Hulme Gallery (d)
When Stretford Road Hulme was reopened there was much official fanfare. Sir Alex Ferguson did the honours. Schoolchildren released hundreds of balloons. Bands played. A ceremony was concluded with a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (once manufactured in the area) driven over a new bridge reconnecting the two halves of Hulme that had been split since 1969 with construction of Princess Parkway. By night huge fireworks were lit, cascading down onto the Parkway below from Stretford Road & its iconic new bridge
Stretford Road had once been a main thoroughfare lined with many local businesses, but during the concrete era of the Crescents was reduced to a pedestrianised path (Hulme Walk) through a notorious estate. From All Saints passed Clynes Wine Bar, Red Admiral pub, Woodcock Square shops, Union Hall, St Phillips Primary School, over the busy Parkway via a footbridge synonymous with street-robbery, passed the Iron Duke, Church of Ascension, Hulme library, Clopton Walk arcade, the White Horse, Zion Centre & the infamous Crescents
Keen to be part of any Hulme-based festivities Barking Beer Monsters asked if they could contribute. Responsible for construction of a huge Viking Longboat (built & burned to commemorate the end of the Crescents) and the Naughty-Bus (built for a Punks Picnic then burned by local kids), they were neither financed nor encouraged by Hulme Regeneration Ltd, but neither were they prevented... First they took 3 lamp-posts from the demolished footbridge to fashion a scaffold skeleton. In terrible weather, using only reclaimed wood from the staircases of a dozen flats, slowly but surely, day after wet day, The Beast They Named Brian began to grow
On the last day (10.5.97) they received a little help from construction workers with the loan of a digger to help raise their noble creation in recurrent rain. Disaster strikes when ropes suddenly snap, the belly of the Beast splits open & all their efforts seem doomed to failure
Then the sun breaks out & the mood lifts. As darkness falls this ceremonial & symbolic Phoenix was set ablaze. A new Hulme era rising recycled, reborn & reincarnated from the ashes of the old. Many people had a tear in their eye as they watched. I know I did
Stretford Road had once been a main thoroughfare lined with many local businesses, but during the concrete era of the Crescents was reduced to a pedestrianised path (Hulme Walk) through a notorious estate. From All Saints passed Clynes Wine Bar, Red Admiral pub, Woodcock Square shops, Union Hall, St Phillips Primary School, over the busy Parkway via a footbridge synonymous with street-robbery, passed the Iron Duke, Church of Ascension, Hulme library, Clopton Walk arcade, the White Horse, Zion Centre & the infamous Crescents
Keen to be part of any Hulme-based festivities Barking Beer Monsters asked if they could contribute. Responsible for construction of a huge Viking Longboat (built & burned to commemorate the end of the Crescents) and the Naughty-Bus (built for a Punks Picnic then burned by local kids), they were neither financed nor encouraged by Hulme Regeneration Ltd, but neither were they prevented... First they took 3 lamp-posts from the demolished footbridge to fashion a scaffold skeleton. In terrible weather, using only reclaimed wood from the staircases of a dozen flats, slowly but surely, day after wet day, The Beast They Named Brian began to grow
On the last day (10.5.97) they received a little help from construction workers with the loan of a digger to help raise their noble creation in recurrent rain. Disaster strikes when ropes suddenly snap, the belly of the Beast splits open & all their efforts seem doomed to failure
Then the sun breaks out & the mood lifts. As darkness falls this ceremonial & symbolic Phoenix was set ablaze. A new Hulme era rising recycled, reborn & reincarnated from the ashes of the old. Many people had a tear in their eye as they watched. I know I did
Return to: Gallery 3: From The Archive: Writing's On The Wall or Gallery
Return to: Gallery 3: From The Archive: Writing's On The Wall or Gallery