I’ve written much about the radical history of Cropper Street, Collyhurst.
The BBC 2 documentary Manctopia, is a detailed investigation into property development in Manchester.
Episode 2, shown 25 August 2020, features an interview with a resident of Osborne Street, which Cropper Street became, who is facing eviction and a compulsory purchase order for redevelopment as part of the Northern Gateway scheme.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lwn5
I wish I’d known they were making this documentary before. I would love to give the local residents more information about the long history of their street.
There is something special about such an unremarkable place, and I wasn’t that surprised that it was the very street that is set for redevelopment, that features in the documentary, and such a strong character like Anne who moved here after the slum clearances of the 60s. She says stridently in the programme: ‘This is a 70s housing estate and I don’t think they’re bad housing.’
A must watch programme for seeing the tensions created by property speculation, ownership and ideas of place. There’s lots of discussion of the word ‘gentrification’, notably by the Collyhurst residents, and by the people running a homeless charity on Dantzig Street, Angel Meadow, who are acutely aware of the long history of their area, citing Engels’ role in observing the area in the 1840s. And there is discussion of incomers and outcomers, based not on ethnicity or anything prejudiced, but in terms of wealth and class.