ANGEL MEADOW
Located on the north east edge of Manchester city centre Angel Meadow was once an affluent suburb, until the 19th-century Industrial Revolution altered the social standing of the area and introduced poverty and disease, becoming one of the city's worst slums.
Friedrich Engels, socialist reformer and author of the The Communist Manifesto described Angel Meadow in his hugely influential book, 'The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.' as ‘Hell upon Earth, everything here arouses horror and indignation’
Today Angel Meadow forms part of the city's regeneration program with a new residential neighbourhood called Meadowside. These images were taken before construction started in 2017.
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Charter Street Ragged School - The school opened in a former dancing hall in the 1860s and provided thousands of children and adults with free meals, clothing and education. The aim was to keep the children off the streets and to divert their parents away from the slum’s pubs and beer houses. It still houses a school and up until 2019 offered food and clothing to the homeless – a mission it has carried out for more than 150 years.
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St Michaels Flags - The grave yard of the now demolished St Michaels Church was the most overcrowded in Manchester due to the high death rate in the slums of Angel Meadow. The situation became so bad that the Burial Act of 1855 was passed to cover up graveyards with flagstones, hence the name St Michael's Flags. Today only a few flags remain and the burial ground has been landscaped and turned into a public park. The bodies of 40,000 poor souls still lie beneath.
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Meadowside - The new vision for Angel Meadow
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Angel Steps - Famously painted by LS Lowry
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Children outside the Charter Street Ragged School
Revolutionary socialist, Fredrick Engels