Chorlton-on-Medlock

Chorlton-on-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England.

In

Over the following 30 years residential development spread southwards as far as Tuer Street: and by the mid-1840s to High Street. Few dwellings of that period remain today apart from Waterloo Place, 323, 325, 327 & 333 Oxford Road, and Grove House (316–324).^[1]

On the creation of the

Though most of the township was originally middle class in character by the early 20th century it was very much a working class district. The housing conditions were described in 1931 by the Manchester and District Social Survey Society.^[2]

Between the arrival of Owens College in 1873 and the 1940s the college and the university it became slowly expanded into the adjacent residential areas which had by then a mostly working class population including many of Irish descent. However, during the early years of the 21st century the University of Manchester undertook an extensive Capital Development Project which was followed by a partnership with the city council and other bodies called Corridor Manchester. Together these have changed the face of Oxford Road to a remarkable extent.^[3]

Geography

The M13 postcode district includes both Ardwick and Chorlton on Medlock, although the area east of Boundary Lane and west of the Dental Hospital has a Hulme (M15) postcode, and Greenheys is now in Moss Side ward rather than Chorlton on Medlock. The River Medlock is the boundary with Manchester city centre, which includes the Sackville Street campus of the University of Manchester (or "North Campus" rather than "South Campus"). A large area of Chorlton on Medlock south-west of this is occupied by the Manchester Metropolitan University.

Transport

Chorlton on Medlock is crossed by the Mancunian Way (opened 1967), running west to east through its northern part. The main routes through the suburb to south Manchester are (west to east) Cambridge Street (leading to Higher Cambridge Street, Lloyd Street North and Upper Lloyd Street), Oxford Road (leading to Wilmslow Road; the busiest route, both for private and public transport), and Upper Brook Street (dual carriageway continuing from Princess Street and leading to Anson Road).

Landmarks

The façade of the former

Further down Oxford Road are the University of Manchester (frontage built 1888–1902), the former

Religion

The parish church of All Saints (1820) and the earlier Church of St Luke (founded before 1804 but a new church was built by John Lowe in 1865; part of Old Chorlton Hall was used as the rectory)

The oldest

The Armenian church in Upper Brook Street was the first purpose-built Armenian church in Western Europe. It is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and opened at Easter 1870. The architects were Royle & Bennett, 1869–70, and they chose an eclectic neo-Gothic style. At the east end is a rounded apse and the interior is simple though the altar is elaborate.^[9][10]

There were also many

See also List of people from Manchester

19th century

• William Worby Beaumont (1848–1929), automotive engineer and inventor
• Maud Boyd (1867–1929), actress and operatic singer
• James Braid 1795-1860, Scottish born surgeon and hypnotist lived and died at 212 Oxford Street (on the exact site of the quadrangle of Manchester University).
• Walter Arthur Copinger, lawyer and scholar, lived in Greenheys^[12]
• Thomas De Quincey, writer, also lived at Greenheys: he was born at Cross Street, Manchester
• philosopher
  , for a time; the site of his lodging is commemorated by a plaque on Aberdeen House, Whitworth Park Halls of Residence.
• 84, Plymouth Grove for the last 15 years of her life^[13]
• William Gaskell, Nonconformist minister and writer, husband of Elizabeth Gaskell
• Prime Minister
  , was born here in 1863 but his family soon returned to Wales
• George Gissing 1857–1903, writer, lived on Grafton Street when he was a student at Owens College in 1876.
• Charles Hallé, musician, lived at Greenheys for a time
• Alfred Lucas, analytical chemist, involved in the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb^[14]
• Lilly Maxwell, first woman to vote in Britain after the Reform Act 1832, at the Chorlton Town Hall in 1868
• Samuel Mendel businessman, later built Manley Hall.
• Owens College
  was named) lived in Nelson Street.
• Robert Angus Smith, Scottish chemist, had his laboratory in Grosvenor Square.
• Lily Elsie, noted Edwardian stage actress, singer, spent part of her childhood here.
• Leslie Stuart, composer of Edwardian musicals lived at 18 Lime Grove for a time, he was organist at the Church of the Holy Name.
• Jerome Caminada, police detective and supposed inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, lived on Cecil Street Greenheys.
• Annie Swynnerton, symbolist artist, lived on 44 Dover Street.
• Ellen Wilkinson, Labour Party Politician, was born here at 44 Coral Street in 1891. In 1913 she graduated from the University of Manchester, Oxford Road.

20th century

• James Bernard, reciter, elocutionist, author, born in Chorlton-on-Medlock in 1874
• John Cassidy, sculptor, worked at a studio in Lincoln Grove, also lodged in the district
• Johnny Roadhouse (1921–2009), British saxophonist opened the music shop Johnny Roadhouse Music in 1955 on Oxford Road.
• Manchester Medical School, practised in Oxford Road^[15] and was medical officer of the Manchester High School for Girls in Dover Street, 1908–38^[16] She retired in 1948 having founded the Manchester Babies' Hospital (afterwards the Duchess of York Hospital) in 1914. Originally this was in Chorlton-on-Medlock but soon moved to Levenshulme and then to Burnage.^[17]
• Arthur Delaney (1927–1987), artist, was born at 30 Clifford Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock. He was inspired by the work of L. S. Lowry and the memories of the happy years he spent as a boy in the Manchester of the 1930s with its smoke-laden skies, rattling trams and gas lamps.
• Hierological
  Values (now Eugene Halliday Society), lived as a child in Chorlton-on-Medlock. He studied at the Manchester School of Art in All Saints (see Landmarks above). A prolific writer, during the mid-1950s he wrote for the Cavendish Magazine, published by the Congregational Chapel on Cavendish Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock (see Religion, above).
• Emmeline Pankhurst, a founder of the British suffragette movement, lived in Nelson Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, following her husband's death; the house is now the Pankhurst Centre.
• Ellen Wilkinson, Labour politician, Cabinet minister

• 
  Waterloo Place, 176-188 Oxford Road
• 
  The All Saints Building on the Manchester Campus of the Metropolitan University
• 
  A view of the Mancunian Way elevated motorway near what was

  UMIST

  campus
• 
  Manchester Academy, south of University of Manchester Students' Union, Oxford Road
• 
  The Salutation public house in Higher Chatham Street
• 
  A Royal Society of Chemistry Blue plaque commemorating Smith in Grosvenor Square, the site of R. Angus Smith's laboratory

See also

• Listed buildings in Manchester-M13
• Listed buildings in Manchester-M15
• New Broadcasting House (Manchester)

References

Notes