urban scrawl Issue 2 ISBN: 978-0-9525791-2-0
Hulme: What Happened Next
Editorial In many respects Hulme is URBED’s spiritual home and is the subject of Urban Scrawl Issue 2. It is an area that has been cleared and rebuilt twice in the space of thirty years, a dubious distinction. It is or has been home to many of URBED’s staff and for five years was where our office was based. Laid out in 1890, forcefully modified amidst a riot in 1933, the second major remodelling of the area occurred in the 1970s and involved demolition of the area’s terraced grid and replacement with 13 tower blocks and 6 system-built deck-access estates, the centrepiece of which was the Crescents, designed like Bath terraces on steroids. The population dropped to nearly ten percent of its pre-regeneration levels and complaints about conditions in the new developments soon mounted. As families moved out, a myriad of others moved in and Hulme was lit up with the creative energy of its new residents. It became a hub for Manchester’s alternative culture and while this new community didn’t want it demolished the area’s ongoing problems and the fact that precious few of them paid any rent persuaded the council that it had to go. So in the 1990s another programme of regeneration was embarked upon, determined ‘that the mistakes which were made a generation ago were not repeated’. The new Hulme (technically the new new Hulme) was promised as a place of self-policing developments by design, safe, integrated, neighbourly streets and an area that encouraged self-sustaining patterns of life for generations to come. Members of URBED were part of this second wave as tenant activists, residents and planners. Many of the ideas and principles that underpinned the redevelopment were suggested, championed and challenged by people still working for us to this day (it is also worth noting that many ideas were also ignored). For Urban Scrawl 2 we revisit Hulme as a practice to ask what the area looks like ten years on: are we glad the second wave happened, what do others involved in the regeneration think of the area now, what lessons can be learnt in future and, perhaps most importantly, did Hulme become what it set out to be? Warts and all, in agreement and conflict, this is our assessment of Hulme…
– ISSUE 02
Contents
CREDITS
4 - 9
16 – 17
Hulme In Hindsight
Historic Development
Sarah Jarvis interviews key people in the
A plotted history of the area through each
regeneration of Hulme to evaluate the
major development epoch.
lessons we can all learn from the process of neighbourhood renewal.
10
18 – 21 The World’s Longest Mistake Sergio Porta tells Italy’s deck access story.
22 – 24
11 – 13
Housing And Hulme - A Personal Perspective
The Fields Of Hulme
Debbie Fuller talks through her experience of
Helene Rudlin takes a walk through Hulme’s
living in the ‘regenerated’ Hulme.
ongoing green activism.
Photographs: Charlie Baker: Front cover, p.4,5,6,7,8,14,23,
Helene Rudlin: p.9,12 Pia Ceschel: p.13 Debbie Fuller: p.22
URBED Fifth Floor 10 Little Lever Street Manchester, M1 1HR
t. 0161 200 5500 email: scrawl@urbed.coop web: www.urbed.coop
25 - 27
14 - 15
Moving Swiftly On
New Homes For Little Change
Charlie Baker offers a critique of the
Paul Bower documents his attempts to
new Hulme in this commentary to his
break into social housing in Hulme and
photographs.
development.
Baker, David Rudlin
urbanism environment design
figures.
offers a future model for ethical, mixed-use
Sarah Jarvis, Andy Kelham, John Sampson, Charlie
24,25,26,27 Jamie Anderson: p.2/3,10
Hulme in Stats The changing picture of Hulme in facts and
Editoral Team:
Printed by BROWNS CTP Ltd, Unit B, Colbalt Way, Foxdenton Lane, Middleton, Manchester M24 1NN
Urban Scrawl is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable oil based inks.
Back image: Newcastle Rd 1905 Manchester City Council Image Library
ISSUE 02
–
Hulme in hindsight looking back AT the lessons learned A large cast of people influenced the regeneration of Hulme. For our major interview in this edition of Urban Scrawl we have asked a variety of the actors who were working and living there 15 years ago to reflect on their experiences of that time. Speaking to David Lunts, George Mills, Lesley Chalmers, Peter Marcus, and John Robb, Sarah Jarvis draws out some of the lessons that Hulme can still teach us today.
David Lunts Now Executive Director of Policy and Partnerships at the Greater London Authority, David Lunts was Chair of Manchester City Council’s Housing Committee from 1988 to 1995. In between, his roles have included heading the Urban Villages Forum, Chief Executive of the Prince’s Foundation, and Director of Urban Policy at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Visions are all very well, but ordinariness
David Lunts
George Mills
Lesley Chalmers
Peter Marcus
John Robb
can be a good quality The Community Planning Weekend was intended to set out a vision for Hulme – with all sorts of pontificating and pretentiousness. Maureen Moonsamy, one of the residents said, “I want Hulme to be an ordinary place. It used to be one of those places where people knew their neighbours and everyone felt comfortable”. This was a very powerful thing to hold onto. She was also very vocal about the more middle class activists – “too many Epidemics”, as she called them. Hulme was full of these architecture students and tenant activists, who started from the premise that we’ve got to save our homes, but actually became increasingly intrigued by the possibilities of designing a new urban quarter in Manchester.
– ISSUE 02
Keep up the pace of change
technique. Crown St did achieve this, as it
A clear corporate view is needed to get
Three or four more years of focus would
was more self-conscious about the traditional
things done
have helped: the pace of development and
Glasgow tenement. Hulme got a squeezed-
Graham Stringer was the Leader of the council
quality of development would have been
down Brookside. Ten years later Urban
and had very clear views. He was a very
better, especially the quality of the buildings
Splash would have done a very different job,
powerful leader and could certainly reorganise
and the attention to detail. Debates around
but we were stuck with Bellway and Miller
the architecture of the council, which we did.
urbanism fell into two areas – loose fit design
Homes. This was six or seven years before
So the idea of taking Hulme forward as a joint
code versus a more rigid code. Perhaps the
the Urban Task Force, so developers like
venture with AMEC and various other players
codes should have been more prescriptive.
Bellway etc have been on a journey too.
and then having an arms length delivery
There are no memorable buildings from City
Also, the Birley Fields office fiasco was a
vehicle, Hulme Regeneration, based on the
Challenge, except Homes for Change, but
rather conceited idea that there would be
estate, and setting up a new sub-committee
that is the most introverted and non-urban
some sort of massive new corporate office
of the council that was able to make all the
– it doesn’t address the street.
corridor of speculative offices - I gather that
decisions about planning and other things
those offices are still unlet 10 years on, on a
was all very important to us and helped the
huge central site, but getting an office market
project along. It enabled decisions to be made
Placemaking needs to be taken seriously
to work in a location like Hulme was always
quickly, so it did a tremendous amount to set
Hammarby Sjöstad in Sweden is a good
going to be very difficult.
Manchester on course for doing other big
example. It is still all flats but built to one code with a limited palette of materials and high density. Here there is nothing close to it. There are a few ‘nice’ developments but they don’t make a neighbourhood. We need to keep a sense of the domestic but still be high density. So the biggest criticism from the design perspective is that it didn’t work. We still need a domestic vernacular. Hulme is too full of many little bits and pieces where each architect or developer has tried to do something – like red or blue window frames – but the best have a sense of order and ordinariness beneath them which is a good
Certainly it was a fascinating time because although David Rudlin and Charlie Baker had probably read Jane Jacobs, quite a lot of us in those days hadn’t
projects like the City Centre after the IRA bomb. Hulme showed the value of a clear corporate view. Just as London over the last seven or eight years has benefited from the Mayor getting a grip, there are a host of examples where things are not happening because of an absence of a clear corporate view.
ISSUE 02
–
George Mills A partner in MBLA architects in Manchester, George has been involved in the redevelopment of Hulme since the 1980s with schemes including the cooperative development Homes for Change and the Life Buildings, still on site in Hulme. Keep your foot on the gas
been relatively neglected, with only two or
was the real thing. But it was more important
Manchester City Council is good at getting
three developers staying, and no interest from
to get people living in Hulme again. ASDA is
initiatives going – and the regeneration of
newcomers.
cosmopolitan and bustling: you can’t say ‘it’s
Hulme aimed to bring improved social housing but also, importantly, private investment to the area. The £37.5m of City Challenge was seed money, intended to put Hulme back on the map. Up to 1997 it achieved that – at one stage eight or nine different private developers were working in Hulme, which was amazing
Homes for Change was groundbreaking – radical both in its design but also its procurement, and everyone who worked on it was very proud of it
as a few years’ earlier no one would have
Consultation can be frustrating but getting
Hulme’ or wherever, and that is a fantastic
touched it. But then the impetus went as the
people in can be more important
virtue – there is a good mix of people and
City Council officers’ focus moved east, to
The public consultation produced a quite
ages and at that level it’s worked.
Ancoats, the Northern Quarter and North East
conservative architecture. In particular the
Manchester. The very political muscle that had
mostly white, working class population living
Hype is sometimes necessary
made Hulme work in the first place – Richard
in the northern end were overly-influenced by
Compared with twelve or thirteen years ago
Leese, Eamon Boylan, Howard Bernstein, etc
what they were watching on their televisions –
Hulme is completely changed. We didn’t
– was now required to look at other failing
they wanted a Brookside type of architecture,
really believe Manchester was the new
areas of the city and as their attention moved
it was very influential. This media-driven
Barcelona, but the hype was necessary. Now
it left a vacuum in Hulme. Areas like Miles
consultation process was very frustrating,
there is a good mix of people there – but
Platting were also in danger of becoming no
and not radical enough. Housing Associations
one problem might be that the housing we
go areas and Manchester City Council could
were conservative and still are, so tenants
are building does not have enough built-in
only do so much. The pace of change slowed
and Housing Associations resisted anything
flexibility to accommodate different family
down. The City Centre took off as a place
radical. It was tough. I think there is still
groups and lifestyles over time.
to live, but sites in Hulme were not brought
something distinctive about the architecture,
forward at the same rate and developers
though it could have been more cutting-
moved their attentions to the city. Hulme has
edge. In comparison, Homes for Change
– ISSUE 02
Lesley Chalmers Now Chief Executive of the English Cities Fund, Lesley Whitehouse as she then was headed Hulme Regeneration from 1992 to 1995. After Hulme she worked as Chief Executive of the King’s Cross Partnership. You need to have passion to get up and go
organised by Dogs of Heaven, featuring baths
. Not everything went right of course – the
to work
piled up in a pyramid called ‘Three Degrees
Birley offices next to Homes For Change
The common denominator shared by all the
in Surface Chemistry’. It was genial and jovial
look like a business park. It was wrong, I
main personalities working in Hulme – Charlie,
– Hulme hadn’t seen that for decades.
don’t know how it happened.
David, Peter etc – was that they all wanted to make a difference. It was very much a team
Recognise different signs of success
effort: no one person could have done it on
Hulme’s crime figures shot up because
their own, no one sector or organisation. But
people had moved back in and were now
beware of professional silos. You can see the
bothering to report crime. They believed
history of the discussion of the plan making in
something would now be done about it
the streetscape.
– there was a sea change of responsibility. You can now walk through Hulme at night,
Celebration brings people together
and it passes the taxi test – when you get
At the end of that first financial year I
in and give your destination, does the driver
commissioned a party like a New Orleans wake
suck his teeth or say good things about it?
Places, not just buildings; quality not just style; value not just cost
ISSUE 02
–
Peter Marcus A Civil Law Barrister specialising in housing and landlord & tenant law, Peter was a student and a leading member of the Tenant’s Alliance, the main mouthpiece for the 13 tenant groups in Hulme. He later worked as housing and regeneration manager at the London Borough of Camden and housing policy and practice advisor for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation before taking up law. Tenant involvement is still contentious
went round that if the tenants were sent a
Discussion can avoid prejudice
It was a different era then. In the 1980s
leaflet saying their homes were going to be
Everyone was so used to fighting against
tenant participation was a new idea –
demolished tomorrow, most would still stay
each other – there were too many prejudices.
previously tenants had not been expected to
at home rather than come to a meeting. It
Nowadays it would be different – we would
make significant decisions beyond the colour
is possible to be very cynical about tenant
all get together with a project manager at a
of their front door. Tenants Associations
involvement now – it raises expectations, and
country house away from the site and get to
thought tenants should be able to take all the
most professionals won’t let it get in the way
know one another. Then perhaps we would
decisions – but in reality they didn’t always
of what they want. It needs to be focussed to
have realised that in many ways the things we
want to. Often a lot of wine and a little
be successful.
were after were not so different after all.
supper was needed to tempt tenants out to meetings – but it was amazing that anyone was there sitting in that hall at all. The joke
– ISSUE 02
Participation needs to be focussed
Lead singer of the punk group Goldblade, John has lived in Hulme since 1988: he didn’t
John Robb
pay rent for 15 years but has since bought a flat and lives in the area still. Who is regeneration for?
creatives – although others were just the
…but creativity can survive redevelopment
In a lot of ways it was better before. It was
losers and junkies who come in their wake.
Nowadays it looks like a normal place, with
a playground, but not very safe – and not
It’s fragile. If they’d never knocked it down
normal houses. Some people stayed on and
a good place to bring up a family or to be
there would be more of it today. Though there
got houses – the redevelopment didn’t crush
old. From 1988 to 1992 it was insane – we
would still be drugs – it was the largest squat
the spirit and the culture and it’s certainly a
had weekend long parties. It was a squat
in Britain at the time. It was like a corral in the
safer place to walk through nowadays. And
culture, with the squat lifestyle and politics.
Wild West.
at least there are shops – well, a few small
Sometimes there could be six parties
shops on the Stretford Road and ASDA of
booming across the estate at the same time.
Ancoats never took off culturally like Hulme
course. We are supposed to be cheering
They said they were improving our housing
did because it was too white and working
because a big multinational has opened up,
for us, but really they were trying to get rid of
class. Hulme and Moss Side were more
but generally it’s a big improvement on the
“
Places, not just buildings; quality not just style, value not just cost ”
us. All that talk about ‘regenerating’ – really
culturally mixed – Moss Side was a Black
old cockroach supermarket.
they were just doing it for yuppies who
area, though it didn’t look as bad as Hulme,
The culture hasn’t disappeared completely,
weren’t very rich, and students.
so when the TV wanted to report trouble in
but it’s mostly a modern version of that stuff
Moss Side they often used pictures of Hulme
– people still making music but many of those
by mistake, especially the Crescents.
musicians are working on the Internet. There
Cities need special places for creativity… It was a pity they’ve been squeezed out as
are some musicians in our building – we
cities need somewhere for free thinkers and
are on head-nodding terms. It’s a dead nice atmosphere, still a good place to live.
I call it ‘Lower Chorlton’ – people who would rather live in Chorlton but can’t afford it live in Hulme ISSUE 02
–
Hulme in Stats
130,000 Population of Hulme (1930)
25% Percentage of adults in Hulme with degrees (1989 Hulme Study)
35 Number of owner occupiers in Hulme (1981 Census)
7,637 Population of Hulme (1991 Census)
41%
10 – ISSUE 02
Population of Hulme (2001Census)
Unemployment rate (1989 Hulme Study*)
12.7% Economically active but unemployed together with long term sick (2001 Census)
Percentage of adults in Hulme with no qualifications (1989 Hulme Study)
80 5 10,449 21% Number of owner occupiers in Hulme (2001 Census)
45%
12% Proportion of students (1989 Hulme Study)
Number of adults in
32%
Manchester with degrees (2001 Census)
Proportion of Students (2001 Census)
The Fields of Hulme D
on
’t i t al w
ays s eem to go that you don’t know
w
hat
The regeneration of Hulme took place amid a blossoming of local green activism. Horticulturalist and former resident Helene Rudlin checks up on its signs of life.
you got t s ill it’
go
I’m tucking into leek and potato soup at Kim by the Sea, Hulme’s ‘first real restaurant’ according to the Times, which nestles in the Homes For Change housing cooperative on Old Birley Street. Here in the Yellowbricks, as it is known locally, everybody seems to know one another. I spot a kid I haven’t seen for a couple of years and exclaim ‘haven’t you grown!’ This is exactly how we thought Hulme would be back in the late 1980s when we started Homes for Change. I don’t feel I am in central Manchester at all, but in a village, with all the hustle and bustle and friendliness a public place would bring. Through the window I can see the Hulme Community Garden Centre with its cast iron cactus gates entwined with the newly opened leaves of a honeysuckle. Cars and buses speed past along Old Birley Street and I wonder how many of these people in a hurry would consider taking a stroll through the streets and fields of Hulme. Because yes, Hulme has fields, the bit of Hulme that the council seemingly forgot to develop, and this is where I have been seen collecting great brome, cock’s foot, silky bent, orache, field thistle and buddleia to decorate my homegrown flower arrangements. In the café I am sitting under a huge framed photograph of the Birley Tree that once stood in another of Hulme’s fields. This majestic Italian poplar became a symbol for Hulme’s activists who set up a camp in its branches to stop the council from chopping it down. Local kids had adopted the tree as a play area – the best supervised play area I’d seen – flowers were planted along a wishing path encircling its trunk, and picnics had been held in the shade of its large canopy. Unfortunately the council wanted the site for a hotel development. One morning in 1998 just after the guy who had been guarding the tree overnight had had to go to work, council workmen chopped it down. Later that day the community deposited the remains of the fallen tree on the desk of the council officer in charge of the area and the hotel never did get built. But did Hulme’s tradition of radical direct action die with the tree? That was the question I wanted to ask my guest at the café, Tim Hunt, a Hulme Local Project Manager for Action for Sustainable Living. AfSL is a charity that helps people change to a more sustainable lifestyle, including recycling, waste, clothing, energy, food, fair trade, gardening and holidays. As well as studying for
an MA in
Sustainable Development Tim runs the Transition Town project, Transition Town Hulme, or TTH, to respond to the challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change. Previously, Tim was involved with the radical Basement project in the Northern Quarter. ‘Have you ‘grown out of it?’ I ask. ‘Of course not,’ he replies,
‘I
just want to be more proactive.
ISSUE 02
– 11
ne
The Basement was a centre for alternative
rubbish and set alight on bonfire night,
those in public parks. The Common was
culture, radical politics, campaigning and
and more recently the reconstruction of
surveyed during the last Permaculture
art but it was badly damaged by fire last year
Guantanamo Bay, guards and all. A transition
Design course, which ran in Hulme through
and since then we have all moved on to other
initiative, like TTH, is a community working
the summer of 2006. The course included
things. My current concern is the waste of
together using creativity, ingenuity and
lots of outdoor activities, from growing
land, time and money that I see around me
adaptability, creating a way of living that’s
food to wildlife studies, visits to organic
in Hulme. Huge empty areas are earmarked
more connected, more vibrant and more
market gardens like Glebelands and Growing
for business development and offices that
in touch with its environment. Though I
with Grace as well as a stay at the Middle
have already been built stand empty, while
don’t recall a flower shop in Hulme in the
Wood Ecological Trust near Lancaster. The
the council goes on about its green policies.
80s or 90s, I do remember its first organic
biodiversity on this field is staggering and
As well as fighting the constant battles for
produce shop in 1991 called ‘Malarky’ which
includes many butterflies, moths and birds. I
land as happened in the past, we want to
sold locally homemade food. The first
walk pass vetch, ragwort and plantain, black
focus on gathering our skills and positive
organic vegetable box scheme was started by
meddick, ground elder and blackberries,
energy. This is what TTH is trying to do by
Limited Resources in the early 1990s, and
marestail, nettles and thistles, cinqfoil and
acting as a catalyst and bringing together
still exists today. A ‘People’s Kitchen’ takes
clover and a huge quince. Further along I
green initiatives, from computer recycling
place regularly at the Afewee Pub, where
walk through a small coppice of birch, ash,
to organic gardening. Rather than fighting
a dinner will cost you £1.50, and there are
lime, maple, hawthorn, hazel, rhus, elder,
to change things we can’t influence, we just
still dreams of creating a city farm. When
beach, goat willow, buddleia and broom.
want to improve the way we live. It is taking a
visiting Christiana in Copenhagen, I saw the
This thick woodland serves as a buffer
long time to achieve because Hulme moves at
same spirit of community participation, the
from Princess Parkway’s heavy
a slow pace, but that’s a good thing too’.
share of skills, gardens, allotments, and a
traffic and I hear a blackbird sing,
multitude of small businesses, workshops
something which I wouldn’t have
This project reminds me of the many
and enterprises. This spirit was never going
heard 10 years ago. These large
networks here in Hulme before the
to survive the redevelopment of Hulme, but
green areas are not usually seen
redevelopment which gave it its energy
through the work of people like Tim it is clear
as an interesting investment in
– the spontaneous picnics and concerts,
that it is not dead yet and Hulme may yet well
their raw nature, but they are
re-emerge as Manchester’s radical centre.
accessible and welcoming
performances and parties, the laborious structures built from
to all and to those living I leave Tim to stroll across Hulme Common,
next to them they
where once stood blocks of deck access
can truly enhance
flats, and come across several plant
the quality of their
species that I haven’t seen here
lives.
before. The variety of plants
A little further
and insects on brownfield
down Leaf
sites exceed
d
One
Tow X
Sit
tF ields
Bon
B
cks
Ki
m by the
Se
a Cafe
ul
w
ri
me Comm
un
i
l Stre e
Old Birley Tree Old
llo
12 – ISSUE 02
kw
e
Ye
sal
Accross Bon
ommon eC lm
s
Street all
ards Princess P ar
H
oa
M
Hu
Spiral
e
ard
tG
y
ar
ee
wa
ld Two
G
n
Str
ch
rch ay Fie w
re
af
Accross A r
ay
Le
Brick
A
s Sretford R
B
Herb
ed
os
s
R
Accr
nt
Field
Ce
way
de n
h Arc
Street I reach
ty
gathered
Bi
rley Tree
From left: The view on Stretford Road, The scene at Leaf Street North and a shot of Helene in Hulme circa 1992.
Hulme’s other radical enclave, the ‘Redbricks’,
Manchester in Bloom awards at the Town
born on to grassland. As a species we passed
a series of 1930s walk-up flats huddled up
Hall. It was good to see amongst all of the
our childhood and adolescence in grassy
against the Mancunian Way. Leaf Street as it
manicured lawns and flower beds that
places. When we learned to reconstruct our
runs through the Redbricks was ‘landscaped’
Patrick, a caretaker from Hulme, was given
environment we surrounded ourselves with
by the council in the 90s, creating a strip of
an award for a 5m by 10m garden at the foot
the vegetation that made us feel at ease with
grass. That is until the residents took it over
of a tower block where he grows vegetables
ourselves. We took it into the city and spread
as part of an earlier 72-hour Permaculture
and perennials and has constructed little
it around our homes. We played on it, we
Design course in 1999, using the site for a
gazebos and benches. A myriad of other
fought on it, we loved and died on it.” We
practical design exercise, and transformed it
green initiatives in Hulme include the Zion
have done all these things and more, much
into today’s Leaf Street Community Garden.
Health and Resource Centre’s sensory garden,
more, on the fields of Hulme. us
Following consultation a masterplan was
Eddie’s planters along Upper Chorlton
created which has slowly evolved into the
Road where climbers and flowers thrive,
garden today. This includes the ‘World’s
Homes for Change’s courtyard with its wild
largest herb spiral’, and a network of wood-
flower meadow and roof gardens, the Hulme
chipped paths between raised vegetable beds,
Urban Gardens Society, the Friends of the
soft fruit bushes, wildflowers, ornamental
Hulme Park and last but not least, the
shrubs, compost heaps and a willow tunnel
four allotment plots clinging to a verge
where kids gather to eat pears and apples.
of Princess Road which the local
Residents created all this, the only money
authorities have ignored for over
they received in the early days being £300
20 years, but which a waiting
from the Unicorn Grocery Coop in Chorlton.
list of 10 years.
However the garden has moved on as local people raised funds to employ a part time
The green spirit of Hulme
project co-ordinator to garden, support
is still alive but I wonder
volunteers and run community events in warm
for how long will it be possible
weather. The early aim of food production has
to say the same of its
not been realised because of excessive shade,
fields. As Graham
impoverished soil and pollution, but the focus
Harvey writes in
has shifted more towards recreation and
The Forgiveness
wildlife and the garden is a wonderful refuge
of Nature: “Human
just yards from the city centre.
beings were conceived and
Earlier this year I was invited to the
They pa ved
parad
r ise and put up a pa
kin
g
i ,w lot
th
a
pi
nk
ho
a l, te
u bo
u tiq
d e an
a swingin
gh o
ts p
Taxi’, Jon ellow i M g Y itc ‘Bi he
ll
ot
ISSUE 02
– 13
New Homes for Little Change Homes for Change set out to create a socially sustainable way of living in the city by providing affordable, quality urban homes and workspace for a community to inhabit and run. But Paul Bower’s attempts to break into Social Housing lead him to question if the Homes for Change model can still unlock the ongoing housing crisis, or whether it has now become a victim of the welfare state.
14 – ISSUE 02
Cheap as chips?
most in need of housing, but unfortunately
offer varied financial packages and create
If you have £130,000 to spare you can
for Homes for Change this ‘ladder’ system
quality places to live – something that typical
purchase a new shiny two-bed home
all too often results in a co-location of
developer-led social housing has never
(apartment) in Hulme today and have little
vulnerable individuals, families and couples
until now attained in the UK, having been
change in your pocket to show for it. The
who suffer from the multi-faceted inflictions
stigmatised by poor build quality and large
impact of the global credit crunch, coupled
of social immobility. Under such scoring
profits. Last year the government outlined
with the UK’s previous decade of continual
those who may not be in such dire straits but
in its Housing Green Paper twelve social
lending and spending mean that it has never
genuinely want to be part of a socially mixed
housing commitments3, one of which was
been so hard for first time buyers to purchase
community, rather than just a cheap place
providing more opportunities for the private
and retain a property, and yet social housing
to live, are forced to look elsewhere. This
sector to build social housing. Nevertheless,
is an alternative that can seem closed or
dilemma is confounded by the lack of social
what remains uncertain is whether such loose
unavailable to them.
housing available in the UK, as many council
commitments will be capable of delivering
houses were bought by their occupiers back
first class mixed social housing that people
In the same boat
in the 1980s and never fully replaced, making
once more aspire to live in and be proud
In my short time living in Manchester I have
social housing today a rationed commodity
of, rather than feeling lumped with as a
witnessed the housing market change
– available only to those who need it most.
last resort. If residents are able to choose
around me, but Homes for Change has been
Any attempts at social and cultural diversity
housing which best fits their current social
anchored in my mind throughout. When I
are seemingly being forced to walk the plank.
and economic status and are not labelled or
rented a room in Hulme a few years ago I cycled past the housing co-operative scheme
grouped for doing so, then a greater diversity Setting Sail
of sustainable communities can be achieved.
daily on my way to work, a majestic complex
One solution might seem to be building
Rather than simply constructing new homes
of buildings surrounded by a stagnant ‘sea’
more places like Homes for Change, but
for little change, we can, through revisiting
of untouched and unoccupied business
the reality of delivering another Homes for
seminal projects like Homes for Change raise
units, and I wondered what it might be like
Change within the current housing system
questions and dialogue that will go a long
to live in. The projecting walkways, multiple
would probably see it sink before it set sail.
way to overhauling the current social housing
levels and bridges made me think of a ship
The current system of centralised control
system that has seemingly run aground, and
at sea, rather than any housing I had seen
that sees the formation of large unwieldy
construct homes that really do mean change
before. If it had sails I was sure it would
Housing Associations would seem to be in
for all involved. us
float down the Princess Road to warmer
direct conflict with a co-operative model
lands, and dock with similar ‘ships’ in a port
offering more control to the resident. Yet if we
1
somewhere sunnier. More recently these
are to achieve the aspirations for affordable
Associations and gave the grant funding to make
romantic daydreams transformed into a
housing and workspace that led to the likes of
Homes for Change rents affordable
desire to jump aboard Homes for Change
Homes for Change and its lesser known, but
2
and experience, I hoped, a new way of living
successful house-mate, Work for Change ,
space and affordable workspace that shares the
in the city not rooted in corporately branded
then new funding models are necessary, with
building with Homes for Change
lifestyles but offering a more participative
the impetus taken away from the state and
3
and collective approach. Little did I think that
shared with an independent body capable of
can be sourced from: www.communities.gov.
getting on board would be quite so difficult as
delivering and managing affordable, not for
uk/publications/housing/homesforfuture
I find myself still standing on the ‘dockside’,
profit housing in a given localised context.
A summary of the 12 commitments:
2
seeking permission to step aboard.
Getting Stuck on the Social Ladder/Plank
A government agency which regulates Housing
A co-operative of ethical and cultural business
A free downloadable version of the Green Paper
www.contractjournal.com/
One such way the UK’s current narrow
Articles/2008/04/18/58682/the-governments-12-
spectrum of housing could be widened
social-housing-commitments.html
Boarding control, introduced and enforced
is for local government to open fully the
by the Housing Corporation1, takes the form
social housing market to a new breed of
of a social points system that scores your
ethical developers coming to the surface;
social status. Rightly it prioritises those
who prioritise mixed use developments,
ISSUE 02
– 15
MOSS SIDE & HULME Historic Development
In the 1930s Hulme was a poor but lively district with 130,000 residents and almost 1,000 shops. The first redevelopments took place in the mid 1930s but it was not until the 1960s that the area was comprehensively redeveloped. The area was redeveloped with six deck access estates the largest of which was the Crescents started in 1971 and designed by the architects Wilson and Womersley (Womersley had been the Sheffield City Architect who commissioned Park Hill). The Crescents were made up of four curved nine-storey blocks modelled on the Georgian Crescents of Bath. To make the point each Crescent was named after a Georgian architect: Charles Barry, William Kent, Robert Adam and John Nash, with an extra bit called Nicholas Hawksmoor Close.
Hulme had originally been designed for families. However after a child fell from one of the walkways in 1976, families were moved out and to keep the estate occupied the large flats were let to anyone who applied so making them accessible to young, single people and
1955
students. Over the years the community developed into one of the most lively and unorthodox in the city. Apartments were converted to cafes, rehearsal rooms and studios for artists, musicians, sculptors
The story of Hulme’s redevelopment is a long one and has been
and poets. For much of the 1980s Hulme was Manchester’s Christania
described elsewhere (including our book Building the 21st Century
or Kreuzberg – a place apart and a magnet for people looking for a
Home). The process was fraught with difficulties, arguments and
different way of life.
sackings but eventually a set of rules was agreed upon for the redevelopment of the area. These were set down in Rebuilding the
The inevitable happened and in the late 1980s a decision was taken to
City: The Hulme Guide to Development (still available on the URBED
redevelop the estate. The first attempt was through a Housing Action
web site) which stipulated simple things such as all streets should
Trust, which was fought off by tenants and the second was though
end in other streets, all buildings should face onto these streets and
City Challenge which started in 1991. However the people who lived in
take their main point of access from them. It set rules for density and
Hulme knew that parts of it worked and feared that the estate would be
for a mix of uses as well as setting out the scale and proportion of
replaced with suburban housing as indeed the early plans had intended.
the streets and the creation of a consistent building line. None of this
Fortunately the political leadership in the city shared these fears.
seemed particularly radical as indeed it wasn’t.
16 – ISSUE 02
1985
2008
The Guide was adopted in 1994 but even before then was being
Since that time it has become the norm for new development and very
used to shape the redevelopment with the active support of the City’s
slowly British cities are changing, but Hulme remains the first.
leadership. Over the 14 years since then much of Hulme has been rebuilt as the plan to the right shows. Some of the new housing is
However when people visit Hulme to see this radicalism they are
very good, some of it is very mediocre. The neighbourhood is at once
invariably disappointed. Much of the area is built out with cheap
mundane and radical although the radical bits are easy to miss. It was
private housing with no architectural quality. The area has been built at
the first neighbourhood in England to build simple urban housing facing
too low density for its position in the centre of the city and is deserted
onto streets with apartments on the corners and private courtyards to
for much of the day and fails to sustain mix of uses or more than a
the rear. The sort of simple urbanism that has been the backbone of
handful of shops. It therefore represents just a first step on the road to
all towns and cities for millennia was considered radical in the UK and
re-urbanising the UK. us
Hulme was the first to show that it could be done.
ISSUE 02
– 17
“The world’s longest mistake”? Sustainable urban design and the renovation of social housing estates: also a disciplinary problem Italy is not somewhere that you associate with modernist planning.
architects who created estates like the kilometre long block at Corviale
However while most Italian citizens managed to avoided the
outside Rome continue to be celebrated in exhibitions while the
modernists, the tenants of social housing estates were less lucky. In
architectural establishment try and explain away why the celebrated
March 2006 the Politecnico di Milano organized a conference to look
estates did not work. At the same time an Italian new urbanism
at ways in which these estates have been tackled across Europe at
movement is emerging, as in the UK, that proposed a very different
which David Rudlin from URBED was invited to speak. The project
approach to these estates, something you would think to be self-evident
was organised by Sergio Porta and this is his keynote address to
to the Italians! The full proceedings are available on URBED’s web site.
the conference translated from the Italian. In it he describes how the
1
The periphery and the
Student project
culture of design: failure of
from Laboratorio
the periphery?
di Progettazione Urbanistica, looking at the St. Ambrose
The title of this contribution, that also is the
district in Milan
tile of the seminar held at the Polytechnic
2004-2005.
of Milan in March 2006, evokes an article published in the issue 273 of the French magazine of architecture “L’architecture d’Aujourd’Hui”, February 1991, an issue that deepened the problems inherent in the large scale of urban transformations. In particular that article, written by Careri and La Roque,
integration, economic stagnation, failure
entered the scene with ideas, evaluations,
addressed a strict criticism of the Corviale
of the retail community commerce system,
tools. From opposite positions it invokes
estate, a massive social housing project built
physical and environmental decay and finally
the complete demolition and reconstruction
in Rome during the seventies by a group of
the most serious, the most dangerous of
(like in Pruitt-Igoe or Hulme) or more subtle
architects led by Mario Fiorentino. The story
all: poor generational turn-over. The sons, if
processes of immersion and valorisation of
of Corviale is similar to that of most, if not all,
just they can, they leave. To escape from the
the social, together with the architectural and
the social housing estates raised up in the
estate is perceived in itself as a success. To
environmental, context. The very existence of
western world in the same years.
remain in the estate as a failure.
such a debate tells a lot of the level reached
It is similar, in example, to the story of Pruitt
From time to time, often under the pressure
Igoe, a large social housing estate realized
of news items, yesterday the homicides
The disciplines of architecture and urban
in St. Louis a few years before Corviale
in Rozzano, today the Parisian banlieues
design are part of this. We architects and
then demolished in 1972. The synthesis
on fire, the debate on what to do with the
urban designers apparently approach the
of such stories is in the very fact that, less
large social housing estates has expanded,
question of the periphery with deep divisions,
than half a century later, the renewal of
interwoven with the problem of the
especially about the role and the responsibility
such massive residential stock is one of the
peripheries as a whole, particularly with
of the project, of form I would say, in the
most relevant issues in the urban planning
the sprawled low density suburbs. From
production of the social disease: it is my
agenda in all western world Countries. It has
this point of view, that is from the point of
personal conviction that to make clear the
been understood that the problem is not
view of urban sustainability, these are two
nature of such contrapositions and to take
just the renewal of buildings, but rather the
faces of the same coin. In that debate it is
a stand among them is important to free the
social and economic renewal of all involved
possible to hear voices coming from different
potential that architects and urban designers
communities of those neighbourhoods. Such
disciplines. Sociology, urban anthropology,
have to positively contribute to the debate.
communities, in fact, almost always suffer for
micro-economy, human and economic
And that drives back to the title of the seminar
the same problems: poor social and spatial
geography, transport and urban planning,
and the Corviale estate.
by the disaster.
18 – ISSUE 02
2
The periphery and the culture of design: failure of the culture of design?
I’ll put it badly: is the historical failure of the
The second reason is that a few months
professional association and the Dean of the
periphery also the historical failure of our
ago, which means a good 15 years after the
School of Architecture of the local university
disciplinary tradition?
article in question, a celebration of the same
remembering that the designer had been
Fiorentino’s Corviale together with the ZEN in
- which is pure truth - an eminent exponent of
I am not hanging around the question too
Palermo by Vittorio Gregotti and the
the Italian architectural culture of his times, so
long and I will say that in my opinion yes,
Monte Amiata in Milan by Aldo Rossi and
much so that his work was celebrated in a big
absolutely yes: the failure of our metropolitan
Carlo Aymonino, has been played through
exhibition just three years ago.
peripheries also - I underline “also”, so
a seminar and an exhibition in Parma (the
“not only” - happened through the active
exhibition is still crossing through Italy): “such
Therefore Corviale, like Zen, Monte Amiata,
contribution of the culture of architectural
estates”, was argued in the presentation,
the “Scampìa sails” and lots of others, is
and urban design - if with that we intend its
“emerge at the urban and landscape scales
actually the symbol of an internal conflict, of a
original root, its DNA, its constituent generator
and at the architectural scale, expressing the
break within the disciplines of the project: is it
and to date still its mainstream, which is
most advanced achievements of the housing
- and what it represents - a mistake, or better
grounded on hygenism, a fundamental
articulation. [They] witness a possibility that
the “world’s longest mistake”, or a lesson for
antiurbanism, a will of power, a top-down
the city still has to give itself forms that only
the future? It is evident in short that, whatever
vision (yesterday supported by dreams of
architecture shapes”. Lexicon apart (but
position one may hold, here there is a
social engineering, today by the crisis of
that is not apart, actually, as more space
problem. A substantial part of our architectural
evaluative machines and the weakness of
would deserve the analysis of the use that
and urban culture is not able to calmly answer
cultural discourses), an heroic image of the
the architects vanguard’s cliques do of the
to the question: “what the architects have to
designer that comes together with an artistic
lexicon to build the walls of a discipline’s
do with the peripheries’ degradation?”.
approach to the job, and finally an inclination
simulacrum around themselves), lexicon apart
to separate reality in isolated phenomena
I was saying, Corviale, Zen and Monte Amiata
Of course I have already made my point clear,
missing connections and feed-backs (which
are proposed as “unmissable disciplinary
but I would like to quickly proceed with a
means missing systems’ complexity). These
achievements”; that is: icons for the
deeper reflection on this issue.
characters are all constituent of our discipline,
architecture of the future. Some weeks ago I
as they emerged together with the formation
read of a dispute provoked by a statement of
The first thing is that yes, once again, the
of urban design at the end of the XIX century,
the minister Iervolino who, on the occasion
architectural culture is not the only factor
and finally came to a full realization with
of the demolishment of one of the so-called
at work in the construction of metropolitan
the simplifications and formalisms as much
“Scampìa sails” (huge social housing blocks
peripheries and we are not unaware of the
of the modern tradition as of the so-called
soon evolved in ghettoes of social exclusion
risk to fall into a “deterministic” attitude, that
architectural post-modernism; moreover, we
and crime), accused the designer, Franz di
is the danger that derives from thinking that
still in our days - which is mostly interesting
Salvo, who passed away many years ago;
certain architectural configurations will directly
- find such a lot of them in much of the current
against the minister’s accusations immediately
determine certain social behaviours, both
design production: I refer to the solipsistic,
rose up the President of the local architects
those desired and those, like in this case,
self-celebrative, sculptural attitudes that pervade the cultural circuits of contemporary design. The Corviale in Rome comes from this culture; it is a symbol of it and one of the more explicit. The shortcomings and failures attributed to that architectural culture in terms of inhabitability, liveability, durability is provided: Corviale, “the world’s longest mistake” (it consists of a one kilometre long linear block), was taken as an icon of that failure. But this is just the first reason that I am interested in Corviale today.
Milano Verde, Pagano, Gardella e altri, 1938. ISSUE 02
– 19
3
Characteristics of a new humanism for the design of space.
undesired. Of course, I am saying this once
realized, abusive occupations occurred. The
But indeed in front of the crisis of the models
and for all, we know that the form’s impact on
call, in short, to the invocation of Le Corbusier
there is a second kind of answers: the gradual
people’s behaviour is mediated by thousands
who stated: “The harmonious city must firstly
reframing of our disciplinary culture. Some
of other factors - social, cultural, economic,
be planned by experts who know the science
of the same masters had the time, force and
climatic. We know that the ecological system,
of urbanism. They will elaborate their plans
lucidity to initiate this process of reframing
that is the system of the relationships between
in total freedom from external pressures
in the warm body, still young and kicking, of
man and physical environment, is a highly
and particular interests; once their plans are
orthodox planning. Bottoni, Rogers to look
complex system within which the spatial
formulated they must be actuated without
at Milan (I am speaking of Ernesto Nathan
dimension is just one of the many players on
opposition” (Le Corbusier, in Hall P, 2002).
Rogers of course…). But no doubts that
the field.
My goodness, the model was perfect, but
generally speaking that reframing follows the
there is always something that comes to stain
classical scheme of scientific revolutions, a
But, and this is the point, complexity can
it, mutilate it, to break the crystal, to smash
struggle between alternative paradigms, with
not be an alibi. It seems in fact undisputable
up the piece of art. There is always some
all the conflicts between organizations, power
that, in the construction of the great social
excess of criminals, some surplus of poverty,
groups, tools. And this story, in Italy at least, is
housing projects, the story has not been one
some budget cut, some personal initiative
in the middle of its process. Or better, it is just
of a struggle led by the architectural culture
of inhabitants, some error in construction.
begun. And at the core of that conflict today
against overwhelming counterpowers, let’s
Life, my goodness, does not seem to be
we find again the social housing estates,
say a generous and lost struggle. It seems
collaborating.
no more or not just the question of their
on the contrary that the story has been one
construction, but the huge problem of their
where the architectural culture had found in
Second, there has been no failure: indeed
the realization of such estates the opportunity
we witness clues of social re-aggregation,
to realize in walls and mud its most advanced
here a voluntary association, there even
What are the fundamental elements of this
principles. Social housing estates have been,
a local television station. But there is a
alternative culture of urban design? To offer
for the whole post-war period, the direct - I
third argument, particularly subtle: it is not
a summary is not hard work. There is a lot of
would say “crystalline” - emanation of the
the models that failed, it is the city that is
material at hand (just for a beginning: Newman
urban models of “orthodox modernism” - to
complex. Too complex. After all, we architect
and Kenworthy, 1999; Urban Task Force,
put it like Jane Jacobs - through the work
are with bare hands facing such complexity:
1999; Frey, 1999; Llewelyn-Davies, 2000).
of its most celebrated masters. Here we see
no one knows what to do in such a mess
And here is the news: the news, in fact, is that
for instance the project “Milano verde” by
or, to put it like Stefano Boeri, director of
it is not true at all that we architects do not
Pagano, Gardella and other young Milanese
the most important architectural magazine
know what to do with complexity and with the
rationalists (1938). Incidentally, we can rapidly
in Italy: “The truth is that today we do not
agglomeration of detached houses. On the
see what is the opinion of the inhabitants of
know how to redevelop to a real urban life
contrary it is true that during the last ten years
the Barzoni estate, realized by Arrighetti again
those nebulas of detached houses, small
and more, drawing from an uninterrupted
in Milan (second half of the fifties), on some of
cottages, warehouses that has grown around
reflection emerged since the early sixties,
our masters’ realizations. In short, in front of
our cities” (Boeri S, 2005a). But there’s more:
the international scientific community in
Corviale we architects, like in front of a magic
we must, humbly by Jove, “recognize at last
the disciplines of architecture and urban
mirror, see ourselves, our deepest roots.
the marginality of our actions in the societies
design has found a substantial consensus
That’s why it is so hard for us to exert criticism
of the multitudes” (Boeri S, 2005b). That is,
around key-principles, visions, real cases
and consciousness: because it is self-criticism
here we go with the most dangerous of the
and practices for the revitalization of cities, of
and self-consciousness that we speak of.
arguments: the maximalism of complexity as
peripheries and also, within this framework, of
a pretext for a rhetoric of impotence and a
social housing estates.
How did we react, in fact, to the
reclaiming, renovation and revitalization.
practice of permanent de-responsibility – ‘The
problem of peripheries? How it could be
city is so complex, there is nothing we poor
Keywords are: neighbourhood, community,
expected, that is in two ways. On one side
architects can do, therefore we may well give
density, compactness, diversity (of persons,
there is a sheltering behind the defence of
up and do absolutely what we like more and
buildings, functions), public space, public
the principles of disciplinary mainstream.
come back to our favourite little games: spun
life, ecological network, alternative mobility,
Why did the models fail? First, because they
skyscrapers, technological ziggurat, neo-pop
traffic calming, traffic demand management
were betrayed in practice. Buildings were
deconstructions etc. Symbols, style and let’s
rather than offer provision. In short, hierarchy
not completed, services were not completely
leave all the rest to sociologists’.
of communities that should be individuated,
20 – ISSUE 02
4
Making the change.
approached and structured by means of
is named “School of Civil Architecture”), the
One strolls around the university departments
a hierarchy of collective and individual
students’ works at our Laboratory of Urban
of all the world and sees, attached to the
alternative mobility. The goal, as in a recent
Design are inspired. Students produce
walls, the streets and squares of our historical
European research named Eco-city, is the
projects for the renovation of social housing
cities taken as models for the sustainable city
“city of short distances” (see the final report
estates built in Milan after the second
of the future. On the contrary in our country
of the Eco-city project at: http://www.
World War. Key steps: 1. Field analysis;
the debate does not seem to escape the
ecocityprojects.net/uploa d/00Library/
2. Manipulation of the urban model. Field
pendulum between conservation (including
ECOCITY_Publishable_ Final_Report.pdf).
analysis builds arguments, not truths. It builds
conservation of the modern) and oblivion.
and validates them within the discipline, then
We should instead recognize that in historical
A recognizable disciplinary body, ready to
arguments are proposed outside, put on
settings we can find operating lessons for the
provide ideas, experiences, attitudes, that
the table of social negotiation, the language
nodal informational city of the future (Newman
are suitable for complex arenas and rich of
opened, an open and consensus-based
and Kenworthy, 1999) in terms of the public
tools. Useful stuff, theoretically grounded,
process formed. The manipulation of the
space framework, the functional mix and the
oriented to action. This is so true that in
urban model, not just the intervention on
fundamental interface between public and
native countries (United Kingdom, Canada,
single buildings, is the major contribution that
private realms. It is in that, not in problems
Australia, even the United States) the time for
we can and must give. It emerges from the
of style or language, that the premodern city
experimentations, the time of adolescence
self-criticism that we mentioned before.
teaches us a new urbanity for the future.
time of a critical reflection on the delivered
Therefore the renewal of social housing
I believe that this lesson is relevant for our
achievements. Not only it is not true that
estates should be also, and maybe mainly, a
times. Indeed, I believe that it has been long
we don’t know what to do, but we already
process of urban design, which should grow
waited for, not just by the people but by
have known what to do in the past, we have
around a specific urban design “device”:
the builders and real estate agents as well.
experimented and are now reflecting on such
the Master Plan. As for that, we that work in
The feeling I have is that it is not true that
experiences; the adolescence of a new culture
the cradle of the Renaissance ideally place
the market is as bad as it is claimed to be. I
of urbanity is over and we are entering the
ourselves within the stream of “an urban
have the feeling that builders and real estate
adult age.
Renaissance” as well.
agents would benefit a lot from a change in
Have we got the keys for the solution of
This wink to the Renaissance comes of
common sensibility and architectural culture;
the problems of peripheries? Well, let’s
course from the reference to the work of
a distance that, at the end of the chain,
not joke. But we have something: we have
the Urban Task Force in the UK (Urban Task
increases the entrepreneurial risk by provoking
larger shoulders, large enough to take some
Force, 1999), but it also comes from an
alienation to places and environments, de-
responsibilities. To this culture of urbanity and,
indeed great contradiction that refers to our
qualifying both products and brands, “firing”
I would say, of civil responsibility (our School
country, Italy.
the decisional arena through the diffusion
if you want, has been overcome by the
design that can reduce the distance between
of lethal cynicism and suspicion among the actors. The hope is that it is possible to walk together for a while, more together than we have been doing so far, between builders with a long sight in the future, subjects capable of common vision and reciprocal trust, and architects that, following the invocation of an old Corviale inhabitant, “do not commit certain mistakes anymore, never commit such mistakes!” (Careri and La Roque, 1991). us
Le Corbusier, Hall P, 2002.
ISSUE 02
– 21
Debbie Fuller is an urban designer with URBED and has lived in Hulme for more than 10 years. She reflects on the wider lessons she believes Hulme can teach us on communities, housing and regeneration
22 – ISSUE 02
Tyler, Sidari and Aliyah plus friends dancing in Hulme Park
A kickabout in Hulme Park
s a working class professional from a mixed cultural
One of the most fundamental differences between the Hulme of the
background I made a conscious decision to stay in Hulme
70s and the new Hulme has been the structure of the neighbourhood:
– it provides the mix that I need to feel comfortable, and
it is now a well-connected, walkable neighbourhood with a structure
provides my children with a community where they can identify with
of well-defined streets of suburban houses and flats. However, while
other children from a variety of backgrounds.
regeneration has brought major changes to the physical environment, questions remain over whether it has improved social and economic
I have been through the statutory homelessness route and was at first
prospects for the community.
allocated very poor quality council home in Hulme while friends were allotted new homes, reserved for those who had refused to move when
Within Hulme there is a divide between those areas where the majority
the Crescents were demolished. But looking back it was the very fact
of homes are either owned or privately rented and the areas of RSL and
that I did not get a nice home at first that gave me the motivation to do
Local Authority housing. The new community moving into the area
something about my situation and decide to get some training, a job,
and the older community do not mix and most crimes such as burglary
and to buy a home outright.
and damage to property is targeted in the area of the private homes.
When I was studying planning at the University of Manchester many of
Unfortunately there is a serious lack of intermediate market housing
my fellow students were afraid to come to Hulme. They knew it by its
in Hulme. This has meant that local people who have lived in the area
reputation as a regeneration case study, a place that had undergone a
for many years missed out on the opportunity to get onto the property
comprehensive redevelopment but was still a ghetto – a view reinforced
ladder and increase their economic prosperity. Many people live in
by frequent news reports of youths being shot in gang-related
pretty RSL houses but they are still in the same poverty trap they where
feuds. When I offered to take some of those students on tour of my
in before they moved from the Crescents. There was no support, nor
neighbourhood they were surprised by what they discovered.
were there any incentives for council tenants to buy homes.
Despite the negative press, the regeneration of Hulme has completely transformed the area. Hulme Park is a major asset and provides a green lung for the neighbourhood while the Zion Centre, one of the oldest buildings in Hulme, has been refurbished into a community centre with weekly classes ranging from African drumming, Capoeira and yoga to radio broadcast and DJing. ISSUE 02
– 23
Property developers bought up properties to let to professionals
If regeneration is to be successful then we need to invest more in
working in the city centre, attracted to Hulme’s convenient location and
local people
still reasonable house prices compared to other areas, and house prices rose: there is now an under-provision of adequate social rented housing
Overall I love living here. I have access to a market, a supermarket,
and an excess of houses on the open market priced at up to £180,000
fantastic community facilities, a leisure centre, a park – and yet I am
– levels that few local people can afford. Only more recently have
close to the city centre. Above all, I have a wide network friends and
government-sponsored initiatives such as the equity-sharing HomeBuy
family members who still live in the area. My kids can play out on the
products been introduced. There is not a single bank in the new Hulme
street and I never have to worry about them because we all look out
and there is no access to information on home ownership or money
for each other. Hulme is my neighborhood and I am proud to live in a
management.
place where there is so much diversity.
If a major purpose of regeneration is to increase economic prosperity
Gang related crime is still an issue, and over the last year there have
then as regeneration practitioners we need to look at how we can
been a number of shootings. It is a sign of youth in crisis within the
promote opportunities for communities to be able to help themselves
community and young people feeling the need to be part of a group
– providing local people with the necessary skills to access jobs,
where they feel recognised and respected. Local youth lack the
promoting local entrepreneurship and supporting business start-ups,
confidence to make money through traditional employment and often
and helping people to be able to manage money.
come from families where parents are unemployed and there are financial pressures. I believe that more needs to be done to encourage
Many of these observations, and those of my colleague Paul Bower (see
young children from a very early age to have more confidence to
p.14) agree with the findings of a major study of social housing, the
develop their individual talents and reach for their goals.
Hills Report (February 2007) , which has examined the future role 1
of social housing in the UK. The report identifies problems with the
I believe this is a truly sustainable community, which has established
current housing system and suggests changes to housing policy. Some
itself over time despite the periods of upheaval. With time I am certain
of the fundamental flaws highlighted include people using statutory
that the prospects for local businesses will improve and maybe the new
homelessness route as a means to accessing affordable housing,
residents will integrate more with the old. It is now up to local people
Housing Benefits contributing to the Poverty Trap – more points are
to make the neighborhood a success and to have more confidence in the
given to those in more dire circumstances, with a consequential fear of
diverse and dynamic community that exists here.us
employment resulting in lost benefits, and the treatment of applicants as numbers – with no assessment of individual needs nor appropriate
¹Ends and Means: The future roles of social housing in England, John Hills, LSE
solutions offering a wider choice of housing options. The new Life Buildings, Hulme High Street
24 – ISSUE 02
Moving swiftly on Charlie Baker offers a critique of the new Hulme in this commentary to his photographs.
Perhaps the most noticeable thing about the following photographs is the lack of people. They were taken on a warm weekday evening and a sunny Saturday afternoon. Hulme 3 is a demonstration of the limitations of putting the way it looks before the way it works. I think we knew we were in trouble when the opening paragraph of the City Challenge bid said they wanted Hulme to be ordinary. Hulme had extraordinary in bucket loads, it was the most varied place I have ever experienced, from people whose families had been here since the start, to people released from any institution you’d care to mention, to migrants from across the planet and of course to students. You were as likely to meet an ex-offender as an ex-public schoolboy and so Hulme offered a model for a genuinely tolerant, open and pluralistic society, surely the grail of successful cities? As for the cultural productivity, there were bands everywhere with artists in between; yes loads were shocking, but many weren’t. So I have difficulty trumpeting the success of the Hulme redevelopment because I start from what it could have been, I don’t calibrate my view by the anodyne anywheres that it is compared with. ISSUE 02
– 25
Hulme was never ordinary, the people that
from backgrounds that pride social mobility
bonds, they are like gravity: whittle the total
made it were always that little bit more
over community implicitly have the least
mass down far enough and it is like clutching
extreme. But Hulme people’s meaning of
understanding of what it is that they are
at fog trying to retrieve what may be already
ordinary was not the one used, it came from
playing with. Yet the bonds that tie even the
lost. Making most people move twice ensured
outside – and this is a problem repeated
strongest communities together are not as
that too many who left Hulme during the
across the country. Too many times those
strong as they seem, they are not nuclear
redevelopment never returned.
The figures make it look like there are no problems anymore – unemployment down, (by moving the unemployed out, and counting the Science park in the output area), new homes, apparently designed with full community participation (6 people formed the ‘community participation’ in one development of 250 homes). How do you reconcile that with your own reality if you are a shelf stacker in Asda living in a home with walls so badly insulated that you can hear you neighbour on the toilet, but can’t get the landlord to respond?
26 – ISSUE 02
Such was the concern that the houses would sell they were sold to anyone, with few restrictions on re-sale so that millions in public funding was lost during the first batch of resales. There have to be shared interests and common assumptions to define a community: the lack of those interests between the renters and too many of the owners has created a divided community. The density fell way short of the Guide to Development’s stipulation – 60dph instead of 90 (and that was a compromise from the 125 we first put in). The mixed use just didn’t happen – in too many parts there is less now than there was. Add too many parking courts inside blocks behind remote controlled gates and what is there to be on the street for? Too many of the area’s streets are dead, through a lack of any reason to be there and a lack of willingness to. So with too few people with too few reasons to animate the streets, is it any surprise that crime is high? us
ISSUE 02
– 27