at Cliff House in Higher Broughton . From an early map it looked like a very large house and was opposite the zoo that was once there. The butler's family though, lived in much lowlier housing ,Barlow's Buildings, down in Lower Broughton. All found on the 1841 Census. Fascinating place. Cliff House was demolished. I think Cliff Crescent is now where the house was.
A lovely read from David who I had the pleasure and privilege of working with during his time in the City Planning Department.
I well remember Mrs Tipping, always quick to tell us what was right and wrong, mainly the latter, about Whalley Range. As a planning team we were trying hard to listen to local people and their communities. Even though they may not have thought so.
Another strong advocate at that time for the young people of Whalley Range was Carol Packham, and I can well imagine she is still involved working hard for the community.
In the days of Samuel Brooke town planning was clearly a much easier job than presently. Buy some land, put a wall round it and build mansions for you and your rich friends. An entirely private enterprise available to the high and mighty and rich. Job done. No problems with Green Belt !
Pity planners nowadays, striving, in the public interest, to reconcile any number of conflicting and contradictory demands on the use of scarce land and even more opinions on the shape, form and appearance of new buildings, not to mention the value of what’s already standing.
David Rudlin has done more than most to weave a way through this environment in his career and his thoughts on the future of our towns and cities are always worth attention from decision makers. As are his reflections, spiced with personal anecdotes, on how and why we are where we are. Thank you for a welcome and interesting contribution to the Mill. More please.
Hi Jim - really good to hear from you, yes if only planning were as simple.
Loved this article David. I've always been fascinated by this area and enjoy looking at maps showing the huge villas and grounds. I find the National Library of Scotland website so good for checking this out. They have the maps for England too dated from 1840s to 20C. Another resource is Godfreys maps , these are physical maps again from 19C to 20C and cover all of the Manchester area, amongst others, particularly good if you're a map geek as I am .
The gentleman's club referred to was the Athenaeum with doors on to Princess Street which became an annexe of the City Art Gallery* sometime after the Council bought it in 1938.
The Art Galley building on Mosley Street was originally built for the Royal Manchester Institution and was acquired by the Council (under an Act of Parliament!) to become the City Art Gallery - the two buildings weren't physically linked until 2002.
* City Art Gallery is a better name than the anodyne Manchester Art Gallery
Fully agree, it's still the City Art Gallery to me. The change of name always seemed pointless.
If you pine for the days when Whalley Range still had some edge, here are two excellent books featuring dodgy characters living there - Joseph Knox's Sirens and Susannah Clarke's Piranesi.
I’ve read Sirens but I’d totally forgot it was set in Whalley Range!
This was a fascinating piece of social history about an area of Manchester that I have roots to but haven’t spent the most amount of time in. Another great price from the Mill!
Thank you David, really enjoyed reading the article.
I can tell you love Manchester from your writing.
I had no idea of the suburban history.
Manchester had many firsts it’s true.
Such a shame that so many of those beautiful old villas have gone.
Keep up the beautiful writing.
Just my cup of tea. I find articles like this really fascinating. 😎
A really interesting article. I worked in Whalley Range for 20 years but knew none of this!
Loved that story. Really fascinating.
How about a article on little old Salford, it only has a population of around 275,000. Surely you can educate the readers on the various districts of Salford which hold storiesstories of a past life full of Dockers, miners or cotton manufacturers. Come on step over the border into Salford, we don't bite!
Great story. I was born in Whalley Range, well actually Withington Hospital, but my family lived on Green Walk. I always believed that it was a teetotal area, slightly disappointed to learn that this is probably a myth. I remember it in darker days when it was a centre for prostitution, full of kerb crawlers. It has changed so much. Still no pubs though, except for the Carlton Club.
Such an interesting read. Like many Millers, I’m an incomer to
Greater Manchester and have grown fascinated by its history. These sort of pieces show what great value the subscription provides.
Fantastic piece! When it got to describing the villas of Whalley Range, it felt like everything comes back round eventually, given the massive mansions on Wilbraham Road these days.