| Chorlton-on-Medlock | |
|---|---|
.jpg) The formerChorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall | |
  Chorlton-on-Medlock Location withinGreater Manchester | |
| OS grid reference | SJ856967 |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | MANCHESTER |
| Postcode district | M12,13 |
| Dialling code | 0161 |
| Police | Greater Manchester |
| Fire | Greater Manchester |
| Ambulance | North West |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
Chorlton-on-Medlock is aninner city area ofManchester, England.
Historically inLancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by theRiver Medlock, which runs immediately south ofManchester city centre. Its other borders roughly correspond to Stockport Road, Hathersage Road, Moss Lane East and Boundary Lane. Neighbouring districts areHulme to the west,Ardwick to the east andVictoria Park,Rusholme andMoss Side to the south. A large portion of the district alongOxford Road is occupied by the campuses of theUniversity of Manchester,Manchester Metropolitan University, and theRoyal Northern College of Music. To the south of the university's Oxford Road campus a considerable area is occupied by a group of contiguous hospitals includingManchester Royal Infirmary, to the west of which isWhitworth Park.
Inmedieval times, the district was known as Chorlton Row and was atownship of the ancient parish ofManchester[1] in theSalford hundred of Lancashire. Towards the end of the 18th century, it developed as a residential suburb of Manchester and in the extreme north of the township a number ofcotton mills were established. In 1820 the parish church ofAll Saints was built. Development began in 1793–94 and most of the important streets were given impressive names, Oxford Street, Cambridge Street and Grosvenor Street.
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, andGrove House (316–324).[2]
On the creation of themunicipal borough of Manchesterin 1838 the township was absorbed into the borough. At this time the southern area was still partly rural with some larger dwellings of wealthy people (e.g.,John Owens in Nelson Street). After the Poor Law Reform of 1834 the district became part of the ChorltonPoor Law Union and the offices of the Board of Guardians were built in Cavendish Street (these are now the Ormond Building of the Metropolitan University). The arrival of Owens College in 1873 was the beginning of a different kind of development leading to the academic campus of today.
In 1866 Chorlton upon Medlock became a separatecivil parish, on 26 March 1896 the parish was abolished to formSouth Manchester.[3] In 1891 the parish had a population of 59,620.[4]
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.[5]
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.[6]
TheM13 postcode district includes bothArdwick and Chorlton on Medlock, although the area east of Boundary Lane and west of theDental Hospital has aHulme (M15) postcode, andGreenheys is now inMoss Side ward rather than Chorlton on Medlock. The River Medlock is the boundary withManchester city centre, which includes the Sackville Street campus of theUniversity of Manchester (or "North Campus" rather than "South Campus"). A large area of Chorlton on Medlock south-west of this is occupied by theManchester Metropolitan University.
Neighbouring districts and places. | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||
Chorlton on Medlock is crossed by theMancunian 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 toWilmslow Road; the busiest route, both for private and public transport), and Upper Brook Street (dual carriageway continuing fromPrincess Street and leading to Anson Road).
The façade of the formerChorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall can be seen at its original location on Cavendish Street. The building, with itsDoricportico, dates from 1830–31 and was designed byRichard Lane.[7] In Nelson Street the former home of thePankhurst family is now thePankhurst Centre. The Ormond Building of the Manchester Metropolitan University was originally the home of theChorlton Union Board of Guardians (responsible under the 1834Poor Law for most of what is now south Manchester). Next to the town hall building is the original building of the Manchester College of Art (1880–81: architectGeorge Tunstal Redmayne) in aGothic Revival style.
Further down Oxford Road are the University of Manchester (frontage built 1888–1902), the formerManchester Royal Eye Hospital (1886),Manchester Royal Infirmary (1908) and theWhitworth Art Gallery (1898–1908).
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)[8] (to the east) have been demolished as have several otherAnglican churches in this area. Anglican churches which are disused include St Stephen's (E. H. Shellard, 1853), St Paul's (Clegg & Knowles, 1862), and St Ambrose (H. C. Charlewood, 1884):[8] these have all been demolished apart from St Ambrose which was used by the University of Manchester as an Islamic prayer room but the prayer room is now elsewhere. In Greenheys there was formerly an Anglican church of St Clement on Denmark Road (architect Henry R. Price, 1881, decorated by John Lowe, 1886[8]).
The oldestRoman Catholic church in Chorlton-on-Medlock was theChurch of the Holy Name on Oxford Road (built between 1869 and 1871), a fine example of the work of the architectJoseph Aloysius Hansom. St Augustine's,Granby Row (demolished in 1908 to allow expansion at theMunicipal College of Technology) was replaced by a second St Augustine's in York Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock (ruined by German bombing in 1940 during World War II):[9] its successor is at Lower Ormond Street on theManchester Metropolitan University campus in a building which serves also as a chaplaincy to the University. This church was built in dark brick to the designs of Desmond Williams & Associates in 1967–68.[10] It replaced an earlier church of the Holy Family which was at first a chapel-of-ease to St Augustine's, then an independent parish, but a chapel-of-ease again from 1908 to 1940 when it became the parish church of St Augustine's parish.[11]
TheHoly Trinity Armenian church in Upper Brook Street was the first purpose-builtArmenian 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.[12][13]
There were also severalNonconformist chapels (most of them now demolished) such as the Cavendish StreetCongregational Church, Cavendish Street (architectEdward Walters, 1847–48), theUnion Chapel on Oxford Road, Plymouth GroveWesleyan Methodist Church (built 1879) on the corner of Hyde Grove and Plymouth Grove[14][15] and aPresbyterian chapel at All Saints. The chapel in Cavendish Street was a particularly fineneo-Gothic building but was demolished in the early 1970s to allow expansion byManchester Polytechnic. It replaced an earlier chapel inMosley Street. TheWelsh Baptist Chapel, on Upper Brook Street, was designed in the early 19th century bySir Charles Barry, who designed thePalace of Westminster shortly afterwards, and in Greenheys there was aGerman Protestant Church in Wright Street (ca. 1871).
TheSalvation Army's Manchester Central corps is based at Manchester Temple, Grosvenor Street. It was founded in 1879 and a modern Salvation Army building stands on the site of the original one, and is calledManchester Central.
There are two mosques in Chorlton-on-Medlock, the Salimiya Mosque and theIslamic Academy of Manchester, Upper Brook Street (in the building of the former Welsh Baptist Chapel). The former church of St Ambrose was used by the University of Manchester as an Islamic prayer room for several years. There are prayer rooms at the University of Manchester and at the Manchester Metropolitan University in Oxford Road.[16]
See alsoList of people from Manchester
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
