Angel Meadow, Manchester: Victorian Hell-Hole

Journalist Angus Bethune Reach called Angel Meadow: the lowest, most filthy, most unhealthy, and most wicked locality in Manchesterfull of cellars and inhabited by prostitutes, their bullies, thieves, cadgers, vagrants and tramps.

Was this yesterday? No, thankfully. He was writing in the 19th century when Angel Meadow was one of a number of notorious Manchester slums; probably the worst.

This is more than a walk through an obscure part of central Manchester; its a trip to other worlds: Scotland and Gibraltar!

Believe it. The road that connects Red Bank to the bottom of the steps leading down to the Irk from Cheetham Hill Road railway bridge is called Scotland, although someone sadly has stolen the road sign.

This is what proto-communist Friedrich Engels had to say about the locale in 1844. The landlords are not ashamed to let dwellings like the six or seven cellars on the quay directly below Scotland Bridge, the floors of which stand at least two feet below the low water level of the Irk utterly uninhabitable, [it] stands deprived of all fittings for doors and windows, a case by no means rare in this region, when an open ground-floor is used as a privy by the whole neighbourhood for want of other facilities. . . .

A hundred yards on, at the end of Millow Street, stood Gibraltar. This was once described by the social commentator James Phillips Kay as the haunt of the lowest of the population. The stranger, if he dare venture to explore its intricacies and recesses is sure to be watched with suspicion, on every side is heard the sound of the axe or knife

Okay, both those revered social commentators were writing many years ago, but go there now and its pretty grim, which is why we guide you around these atmospheric areas, converting the squalor and sordidness into scintillating stories. And weve not even entered Angel Meadow proper yet.

Have things improved? Yes, with much thanks to the Friends of Angel Meadow. When weve finished with all the terrible tales we deserve an ale or two at the Marble pub with its gorgeous tiles, magnificent ales and friendly atmosphere.