Manchester in Modern Times
20th Century History of Manchester

Manchester during the Second World War and After

The Second World War proved to be Trafford Park's most important time, particularly since the Port of Manchester was Britain's second largest oil terminal at that time. By 1946, some 25% of all of Britain's crude oil was piped ashore in Manchester - a vital resource during the war. But more importantly than that, perhaps, was the contribution which Manchester was to make to the war effort through its engineering and aircraft manufacture. The Metropolitan Vickers Company (MetroVicks) in Trafford Park, was a major asset when hostilities broke out in 1939. It adapted its machinery to produce the "Manchester" and then the "Lancaster" bomber, with engines produced in Oldham by the Avro Company. A thousand Lancasters were produced in Trafford Park by the end of that war in 1945. MetroVicks also developed and manufactured radar equipment at their Trafford factory and made the first ever commercially produced radar system. MetroVicks also produced other armaments and components during the war, including control systems for antiaircraft guns, automatic pilots for aircraft, aerial compasses, bomb defusing equipment, and mobile power stations to be flown to the Soviet Union.
The Ford Motor Company returned to Trafford and rejigged their machines for the production of Rolls Royce Merlin engines for fighter planes, producing over 900 a month. During the years of the Second World War, Trafford was possibly Britain's biggest arsenal, and was therefore a prime target for German bombers.
Much of the city of Manchester was obliterated during the blitz, and many of its finest buildings perished during that period. Estimates have been made to suggest that almost 70% of Manchester's Victorian and Edwardian buildings were destroyed by bombing. For three nights prior to Christmas 1940, bombers dropped incendiary bombs on the city, and the whole city was ablaze, with many of the fine historic warehouses of Portland Street set alight or razed to the ground. Within a mile of Albert Square, and the Town Hall, 165 warehouses, 150 offices, 5 banks and over 200 business premises were destroyed or so severely damaged that they had to be subsequently demolished. Some of the more important and historical buildings were to be rebuilt after the end of the war, the Royal Exchange and the Cathedral among them, but in the main, Manchester had lost a large part of its architectural and business heritage.

Post-war Manchester: People, Housing & Working

The wholesale destruction of much of the inner city during the Second World War, made it necessary to embark on massive rebuilding strategies. New Labour governments and local authorities prioritised the replacement of the domestic housing that had disappeared or been made inhabitable. It also offered an opportunity to remove many of the slums which had almost become synonymous with life in the north of England.
Huge slum clearance projects were undertaken. By the mid-1960s, areas like Ardwick, Salford, Moss Side and Hulme had been cleared and families moved out into new housing in Wythenshawe, or into one of the many new "dormitory" satellite towns which had been built. Massive post-war aid from America (the "Marshall Plan") poured into Europe, and into Britain to rebuild their shattered economies and infrastructures.
Manchester, like other British industrial cities benefitted a great deal from this new finance. The housing revolution in Manchester and its Metropolitan Boroughs was little less than a national phenomenon - since 1919 Manchester had been at the forefront of house building.

Manchester's New Housing Conurbations

The outflow of people to the suburbs left the town and city centre devoid of significant habitable dwellings, and increasingly as the century progressed, the inner city region became a virtual trade and commerce centre, with very few actual residents. Wythenshawe had already begun to be constructed in the 1930s, after Lord Ernest Simon granted much of the farmland of Wythenshawe Park to the City Council specifically for building new, and better, houses. Wythenshawe was incorporated into the Municipal Borough in 1931.
This large new conurbation to the south of the city explains the very elongated shape of the Manchester City borough. Wythenshawe was to be the "garden city" of Manchester - a planners dream project, with its own schools and shops, a civic centre and theatre, hospitals and libraries.
In the 1950s, the poorer inner city areas were replenished by immigrant people, predominantly West Indian and Asian, which accounts for districts like Rusholme having become almost entirely Asian, with its rich profusion of Asian restaurants. Green spaces between the outer suburbs were gradually built upon, mainly along the line of road and railways, so that former outlying areas like Altrincham, Alderley Edge and Wilmslow grew increasingly joined onto the larger conurbation of Manchester.
It is possible today to drive from the north of Bolton across the Metropolitan County to Wilmslow in the south, and in passing through a half dozen different towns to be oblivious to any of the boundaries. Most of the people who live on the borders of the county still look to central Manchester as a place of employment : towns and villages like Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme, Northenden, Stretford, Bramhall, Hazel Grove, Prestwich, Whitefield, Bury, Sale, Handforth, and a host of others see a morning migration into Manchester to work, and a reverse process at the end of the day.
Manchester was among the first authorities to respond to the 1919 Housing Act, and was the largest single builder of so-called "council houses" in the country. It was also in the forefront of producing schemes to refurbish existing older and substandard properties.
Between 1920 and 1938 a total of 27,447 council houses were erected, and a further 8,315 new houses were provided by private contractors.

Back to Top

Recent Corporate Building

As for Manchester centre itself, the urban planners of the 1960s tragically eroded the Victorian nature of the city. Many of the narrow and historic alleyways of central Manchester, and the innumerable little shops which stood along them were swept away in one fell swoop with the building of the Arndale shopping development in the heart of the city. At Piccadilly Gardens, once the site of the old Manchester Infirmary, still proudly overlooked by the statue of Queen Victoria, the square is dominated by the monolithic Piccadilly Plaza, now looking rather grubby and shabby, Even Victoria sits with her back to the building! Few buildings of this period measure up to an ideal of fine architecture. Perhaps the 25 storey CIS building in Miller Street, erected in 1962, stands out better than most as a building which might stand the test of time. By the 1960s, even Wythenshawe had reached its full capacity. By that time, its population was about 100,000, and several major industrial estates had been established there, so that residents could find their employment locally. Industrial zones were established at Sharston, Roundthorn and Moss Nook, specialising in the production of electrical goods, embroidery, hosiery, shoemaking and biscuits.

Unfit Housing & Overspill

Wythenshawe apart, the City of Manchester admitted that it had 68,000 houses described as "grossly unfit" by 1959. Its solution was demolish 90,000 dwellings between 1954 and 1976 and to erect 71,000 dwellings by way of high rise flats and to move residents out to newly prescribed "overspill" estates - at Heywood and Langley (Middleton) in the north, Hyde in the east and Worsley in the west. Most of these displaced people, however, found themselves resettled in tall tower blocks, which, no matter how architecturally innovative, or how improved their facilities, proved disastrous in social terms, and were subsequently plagued by crime, isolation, and a growing sense on unease and abandonment, where former friendly neighbourhoods were lost in the piles of concrete and the system of tiered living. Many of these were demolished within two decades of construction.
Hulme saw all of its thousands of high rise dwellings razed to the ground in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Elsewhere in Ardwick (locally known as "Fort Ardwick"), new structures were beset by structural problems, damp and disenchanted residents, and it suffered the same fate as did Hulme. By the late 1970s, over half of Manchester residents lived in corporation housing, while the national average was only 29%. These figures in themselves go some way to demonstrate the benevolent and serious intentions of Manchester Corporation to raise the living standards of its people. The intense period of council building had effectively ended by 1980.

The 1980s - Recession

The early 1980s saw growing unemployment and world-wide recession. The large new estates suffered most. Inner city districts of Manchester saw street riots in 1981, as did many other major cities around Britain.
Manchester had suffered badly as a result of the recession. In 1986, over 59% of adult males living in Hulme were unemployed; in Miles Platting the figure was 46%; Cheetham Hill and Moss Side both had an unemployment rate of 44%. The main group (both sexes) of unemployed were young people under the age of 21. Hulme's youth employment was recorded at 68%, and Cheetham Hill suffered 59%. This enforced idleness brought its own social problems : growing youth crime and drug-related offences. These are problems not solely located in Manchester, of course. Most of the countries of Europe and America have witnessed similar trends. A significant part of the character of contemporary Manchester is due in some part to the immigrant peoples who have made it their home. Immigration from the Commonwealth and from Asia in 1971 had been 4% of the population of Britain as a whole.

Multi-ethnicity & Multiculturalism

In Manchester today, nearly 8% of its population live in homes where the head of the family was born in a commonwealth country. These figures are not particularly significant in themselves, and they compare well to other cities like Bradford and Birmingham. In Manchester, however, ethnic minorities tend to live in concentrated areas of the inner city, where their presence is visibly seen.
By 1981, Moss Side, for example, houses most of the city's West Indian households. Longsight has the largest concentration of Asian families. Chinese trade and businesses are concentrated right in the heart of the city in Chinatown - here there are shops, restaurants, banks and community centre, though the Chinese community's living pattern tends to be spread more evenly around the borough. Earlier in the century, Jewish refugees had arrived from eastern Europe, fleeing numerous racial pogroms. They found a new home and work in Manchester; two primary concentrations of Jewish people can be found in the Whitefield-Prestwich area in the north, and in West Didsbury in the south. Each successive influx from abroad has created distinctive cultural base, and made Manchester a decidedly multicultural city.

Work & Industry in Manchester

The post-Second World War era has seen many changes in the style and nature of work and industry in Greater Manchester. Despite having had one of Britain's major dock complexes for the import of foodstuffs and raw materials, and for the production of fuel, armaments and transport vehicles during the war, the decades following saw a decline in Manchester's manufacturing industries, as they failed to compete with new and Third World international markets. Older electrical engineering industries rapidly declined, and only a handful (like MetroVicks and Ferrantis) survived. The petrochemical industry, dominated by Shell at Carrington was a rare success story at a time when few were able to continue profitably in the light of successive world-wide recessions.

Manchester Roads & Highways Infrastructure

The opening of many new motorways (the M6, the M61, M62, M63, M56, M60 and M602) saw many products which had hitherto travelled via the Manchester Ship Canal, now transferred to the roads. It was the beginning of a new distribution industry based in Manchester. In the early 1970s Manchester Docks closed forever, and the Ship Canal saw no more than a handful of ships passing along it. Trafford Park, as a result began to see a steady trickle of industry away from it, so that in February 1987 the Trafford Development Corporation was hastily brought into existence in an attempt to stem the outflow and to attract new business to the region.
By 1980 there remained a mere 600 companies out of the several thousand who had been based there during the War. Its effect has been very successful, and newer, lighter and cleaner industries have been attracted back, giving new life to such areas as Trafford Park and the abandoned Manchester Docks at Salford (now revitalised as Salford Quays).
The opening of the Railfreight Euroterminal in Trafford Park has helped secure Manchester as a distribution and service base where it formerly depended on manufacturing. The terminal deals in containerised freight goods, which can be quickly lifted from lorries and set on rail trucks. The project cost over £11million, and provides Manchester with rapid connection to the Continent via the Channel Tunnel. Typical transit times for freight distribution to European destinations are Strasbourg in 23 hours, Lyons in central France in 29 hours and Milan in Italy in 33 hours. Both Trafford Park and Salford Quays have "Enterprise Zone" status, which offer beneficial terms to new businesses, low rents and on site distribution through rail and motorway networks. The move from manufacturing into the service sector has not been easy for Manchester.
The onetime powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution now has practically no manufacturing base left. Over the period 1961-1983 Manchester lost over 150,000 jobs in the manufacturing industries - almost one in three jobs in 1972. By 1985 only 23% of the potential workforce worked in manufacture, compared to a figure of 40% in nearby Bolton, Oldham and Rochdale. Today about 75% of Mancunians work in the service sector, of which 22% work in education, health, public and scientific services.

Trade & Commerce in Manchester

Distributive trades account for 14% of the this workforce, 4% in Construction and Building, 11% in Finance and Banking, and 9% in Transport and Communications. There have been demographic changes too. Whereas a century ago most goods came directly into the city centre and were held in its many large warehouses (See Warehouses), the post-war period saw a move towards decentralisation and the proliferation of inner city Offices. Put off by inner city problems, increased road traffic and street congestion, and attracted by better motorway access and cheaper rents, many trades moved out of the city to the new Industrial Parks and Zones which were being created in the suburbs.
Added to these benefits is the newly opened World Freight Terminal at Manchester Airport, with direct motorway access just 15 minutes drive away. The Co-operative Wholesale Society (CIS) had its headquarters and warehouses in central Manchester from the 1860s in a purpose built community at the end of Miller Street and Withy Grove. In the 1930s they moved their warehousing and distribution to premises at the Ship Canal Docks in Salford. Their original offices can still be seen proudly standing opposite Victoria Station, and the 1960s built Co-operative Insurance Services (the CIS) tower stands just behind. This was most typical. Goods moved out of the city, and services moved in.

Banking in Manchester

Salford Quays saw the arrival of the banks. Exchange Quay, built on the derelict land of the old Manchester Docks, has become the base for many national and international Banks, Insurance and Financial institutions, set in a landscaped environment with easy access and easy parking. Canada Life, Equity & Law, Commercial Union, Lloyds Abbey Life, Royal Bank of Scotland, Sun Life of Canada, Aegon Financial Services, Agfa... these are a few of the large corporations who have set up their British headquarters in Salford Quays.
In the 19th Century, Manchester had a banking base of its own, making it the largest banking centre outside London. Local firms could obtain all the banking services they needed without recourse to those based in London. This fierce independence gave Manchester a daily clearing rate greater than any other provincial city. But, during the post-war era, practically all of these local independent banks were absorbed into the larger national banks. Williams Deacons Bank, begun in Manchester in 1836 became part of the Royal Bank of Scotland in the 1930s; the District Bank (formerly the Manchester & Liverpool District Banking Company) was absorbed by National Provincial (later National Westminster) in 1962; most others suffered a similar fate.

Manchester Newspaper Industries

Manchester had also had the largest newspaper industry outside London, a position it held well into the 1960s. The "Manchester Guardian", the "Daily Express" and the "Manchester Evening News", and a host of other daily newspapers, (most now extinct), were written, printed and distributed from Manchester.
First to move was the Guardian, ("Manchester" was dropped from its masthead), and this was to be a portent of things to come. Others followed, though most kept a regional office in Manchester.
The Daily Express's move left behind a wonderful and rare example of Art Deco architecture in Great Ancoats Street, and for many years nobody knew what to do with it - fortunately, its Grade II Listed Building Status saved it from demolition, and it remains one of Manchester's fine buildings. No newspapers are printed in Manchester city centre nowadays - though the Manchester Evening News and the Guardian are still printed in new premises in Trafford Park. With its improved communications network, changing industrial conditions , new work patterns, revitalised Enterprise Zones, changing residential patterns and the improved transport systems, Manchester has seen massive changes taking place since the Second World War.

Footnote

The 1945 City of Manchester Plan proposed many improvements to the fabric and condition of the city, which had suffered worst than most during the war. Its proposed roads have been built (some, albeit, rather controversially in the light of later "greener" attitudes), its workforce has been largely relocated from manufacture to service industries, and the buildings have been cleaned up and restored. Despite the 1980s recession in which Manchester fared less well than many other cities in Britain, it faces the future more confidently today than it has at any time since 1945.

See Also: 20th Century Manchester Buildings

< Previous Page
Back to Top