Mapping Public Health in Victorian Manchester
Poverty, disease and the demon drink
In the early 18th century Manchester was a small market town with a population of less than 10,000 residents. Towards the end of the century the industrial revolution began and the town’s population increased almost tenfold to around 89,000 people. Between 1800 and 1851, the population soared again, reaching a phenomenal 400,000 people.
The consequences of such rapid growth on the town’s citizens was epic. The living and working conditions of many were abysmal, earning Manchester its name ‘the shock city’. Charles Dickens, a frequent visitor to the town was ‘disgusted’ and ‘astonished’ by the conditions he witnessed. The following maps demonstrate how we can gain an insight into Victorian life and illustrate the relationship people had with the spaces they occupied.
Contents
- Adshead’s illustrated maps of the township of Manchester
- Ordnance Survey. Five Foot Plan of Manchester & Salford
- Richard Bastow. Sanitary Survey
- Drink Map of Manchester
- Discussion points
- Additional resources
- Consult the maps
Map 1
Description:
Adshead’s twenty four illustrated maps of the township of Manchester: divided into municipal wards: Corrected to the 1st. May, 1851. Print on paper. 84cm x 104cm.Joseph Adshead was an estate agent, merchant and political reformer who campaigned for social change. He was a member of the Council of the Anti-Corn Law League, lobbied for prison reform and the welfare of the homeless and young people, and supported the building of local hospitals . He was also also a Councillor of St Anne’s ward in central Manchester.
Less is known about why he embarked on an expensive endeavour to map the township of Manchester in such staggering detail. Each map shows a different ward, so it is likely, that they were produced as tools to assist local administration. With just a quick glance it is possible to see the distribution of public houses and hotels (coloured pink); public buildings (filled in black; Mills and works (coloured orange); warehouses and places of business (heavy cross hatching); and private housing (light cross-hatching). Street names and water courses are clearly identified and named. The owners of mills, factories and businesses are also provided. The set of maps are an important historical document which also paint a vivid picture of Victorian Manchester.
Twenty three large maps cover the township of Manchester and an index map shows how the sheets fit together. Huge textile mills, iron works, glass works, and chemical and dye works dominate the maps, and are testament to the mighty impact manufacturing had on the productivity of the town. The map also extends to the outskirts of Manchester, covering areas such as Harpurhey and Collyhurst in the north and Bradford and Beswick in the east, where coal pits, quarries and gas works help to fuel the machines of progress.
But the cost to the environment and people’s health was immense. Noise, smoke, polluted rivers and waste added to the misery and squalor experienced by many of Manchester’s citizens.
The full set of Adshead’s maps can be viewed here
Map 2
Description:
Ordnance Survey. Five feet to one statute mile: Manchester and Salford, sheet 33, 1851. Print on paper. 91cm x 97 cm.During the nineteenth century the Ordnance Survey produced incredibly detailed maps of towns in Lancashire which had populations exceeding 4,000. This was driven by increasing demand from local government, town planners, and civil engineers, responding to the problems caused by a rapidly increasing population. Manchester’s population had quadrupled in just 50 years, from under 100,000 at the turn of the century to 400,000 by 1850, resulting in overcrowding and poor sanitation. Such conditions caused grave concern for the Board of Health, doctors and public health lobbyists who feared the spread of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diphtheria.
One area in particular, named Little Ireland received world-wide notoriety for its abysmal conditions, unfairly attributed to a migrated Irish community. The area had experienced intensive industrial and residential development since the construction of dye-works in the mid 1700s. This was followed shortly afterwards by cotton mills, a series of factories, an iron foundry, machine and tool works and a distillery. Later still, came the gas works and then the railway and a viaduct! The unplanned residential development grew just as fast. Little Ireland lay on the northern edge of Chorlton-Upon Medlock. In 1801 the population of Chorlton-Upon Medlock was 675, but by 1831 this had expanded to 20,569.
The map paints a grim picture of the living conditions of the poor in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Houses are entirely surrounded by factories with their smoking chimneys, fumes and noise. The map also reveals that the area was susceptible to flooding, due to the fall of over ten feet from the southern bank of the Medlock to the southern end of Great Marlborough Street. This would result in houses being chronically damp and inhabitants being at risk of contact with industrial waste, sewage carried by the river and associated disease.
Forty-nine map sheets cover Manchester and Salford and they are all incredibly detailed, showing features such has man-holes, lampposts and the interior layout of buildings such as workhouses, theatres and the Town Hall. An index map identifies the sheet numbers for each area covered. Browse all forty-nine sheets here or select the sheet number you need.
Map 3
Description:
Richard Bastow. Sanitary Survey: Registration sub-district, Market Street,Sanitary District no.1 Published in Report on the Health of the City of Manchester, 1880. Print on paper. 35cm x 40 cm.This set of maps from the early 1880s was published in several volumes of Medical Officer of Health reports written by Dr John Leigh (1812–1888). The maps cover Ancoats, Deansgate, London Road, Market Street and St George’s districts and indicate the state of housing in Manchester during this period. They provide information on the age of dwellings and help us to visualise the dense physical layout of some of the city’s most notorious slums, such as Angel Meadow and the Red Bank area.
Friedrich Engels described the dire state of housing in parts of Red Bank in 1844, describing them as “utterly uninhabitable’”:
“The landlords are not ashamed to let dwellings like the six or seven cellars on the quay directly below Scotland Bridge, the floors of which stand at least two feet below the low water level of the Irk that flows not six feet away from them; utterly uninhabitable…when an open ground-floor is used as a privy by the whole neighbourhood for want of other facilities!”The housing survey and the drawing of maps was undertaken by Richard A. Bastow (1839–1920), employed by Manchester Corporation as a Sanitary Surveyor. The age of buildings provide an indication of the condition of the properties and the sanitary standards of the surrounding streets. In this respect, they are comparable to Charles Booth’s London poverty mapping in the 1890s.
The maps also show land occupied by buildings such as schools, mills and businesses; and public houses are marked with a cross. Key features like rivers, railway lines, streets and small courts are also identified on the maps.
The accompanying reports provide grim and detailed statistical accounts of mortality experienced in Victorian Manchester, and record cause and date of death, occupation, address, age and sex of the deceased.
The full set of maps and key reports can be viewed here:
Map 4
Description:
Drink Map of Manchester. Published by the United Kingdom Alliance, Deansgate, Manchester, 1889. Print on paper. 73cm x 60cm.Public houses were the centre of the community in Victorian Society. They were a place for people to meet and talk, a place to seek work and dynamic hubs for political and social groups to exchange ideas. But they also provided an escape from harsh working and living conditions. The warmth and liveliness of the pub and the availability of cheap beer was an irresistible pull to those living in cold, squalid and cramped housing.
Furthermore, the number of beerhouses and beershops had increased dramatically since the introduction the Beerhouse act in 1830, aimed at promoting the consumption of cheap beer in favour of stronger spirits, especially gin.
The first drink map of Manchester was commissioned by the City Mayor, and was a produced for the use of local magistrates who were responsible for issuing drink licenses. Different licences were required for different types of premises and the type of drink they sold (beer, wine or spirits). Licensed victuallers were shopkeepers who could sell a range of alcoholic drinks, whilst beerhouses or beershops could sell only beer, to be consumed either on or off the premises.
The map was brought to the attention of the wider public when it was published in the Manchester Guardian in 1889, accompanied by an article about the drink trade in the city. A reproduction of the map, along with a persuasive commentary was subsequently printed and circulated as a single sheet map by the United Kingdom Alliance, a Temperance movement.
Temperance societies worked hard to tackle the drink trade and relied heavily on print culture to disseminate their message through books, magazines, sermons, tracts and biographies of reformed drunkards. They used visual images to great effect, including the drink map, which was employed as a tool of propaganda to argue that the distribution and consumption of alcohol was directly related to poverty and crime.
The map shows the extent of liquor outlets like a rash all over the face of the city, with clusters in the poorer districts. The design of the map (red spots on a white background) reinforces their message and associated imagery. Accompanying text refers to “The foul blotches of drink that disfigure the map” and goes on to describe how money wasted on alcohol robbed decent trades of their profits.
The commentary which appears beside the map is a call by the United Kingdom Alliance for a system of direct veto, whereby members of the public could object to liquor licences being granted in their own community. By giving citizens the power to protect their community, it was hoped that the ‘evil of drink’ prevalent in the City of Manchester would be removed.
Discussion points:
- Looking at the drink map, consider the distribution, type and concentration of liquor premises across the city. What do you think people’s drinking habits might reveal about living in Victorian Manchester?
- How do you think ‘Little Ireland’ received its name and what evidence is there to refute this label? (use secondary sources to support your argument).
Additional resources:
Wyke, T., Robson, R. and Dodge, M., 2018. Manchester: mapping the city. Edinburgh: Birlinn.
Mervyn Busteed (1995) “The most horrible spot’? The legend of Manchester’s little Ireland, Irish Studies Review, 4:13, pp.12–20.
Consult the maps:
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