Manchester underwent massive transformations in the 1970s, a decade marked by disarray, a loss of purpose, new music, and the introduction of an enormous city center monster. The City Council lost most of its remaining essential responsibilities in the 1970s. After WWII, communities like Manchester lost control of their local gas and electricity supplies and a significant portion of their revenue. Under a more extensive transportation authority, all power of municipal transportation was taken away, and the city’s famed red buses were replaced with hideous pop orange and brown buses.
Greater Manchester County was formed in 1974 when south-east Lancashire and north-east Cheshire were combined. As a result, the city of Manchester lost control of its police and fire departments. It also lost control of water and sewage services when the North West Water Authority was formed. Even the airport was taken away from Manchester and given to the new Greater Manchester administration to share. The Manchester Ship Canal began a dramatic fall at its headwaters in Salford and Trafford during this decade, when container traffic made it unviable. Manchester lost 150,000 manufacturing jobs between 1961 and 1983.
Check out these vintage snapshots from Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections from the 1970s.
It’s incredible how much more car-centric Manchester was back then.
It strikes me how dirty the stone buildings are, particularly the lower halves. Buildings were cleaned up a lot in the 70s, and it’s easy to forget what they looked like before the Clean Air Act.
I thought the same thing. I was also surprised by the murals. I thought they were more recent.
Over the years, Eight Day (and the building it occupies) has gone through many changes
I love the old advertisements for cigarettes. Those pictures could easily belong to a housing estate from the former Soviet Union!
The crescents resembled the Bath terraces, but differently. It didn’t work out.
Rained less in the 70s?
Pollution makes the buildings look dirty. It’s a beautiful time to be alive.
Every single one of these photos was taken in the sun.