Housing Charity Shelter hired photographer Nick Hedges to document the lives of slum families living in Glasgow, Birmingham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Manchester and other cities of Britain. These photographs revealed the poor life and dreadful housing conditions in Britain’s inner cities.
He found families huddling in a cellar lit by a single bulb, sick mothers, children playing in rags, crumbling walls, children sleeping in a squalid blanket. They were living without basic facilities such as electricity, water, proper sewage, and ventilation system. The images, taken for Homeless charity Shelter, united politicians to address Britain’s slums.
The following photographs show the awful living conditions of slum areas of Manchester. These photographs show the other side of 1970s Manchester.
Facebook calls this the good old days
Does Manchester still have slums?
Not since Hulme got rebuilt
There are still slums in Manchester – defined as densely populated areas of decaying buildings occupied by the poor. However, not to the same extent as Hulme.
What became of the children in these pictures? Where are they today?
They’re just the people you see every day. Many people grew up in this kind of poverty or in an estate like that, or who can tell you about their parents’ childhood poverty. Others won’t have escaped it at all.
Take a walk around the estates of Rusholme or Longsight; the conditions are awful.
There is no doubt that times have changed. I wonder what people will think of pictures of Manchester in 50 years?
The picture with the couple in the yard looks strangely like my grandad on my dad’s side, even though I know it’s not him
Gentrify it. Wait for the next slum.
People have no idea about the poverty still around even in the 70’s