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Saturday, 20th September 2003

Where the mighty Medlock flows

Susan Press

Chorlton-on-Medlock town hall

TO most Mancunians, "Chorlton" these days means the prosperous suburb four miles or so south of the city centre. Things were not always that simple. Less than a generation ago, the addition of the words "cum-Hardy" was always necessary, to distinguish it from the equally populated Chorlton-on-Medlock.

The district, skirting Hulme, Rusholme, Ardwick and what is now the huge Manchester University and Metropolitan University complexes, was once on the sunny banks of the River Medlock, but much of the river was diverted underground as the city grew.

It has a fascinating history - the name Chorlton comes from "coerl", the Viking name for a freeman.

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Formerly Chorlton Row, it was originally a rural village, but once the Industrial Revolution arrived it became the epicentre of Manchester's Irish community - so much so that it was dubbed "Little Ireland." For over 100 years lots of pubs, cheap cafés and boarding-houses for the labourers and navvies who had come to seek work gave it a distinctive, if sometimes dangerous, character.

Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall still stands proudly on Cavendish Street. This busy thoroughfare was lined with shops for the thousands of folk who lived there. Famous residents included Emmeline Pankhurst and the novelist, Mrs Gaskell, but most of those who lived there were desperately poor. Many of them worked in the "Chorlton mills" on Cambridge Street, where the mackintosh was invented.

Now little remains of the days when "C-on-M's" mean streets made it the subject of sociological studies by the likes of Marx and Engels.

Slum

At the end of the 1960s, the city council's slum clearance policy ordained that most of the families who used to live there were to be moved out to far-flung overspill estates - or relocated in other parts of Manchester like Burnage and Withington.

But if you stand at the corner of Grosvenor Street (where the old cinema still stands - now a pub) and look over the road towards Cavendish Street, the former Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall still impresses. So does All Saints square, which surrounds it.

Designed by architect Richard Lane, the town hall dates from 1830 and was used as such until 1838, when the area was incorporated into the city of Manchester. Its Doric columns reflect the classical styles favoured at the time - before Victorian Gothic became the order of the day.

For many years, it was utilised by the local community for everything from public meetings to private functions. But when the population exodus began in the 1960s, it became largely redundant. Which means, sadly, that all is not as it seems when you gaze at this handsome building. In 1970, the original interior was completely removed and a new structure added to the rear, as the then Polytechnic grew to accommodate the student boom.

Not all has been lost. The building, once black with industrial pollution, was thoroughly cleaned, and the past is still remembered. On the front façade of the town hall are two plaques. The blue plaque bears the coat of arms of the City of Manchester, with the words: "The site of Chorlton-upon-Medlock Town Hall 1830-1970 Richard Lane architect fl. 1815-1858". The red plaque also bears the City of Manchester crest, with the words: "Fifth Pan African Conference was held here 15th - 21st October 1945. Decisions taken at this conference led to the liberation of African countries". A rectangular red plaque underneath also names the participants in the conference, including Jomo Kenyatta, who later became president of Kenya.

The former Manchester College of Art

Virtually next door to the old Chorlton-on-Medlock town hall is what was the Manchester College of Art. Happily, this still functions, as part of Manchester Metropolitan University, and much creative work still goes on here via the faculty of art and design. The attractive building has a typically late-Victorian, neo-gothic, ecclesiastical appearance.

The names of those who have passed through these doors are legendary: L S Lowry and fashion designer Ossie Clark, to name but two. It is here also that the artist Adolphe Valette (a major influence on Lowry) used to teach. His atmospheric paintings of fog-bound Manchester at the turn of the 20th century have again soared in popularity - one of them depicts the area now dominated by the university. Another blue plaque outside the building commemorates his life.

Opposite both these buildings is All Saints park, the site of the long-demolished church. On the opposite side of the park is St Augustine's RC church, an interesting building of 1960s design which replaces an earlier church on nearby York Street, blitzed in a raid during the Second World War - in which the parish priest tragically died.

Relics from the old church are incorporated into the modern building.