Chorlton-on-Medlock


Chorlton-on-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England.
Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city centre. Its other borders roughly correspond to Stockport Road, Hathersage Road, Moss Lane East and Boundary Lane. Neighbouring districts are Hulme to the west, Ardwick to the east and Victoria Park, Rusholme and Moss Side to the south. A large portion of the district along Oxford Road is occupied by the campuses of the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the Royal 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 including Manchester Royal Infirmary, to the west of which is Whitworth Park.

History

In medieval times, the district was known as Chorlton Row and was a township of the ancient parish of Manchester in the Salford 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 of cotton mills were established. In 1820 the parish church of All 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, and Grove House.
In 1830, the town hall on Cavendish Street was built to the designs of Richard Lane. On the creation of the municipal borough of Manchester in 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. After the Poor Law Reform of 1834 the district became part of the Chorlton Poor Law Union and the offices of the Board of Guardians were built in Cavendish Street. The arrival of Owens College in 1873 was the beginning of a different kind of development leading to the academic campus of today.
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.
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.

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 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. 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, running west to east through its northern part. The main routes through the suburb to south Manchester are Cambridge Street, Oxford Road, and Upper Brook Street.

Landmarks

The front of the former Chorlton-upon-Medlock Town Hall can be seen at its original location on Cavendish Street at All Saints. The building, with its Doric portico, dates from 1830–31 and was designed by Richard Lane. The original interior was removed and a new structure added to the rear in 1970. A red plaque on the building commemorates the Fifth Pan-African Congress, which was held there from 15–21 October 1945. Decisions taken at that conference led to independence for a number of African and Caribbean countries. In Nelson Street the former home of the Pankhurst family is now the Pankhurst Centre. The Ormond Building of the Manchester Metropolitan University was originally the home of the Chorlton Union Board of Guardians. Next to the town hall building is the original building of the Manchester College of Art in a Gothic revival style.
Further down Oxford Road are the University of Manchester, the former Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Manchester Royal Infirmary and the Whitworth Art Gallery.

Religion

The parish church of All Saints and the earlier Church of St Luke have been demolished as have several other Anglican churches in this area. Anglican churches which are disused include St Stephen's, St Paul's, and St Ambrose : 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.
The oldest Roman Catholic church in Chorlton-on-Medlock was the Church of the Holy Name on Oxford Road, a fine example of the work of the architect Joseph Aloysius Hansom. St Augustine's, Granby Row was replaced by a second St Augustine's in York Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock : its successor is at Lower Ormond Street on the Manchester 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. 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.
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.
There were also many Nonconformist chapels such as the Cavendish Street Congregational Church, Cavendish Street, the Union Chapel, Oxford Road and a Presbyterian chapel at All Saints. The chapel in Cavendish Street was a particularly fine neo-Gothic building but was demolished in the early 1970s to allow expansion by Manchester Polytechnic. It has replaced an earlier chapel in Mosley Street. The Welsh Baptist Chapel, on Upper Brook Street, was designed in the early 19th century by Sir Charles Barry, who designed the Palace of Westminster shortly afterwards, and in Greenheys there was a German Protestant Church in Wright Street.
The Salvation Army's Manchester I 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 called Manchester Central.
There are two mosques in Chorlton-on-Medlock, the Salimiya Mosque and the Islamic Academy of Manchester, Upper Brook Street. 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.

Notable people

See also List of people from Manchester
, home of William and Elizabeth Gaskell, from 1850
, Oxford Road
Blue plaque commemorating Smith in Grosvenor Square, the site of R. Angus Smith's laboratory
19th century
20th century