Ardwick

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Ardwick was a small village just outside Manchester in open countryside. The principal residents were the Birch family, one of whom was a major general when Oliver Cromwell (briefly) instituted direct military rule.

One Samuel Birch was instrumental in providing a small chapel of ease, dedicated to St. Thomas, and consecrated in 1741. This soon expanded into a Georgian church, to which a brick campanile tower was added in 1836.[4] It contained a very rare Samuel Green organ, installed in 1787 or 1788, the first in which the sharp keys were distinguished in black. When the building ceased to be used as a church in 1978, the organ was rescued by an organ builder called George Sixsmith, and installed in St Paul's Church, Pendleton.[5][6] There was also a memorial chapel to the dead of the First World War, chiefly men of the local territorial unit.[4] These have been removed, and the building has been used as offices for voluntary organisations. The structure is now Grade II Listed.[7][8]

Grand terraces of regency houses (some of which still survive) were built either side of the church, and these were fronted by Ardwick Green, a private park for the residents, containing a pond. Similar housing developments to those around the Green took place along Higher Ardwick and the area known as the Polygon.

Early inhabitants included members of Sir Robert Peel’s family. Charles Dickens drew many of his characters from life, and was a frequent visitor to Manchester. It is said that Dickens based the character of the crippled Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol on the invalid son of a friend who owned a cotton mill in Ardwick.[9]

Ardwick Cemetery was established in 1838 as a prestigious place for fashionable burials. By the time the cemetery closed in 1950, around 80,000 people had been buried there. John Dalton, the chemist and physicist best known for his advocacy of atomic theory, was amongst them. It was reported that some 100 coaches followed the funeral cortege to the cemetery on the day of his burial in 1844. Other notable interments, recorded on a plaque when the grounds were turned into a sports field in 1966, included Sir Thomas Potter, the first mayor of Manchester, who died in 1845, the Chartist Ernest Charles Jones, who died in 1869, and Buglar Robert Hawthorne, of the 52nd Light Infantry, who was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1857. Following the closure, the granite top of Dalton's tomb was relocated to the John Dalton building of Manchester Metropolitan University, where it lies beside a statue of the man.[10]

The Grade II*listed Church of St Benedict on Bennet Street was erected in 1880 by the noted Gothic Revival architect J. S. Crowther. Although no longer in use as a place of worship, it still stands today and its tall red brick tower is visible for miles around.[11]

Ardwick once had its own football team, Ardwick AFC, but following a meeting at the Hyde Road Hotel in 1894, it became Manchester City F.C. The Hyde Road ground, close to the maze of railway tracks extending outwards from Manchester Piccadilly station, was extended in a piecemeal fashion until it could hold crowds of 40,000, but the main stand was destroyed by a fire in 1923, and the club moved to a new stadium on Maine Road, Moss Side.[12]

20th Century

The Ardwick Empire Theatre, 1904

In 1904, a new variety theatre, the Ardwick Empire, opened on the corner of Hyde Road and Higher Ardwick overlooking Ardwick Green. It was an opulent building designed by the noted theatre architect Frank Matcham for Oswald Stoll. It became established as a centre of variety entertainment and billed performers such as Fred Karno, Dan Leno, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harry Lauder. Occasional Bioscope shows proved popular, and in 1930 it became a cinema, but continued to present variety acts on its stage. Stoll also owned another theatre in Manchester, the Manchester Hippodrome on Oxford Street. When this was demolished in 1935 to make way for a new Gaumont cinema, Stoll refurbished the Ardwick Empire and renamed it the New Manchester Hippodrome Theatre. Variety stars continued to appear on the stage, including Larry Adler, Max Wall and Joe Loss, and musical theatre shows such as The White Horse Inn and The Student Prince were staged. After 57 of popular entertainment, the New Hippodrome closed in 1961. There was a plan to concert it into a bowling allay, but the building was destroyed by fire in 1964 and subsequently demolished. Today, the site of the former Ardwick Empire remains empty and is used as a car park.[17][18][19]

• Historic architecture of Ardwick
• 
  The Italianate St Thomas's, Ardwick
• 
  The Gothic Revival St Benedict's Church
• 
  The Regency-style Fenton House on Higher Ardwick
• 
  Nicholls Hospital on Hyde Road
• 
  Regency houses on Manor Street

Ardwick electoral ward within Manchester City Council

Ardwick ward is represented by three councillors, Amna Abdullatif,[20] Bernard Priest,[21] and Tina Hewitson,[22] all members of the Labour Party. Former councillor Mavis Smitheman (2008–09) served as Lord Mayor of Manchester.[23]

  indicates seat up for re-election.   indicates seat won in by-election.

Ardwick Green Park has recently been refurbished, and though the pond is no more, it still contains an interesting glacial erratic in the form of a boulder.[28] There is also a cenotaph commemorating the Eighth Ardwicks, once a Territorial Army unit of the Manchester Regiment. Ardwick Green Barracks is a fine Victorian castellated structure bearing the old volunteer motto "Defence Not Defiance". It is still in military use today.[29]

The Manchester Apollo, a 1930s Art Deco theatre, is one of Ardwick's most famous landmarks: it was in use as a cinema from 1943 and was renamed the ABC Ardwick in 1962. An independent operator took over in 1977 and staged pop concerts interspersed with the occasional film, until dropping films entirely.[30] The venue now plays host to national and international performing artists.[31]

Extensive demolition of dilapidated Victorian terraces took place around Ardwick during the 1960s. Some residents remained in the area in new council-owned houses and flats, while others were moved to overspill estates[32] such as Hattersley.

(According to 2011 census[33])

• White British – 35.5%
• White Irish – 2.4%
• White Other – 5.4%
• Black or Black British – 17.7%
• Asian or Asian British – 27.4%
• Other – 5.5%
• Mixed Race – 6.0%

• Nellie Beer Lord Mayor of Manchester
• Samuel Birch (1735–1811), military officer, was owner of the Ardwick estate (1780–1795)
• Stephen Bradbury. Artist and illustrator. Born and brought up as a boy in Ardwick. Heywood House, Bennet Street.
• Edward Brotherton, 1st Baron Brotherton, businessman and philanthropist
• Joe Brown (1930–2020), climber, was born in Ardwick
• Edward Evans, the last of the five Moors Murders victims, was from Ardwick. He was 17 years old when murdered. in October 1965. by Ian Brady in Hattersley.[34]
• Edmund Peck, the illegitimate son of Sir Edmund Buckley. Peck later took the surname Buckley and became Sir Edmund Buckley, 1st Baronet
• Tom Chantrell, designer of many film posters including The Sound of Music and Star Wars[35]
• Elizabeth Gaskell, lived in Gaskell House[36]
• J. Milton Hayes, actor and poet, best known for his 1911 dramatic monologue "The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God"
• Samuel Hibbert-Ware geologist
• Leslie Lever, Baron Lever, lawyer and politician, MP for Ardwick
• Johnny Marr, guitarist, most notably of the Smiths[37]
• John Howard Nodal, journalist and philologist
• John Rylands, businessman and philanthropist
• Bill Tarmey (né William Piddington), actor and singer best known for his portrayal as Jack Duckworth in Coronation Street[38]
• Ellen Wilkinson, MP, the Ellen Wilkinson High School, was named after her.
• Harry H. Corbett Actor - moved to Ardwick after mother's death in Burma.[39]

• Listed buildings in Manchester-M12

Notes

Bibliography

• Frangopulo, N. J. (1962) Rich Inheritance. Manchester: Education Committee; pp. 270–271 contain: "The history of a district, e.g. Ardwick", a list of documents held at Manchester Central Library
• Makepeace, Chris (1995). Looking Back at Hulme, Moss Side, Chorlton on Medlock & Ardwick. Timperley: Willow Publishing. ISBN 978-0-946361-34-2.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ardwick.

• A School in Ardwick