{"id":130,"date":"2022-05-03T10:54:43","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T10:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hub.salford.ac.uk\/modern-salford\/?page_id=130"},"modified":"2026-01-23T09:02:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:02:58","slug":"about-the-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hub.salford.ac.uk\/modern-salford\/about-the-project\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The Modern Backdrop: Modern Architecture and Communities in Salford <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In November 2019 the University of Salford held a public 50th anniversary screening of Michael Goodger\u2019s documentaries \u201cThe Changing Face of Salford\u201d and \u201cSalford: The Other Side\u201d filmed between 1968 and 1970 when terraced housing was in the process of being replaced with modern high-rise buildings and a shopping centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goodger depicted the living environments and focussed on the poor conditions of houses without electricity, bathrooms, and hot water. Many former residents of the areas filmed were in the audience and the film screening ignited a discussion that touched on a nostalgia for lost communities, memories of being \u2018rehoused\u2019 and sparked annoyance about being portrayed as slum dwellers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former residents of Salford \u2018slums\u2019 vehemently rejected the depiction of their living conditions in Goodger\u2019s documentaries. This clear discrepancy between the depiction of living conditions with how they are remembered today is the focus of this research project and the exhibition will showcase its findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During this two-year project we want to analyse the transition of Salford from terraced housing, via slum clearance, to modern social housing projects from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. The project is a collaboration between the Modernist Society, the RIBA NW and the University of Salford. It is funded by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Arts. Apart from this website and regular blog posts, we will organise a range of events that will also be announced on this website. The events showcase the transition of Salford during the 1960s and 70s and we are hoping to enthuse long-term residents to attend and give us their comments and memories of that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the project, an exhibition will juxtapose stakeholders and architects\u2019 interpretations and aspirations for working-class social housing and contemporaneous depictions of Salford in film, photography and literature with memories of this transition. The exhibition aims to showcase how stakeholders and architects planned for the future inhabitants of tower blocks and how new and old housing and residents of Salford were depicted in a range of media. This will help to understand if\/how external agents helped form a perception of Salford residents. The final step is to compare findings with material and memories collected from long-term residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Salford is an appropriate case study for this investigation as its modern transformation was among the most radical ones in the UK in that a great percentage of the pre-existing urban landscape was replaced with modern housing projects leaving almost no points of references in the new urban fabric. Terraced housing was replaced with more than 30 high rise apartment blocks and a shopping centre in the borough of Pendleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The modernisation was initiated due to a continuing decline of the economy and population caused by the diminution of the textile industry that, since the Industrial Revolution, had mainly fuelled Salford\u2019s industrialisation and growth. Salford was left with high-density, poor-quality terraced housing (up to 80 homes per acre) that as early as in 1931 had been deemed a slum. The large-scale transformation of Salford was, as with many British cities, enabled by the Slum Clearance Compensation Act (1965) and the Housing Subsidies Act (1967).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, the slums of Salford also became the backdrop in a variety of media. Early episodes of the TV drama \u2018Coronation Street\u2019 juxtaposed old and new Salford homes, Tony Richards 1961 adaptation of Shelagh Delaney\u2019s 1958 play \u2018A Taste of Honey\u2019 was filmed partially in Salford to provide a context for the background of the protagonist. In the 1967 film \u2018Charlie Bubbles\u2019 Albert Finney and Liza Minelli drive a golden Rolls Royce through the abandoned terraces of Salford while the new modern tower blocks are visible in the background. Minelli takes photos of the people on the street as if documenting a world about to be lost. A similar impulse might have driven photographers such as Shirley Baker whose subject matter focussed on the lives on the streets and children playing. Robert Roberts 1971 book \u2018The Classic Slum\u2019 differs from these accounts in that he was an \u2018insider\u2019 and wrote about his experiences while growing up in Salford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In juxtaposing the aspirations of those planning the transformation of Salford (as expressed in policies, Clearance Act, reports, surveys, architectural plans, etc.) with depictions of Salford as a working-class city with low housing standards, modes are hoped to be identified that contributed to the formation of the identity of a \u2018Salford resident\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the help of this website and several events we are looking to engage residents of Salford to share their memories, photographs, etc. so that we can understand the differences in how residents remember the transition from living in terraced houses to modern ones past and how it was depicted in the media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meet the Team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Dr Alex Mitchell <\/strong>is the Archivist at the University of Salford and it is my job to look after the historic records about the University, as well as a number of \u2018Special Collections\u2019 on various themes including brass bands, the Duke of Bridgewater (builder of the Bridgewater Canal) and the manuscripts of the Salfordian Walter Greenwood. Through family connections and working in the area for several years, I am really interested in Salford\u2019s history and identity. As part of the Modern Backdrop project, I\u2019ll be delving into the archives to piece together the story of how the built environment of Salford changed in the third quarter of the twentieth century and how the official records contrast with the real lived experiences of the people in the area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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