Moss Side
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Moss Side is a component area of the City of Manchester in North West England situated two miles (3.2 km) south of Manchester city centre.
Moss Side was the traditional centre of Manchester's large African-Caribbean community, but also has many people of Irish and Welsh descent.
Comprised of terraced housing, with some interwar council housing (now largely rebuilt and regenerated), the area rose to national infamy during the 1980s and 1990s due to high crime levels and several riots.
Perhaps as a result, Moss Side has been subject to significant public sector investment particularly on the Alexandra Park Estate in a bid to regenerate the area.
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[edit] Geography and administration
Moss Side lies on the A5103 (Princess Road), the main road out of Manchester towards Manchester Airport, the M56 motorway and Chester.
The local MP for the region of Moss Side is Tony Lloyd who recently organised the face lift scheme for many houses in Moss Side in an attempt to change the image of the area.
[edit] History
A 'Moss' is an area of damp, boggy ground and until the mid 19th century Moss Side was open countryside.
Mass development in Moss Side occurred at the turn of the 19th and 20th century when large numbers of red brick terraced houses were built.
Large numbers of African-Caribbean and Irish immigrants arrived in the area during the 1950s and 60s. During the 1970s Manchester City Council demolished much of the Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses to the west of Moss Side and replaced these with new residential properties.
After the race riots of 1981 the area came to national attention again in the 1990s for 'turf wars' between rival drugs gangs, resulting in a number of fatal shootings. Many of the notorious flats in Moss Side and neighbouring Hulme were demolished in the late 1990s to make way for new low rise homes, while the Alexandra Park Estate housing has been renovated with streets redesigned to reduce the fear of crime. Since the early 1990s there has been a steady rise in the Somali population in the area as a result of people seeking asylum. Moss Side is infamous for gang related violence, and, has received much unwanted attention due to shootings. Most noticeably the still, unsolved murder of 15 year old Jesse James in 2006, which gained national media attention.
[edit] Demographics
According to the 2001 Census in the Moss Side electoral ward of Manchester there were 10,977 residents of which:
[edit] Gender
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- 48.41% are male
- 51.59% are female
[edit] Ethnicity
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- 48.25% are of White race
- 31.83% are of Black race
- 9.37% are of Asian descent
- 7.45% are of mixed race
- 3.10% are of other race
[edit] Qualifications and employment
(of economically active 16-74 year olds)
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- 36.04% have no qualifications
- 13.88% have only GCSEs or equivelent Level 2 qualifications
- 12.18% have only A-Levels or Level 3 qualifications
- 20.91% have degree level qualifications
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- 7.85% are unemployed (Manchester Average: 5.02%, National Average: 3.35%)
[edit] Housing
- 4,977 households of which:
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- 27.85% is local authority accommodation
- 26.98% is rented from housing associations
- 24.03% is owner occupied
- 16.05% is privately rented
- 4.52% is rented from other sources
- 0.56% is said to be of shared occupancy
- 0.01% is of unknown origin[1]
[edit] Maine Road
From 1923, Moss Side was the location of Manchester City Football Club's stadium at Maine Road which on several occasions in its early years drew crowds of more than 80,000. But its capacity was gradually reduced over the years and by the mid-1990s it held just under 35,000 spectators all seated. Plans to rebuild Maine Road to seat 45,000 were abandoned in favour of relocating to the City of Manchester Stadium. Maine Road has since been demolished and houses and a school are expected to be built on the site.
[edit] Breweries
There are two breweries in Moss Side. The Royal Brewery brewed Kestrel, McEwan's and Harp lagers, but is now managed by Scottish and Newcastle for the production of Foster's Lager. Hyde's Brewery brews traditional beers including Hyde's Bitter and the cask version of Boddingtons - the latter since the closure of the Strangeways Brewery in 2005. The more widely available keg version of 'Boddies' is no longer brewed in Manchester.
[edit] Notable residents
Famous people from Moss Side include the writer Anthony Burgess, the musicians Simon Webbe formely of boyband Blue, Barry Adamson (who played with Magazine amongst other bands) and Steve Diggle (guitarist with Buzzcocks), as well as the band Cleopatra who achieved international success. Morrissey spent much of his childhood in Moss Side and neighbouring Hulme. Darren Campbell gold and silver sprint athlete champion, Gerald Simpson of A Guy Called Gerald grew up in Moss Side. Barry Adamson has a prolific body of solo work, including 'Moss Side Story', a soundtrack to an imaginary film.
[edit] See also
Moss-Side, a small village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Anthony Burgess, the writer, stated in his book A Mouthful Of Air that he was brought up in Collyhurst, north Manchester, not Moss Side, south Manchester.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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