Derelict

Each and every time I wandered by, I wondered.

The whys and wherefores of your seemingly unknowable comings and goings.

Standing alone, aloof and unloved on the corner of Rochdale Road and Sudell Street.

Something was missing.

I was missing something.

In 1813 there’s a field

In 1836 something’s there, but not it’s you.

Yet.

By 1900 the days of the two up, two downs are numbered – sanitary dwellings are the order of the day, plans are drawn up, the local council have decreed that workers dwellings are to be built.

Architect was John Henry Price

Henry Price was appointed Manchester City Architect in June 1902, at a salary of £600 per annum, and he was the first person to hold the office of ‘City Architect’ in Manchester Corporation’s newly created City Architect’s Department. Early in 1902 the chief architectural assistant, a clerk of works a district building inspector and a measuring assistant in the City Surveyor’s department were all dismissed, or forced to resign from the Council’s service, for allowing bad workmanship on a new housing estate.

In April 1902, within a month of this incident Henry Price had been appointed City Architect. Over the next two years the roles of the City Surveyor and City Architect were more clearly defined to prevent a repetition of the trouble. In March 1904, the Surveyors Department was enlarged, a Deputy Surveyor being appointed in 1912. Under the new regime the City Architect was to Act as Surveyor for all new building while the City Surveyor remained responsible for drainage and sewerage.

In 1903 Manchester Corporation proposed to demolish 56 houses with 228 inhabitants in order to extend and improve three of the provided schools to meet the requirements of the Board of Education. Land amounting to 2444 squared yards bounded by Rochdale Road, Sudell Street and Moor Street, part of a site originally acquired for road improvements, was earmarked for the building of new accommodation for the dispossessed tenants. The corporation proposed to erect “tenement” dwellings; there would be 32 tenements having two rooms each let at 5s per week and 32 tenements having three rooms each let at 6s 4d per week.  The total cost of the scheme was estimated at £11,500. At the inquiry into the loan application Henry Price, City Architect, described the proposed plans. They were to be erected in blocks four storeys high. The three-roomed tenements would each contain a living room and two bedrooms with scullery, larder, fuel store etc. The two-roomed tenements would have only one bedroom, but in other respects would be similar to the others. He estimated that the whole would provide accommodation for 224 persons.

Architects of Manchester

Local Image Collection

Known as Alexandra Place or The Dwellings.

You must have been home to many too many to recall, then you were gone again.

Save for one old triangle, refusing to jingle jangle to the modern dance.

I do not know what fate awaits you, I only know you must be strong.

A change is gonna come.