Living and working in Manchester in the 1840s: cameos by contemporary 19th century writers

"Manchester may be roughly divided into three great regions. The central of these - laying around the heart of the Exchange - is the grand district of warehouses and counting rooms. There the fabrics spun, wove, printed and dyed at the mills are stored for inspection and purchase. There the actual business of buying and selling is carried on. There are banks, offices agencies innumerable. The far outskirts of the city, again, form a sort of universally-stretching west-end. Thither fly all who can afford to live out of the smoke. There are open handsome squares, and showy ranges of crescents and rows, and miles of pleasant villas peeping from their shrubberied grounds. Between these two regions - between the dull stacks of warehouses and the snug and airy dwellings of the suburbs - lies the great mass of smoky, dingy, sweltering and toiling Manchester. It is from that mid region that the tall chimneys chiefly spring; and it is beneath these - stretching in a network - from mill to mill , and from factory to factory - that we find the homes of the spinners and weavers, whose calicoes are spread abroad over three parts of the garment wearing globe"
'Manchester and the Textile Districts in 1849.' Reach, Angus Bethune. (Aspin,C.1972. Helmshore Local History Society)

"The town, strictly speaking is only inhabited by shopkeepers and operatives; the merchants and manufacturers have detached villas situated in the midst of gardens and parks in the country. The rich man spreads his couch amidst the beauties of the surrounding country, and abandons the town to the operatives, publicans, mendicants, thieves and prostitutes, merely taking the precaution to leave behind a police force whose duty it is to preserve some little of material order in this pell mell society"
(Manchester in 1844: its present condition and future prospects. Faucher, Leon. 1844)

"It cannot be said that Manchester is either an ugly or a beautiful town, for it is both at once. Some quarter are dirty mean, ugly and miserable-looking to an extreme, others are interesting, peculiar and beautiful in the highest degree. Market Street is always busy, noisy, and interesting, and contains numbers of splendid shops. In the evening its thousands of gas-lights glittering from the shops and street lamps make it almost painfully dazzling to eyes not yet accustomed to these nightly illuminations of the great English cities. In this street the beggars love to congregate, importuning the wealthy and idle as they pass"
(Journeys through England & Wales pp106-147. Kohl, Johann Georg. 1844)

"In a rather deep hole, in a curve of the Medlock and surrounded on all four sides by tall factories and high embankments, covered with buildings, stand two groups of about two hundred cottages, built chiefly back to back, in which live about four thousand human beings, most of them Irish. The cottages are old, dirty, and of the smallest sort, the streets uneven, fallen into ruts and in part without drains or pavement; masses of refuse, offal and sickening filth lie among standing pools in all directions; the atmosphere is poisoned by the effluvia from these, and laden and darkened by the smoke of a dozen tall factory chimneys. A horde of ragged women and children swarm about here, as filthy as the swine that thrive upon the garbage heaps and in the puddles"
(The Condition of the Working Class in England. Engels, F. 1845)

"Let us now turn into one of the by-streets which diverge from Market Street, into Mosley Street, or Cooper Street, for instance. Here stand the great warehouses, five or six stories high, all large and imposing, some of them stately and elegant. At night these warehouses are brilliantly lighted from top to bottom - there are people here, possessing annual incomes of thousands, who work like horses all the year round, stinting themselves in sleep and mealtimes, and grudging every moment given to amusement or society. Business is their habit and delight, their very existence...the parliament of the cotton lords, as it is sometimes called, the Manchester Exchange, is one of the handsomest and most spacious in England"
(Journeys through England & Wales [pp106-147] Kohl, Johann Georg.1844)

"...operative Manchester is up and stirring before six... the streets in the neighbourhood of the mills are thronged with men, women and children flocking to their labour...The factory bell rings from five minutes before six until the hour strikes. Then... the engine starts and the day's work begins. Those who are behind six...are fined two pence; and... after...a very short time of grace, the doors are locked...I cannot say much for the cleanliness of the workpeople. They have an essentially greasy look...efforts have been made for the establishment of baths for the working classes in Manchester... The appearance of the people...presents no indication of...'rude' health. They are spare and...rather undersized...the hue of the skin is...tallowy-yellow...the labour...does prevent the full development of form, and...it does keep under the highest development of health. Men and women appeared to be more or less in a negative sanitary condition."
'Manchester and the Textile Districts in 1849.' Reach, Angus Bethune. (Aspin, C.1972. Helmshore Local History Society)


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