Here’s what you need to know:
Just days before the bulldozers rolled in, a spectacular event saw thousands bid farewell to Hulme Crescents
A spectacular celebration marked the beginning of the end of one of Europe’s most notorious housing estates.
Built in 1971, Hulme Crescents was meant to offer a modern communal living solution for the displaced communities of the 1960s slum clearances. The titanic U-shaped blocks, built to house over 13,000 people, were a key part of Manchester Corporation’s brutalist solution to its housing crisis.
Each Crescent was named after a distinguished Georgian architect – Robert Adam, Charles Barry, William Kent and John Nash. However, monumental flaws in their design and construction saw the Crescents abandoned just over a decade later.
By the mid-to-late 1980s, the authorities had virtually given up on the crumbling, cockroach-infested crime dens taken over by squatters. Living on the fringes of mainstream society, artists, punks, musicians, drop-outs and drug addicts made the Crescents their home.
In 1991, the Government provided Manchester with a £37m pot of cash to revitalise its ailing housing stock, and it was decided that large parts of Hulme, including the Crescents, were for the wrecking ball.
But just before demolition started in 1993, Hulme staged a massive community event of theatre, music and dancing to welcome the bulldozers.
Community spokesman Peter Marcus said: “The demolition will mark the momentous changes taking place in Hulme.
“When the Crescents start to come down, people will know things are finally changing for the better.”
The spectacle planned for the William Kent Crescents, which were to be pulled down in the project’s first phase, was arranged by the Hulme-based community arts group Dogs of Heaven.
More than 5,000 spectators were expected at the dazzling fireworks and live music show. From Dogs of Heaven, Anne Worthington said: “People will be taken on a journey from the old Hulme to the new.”
Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group HERE
The event lived up to its billing. A review published in the Manchester Metro News on April 2, 1993, described the spectacular farewell to the ill-fated flats.
Under the headline ‘Flat night goes with a banger!’ the review read: “A magnificent sound and light show marked an explosive farewell to Europe’s most notorious housing estate.
“The two-hour long spectacular – witnessed by thousands on Saturday night – lit up the sky with a massive fireworks display, music, dance, film and drama.
“Aptly entitled ‘Safe as Houses,’ the show was put on by the Hulme-based Dogs of Heaven to celebrate the impending demolition of the area’s four slum crescents – concrete symbols of everything that is wrong with Hulme.
“William Kent Crescent provided the setting and among the highlights was a huge ‘Olympic torch’ which poured a stream of light and fire down.
“Four cars were pushed over the top of the massive six-storey block and characters dressed as bats, cockroaches and overflowing bins danced below.
“The event received funding from the Arts council, the private sector and the support of the Hulme Regeneration team.”
Just days after the fireworks ended and the music stopped, the crowds came back, this time to cheer as a massive two-ton demolition ball crashed into the side of Robert Adam Crescent.
Love Greater Manchester’s past? Sign up to our new nostalgia newsletter and never miss a thing.
Published: 2025-04-12 16:22:46 | Author: [email protected] (Lee Grimsditch) | Source: MEN – News
Link: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Tags: #days #Europes #worst #estate #dancing #cockroaches #cars #pushed #rooftops
