Whalley Range

Coordinates: 53°27′00″N 2°15′13″W / 53.449887°N 2.253749°W / 53.449887; -2.253749

Whalley Range
Whalley Range  Whalley Range shown within Greater Manchester
OS grid reference	SJ831948
Metropolitan borough	City of Manchester
Metropolitan county	Greater Manchester
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MANCHESTER
Dialling code	0161
Police	Greater Manchester
Fire	Greater Manchester
Ambulance	North West
EU Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Manchester Gorton
List of places: UK • England • Greater Manchester

Whalley Range is a locality within the City of Manchester, in North West England. It lies about 2 miles (3.2 km) south-southwest of Manchester city centre.

House prices have increased in recent years with the extensive redevelopment. As with nearby Chorlton, parts of it have become gentrified since the 1990s.

History

Whalley Range was one of Manchester's first suburbs, built by Manchester banker and businessman Samuel Brooks as "a desirable estate for gentlemen and their families".^[1]

Brooks bought 63 acres (25 ha) of land, then called Jackson's Moss, drained it, and built villas for wealthy businessmen such as himself. He was born near Whalley, Lancashire, after which he named his own home Whalley House, which may be the origin of the area's name. A toll gate guarded this exclusive area and this place (where Chorlton Road and Withington Road meet) is still called Brooks's Bar (pron. Brooks Bar).^[2] The charging of tolls came to an end on June 10, 1896.

Geography and administration

Political divisions

The area is represented on Manchester City Council by Faraz Bhatti (Conservative), John Grant (Liberal Democrat) and Mary Watson (Labour). The Whalley Range Ward includes parts of Chorlton.

The ward is in Manchester Central Constituency represented by Tony Lloyd (Labour)

Demographics

According to the 2001 census^[3]

• White British - 48.86%
• White Other - 4.43%
• White Irish - 3.39%
• Mixed Race - 4.23%
• British Asian - 28.48%
• Black British - 8.24%
• Chinese or Other - 2.37%

Notable buildings

Four decorative panels by George Tinworth, from St Bede's College, Manchester

Colleges and schools The earliest is the Lancashire Independent College at College Road, 1840-43. The architects were Irwin & Chester and the style is neo-Gothic. It closed as a Congregational College in the late 20th century and has since been reused by the General Municipal and Boilermakers' Union (GMB) as a training centre for their members though the union has vacated it and a number of proposals have been made for new uses.

St Bede's College, Manchester, an independent school, was originally built as an aquarium but this was not a commercial success. It is built of red brick and terracotta and the frontage is very ornate. Hartley College further down Alexandra Road South was built as a Primitive Methodist College in 1879: it is now an independent grammar school.

Churches and chapels There are Anglican parish churches in Whalley Range: St Margaret's, on the corner of Whalley Road and Rufford Road, and St Edmund's on Alexandra Road South opposite Alexandra Park. The original St Edmund's Grade II listed building has been converted into apartments, and the church congregation now meets in the modern worship-centre next door. Also on Alexandra Road South is Manchester Chinese Church, and on Withington Road is Whalley Range Methodist Church. Manley Park Methodist Church is on Egerton Road North.

Near Hartley Hall is the English Martyrs Roman Catholic Church, built in 1895-96: the tall spire is its most remarkable feature. From the time of the school's move to Alexandra Road South, St Bede's College supported the nearby St Bede's Mission, and priests on the school's staff worked to provide for the spiritual needs of the Catholic population in Whalley Range. In 1893 the Bishop of Salford, John Bilsborrow, appointed Father James Rowan, a former teacher at the college, as priest in charge of the district. The new church^[4] was consecrated on the Feast of the English Martyrs, May 4, 1922. Another Roman Catholic congregation meets in Deerpark Road.

Manley Hall Manley Hall was built by the wealthy businessman Samuel Mendel (near the present-day Manley Park). It was very grand and contained a fine art collection; the gardens were extensive. The cost of building was £120,000. However the opening of the Suez Canal caused such problems for the Mendel trading business that he became a bankrupt and the hall was put up for sale. After many years it was eventually demolished (ca. 1905).^[5]

Other places of worship The Muslims have a mosque in a former hotel in Withington Road; there is a Hindu temple in a former chapel on Wilbraham Road and a Hindu grammar school in the former Hartley College (or Hartley Hall); on Upper Chorlton Road near Brooks's Bar is a Sikh temple.

Education

William Hulme's Grammar School was established as an independent school in 1887, became a direct grant grammar school in 1946, and returned to full independence in 1976. In 2007, the school rejoined the state education sector, scrapping its annual tuition fees and selective admissions test in exchange for funding as an academy. The school's specialist subject is languages, and it will continue to select 10% of its pupils on the basis of their aptitude for modern languages.

Whalley Range 11-18 High School and Business and Enterprise College is a large non-denominational secondary school for girls. The large majority of students are from minority ethnic backgrounds, mostly of Pakistani origin. Almost all of the students in the sixth form are from minority ethnic backgrounds. The number of students whose first language is other than English is much higher than the national average, with the three most common languages spoken by students being Urdu, Somali and Arabic. The school has specialist status as a business and enterprise college, and since 2007 has also been a designated sports college. The school was assessed as "good" in its March 2007 Ofsted report.^[6] Estelle Morris, now Baroness Morris of Yardley, one time Secretary of State for Education and Skills and Minister for the Arts, is a notable alumna.^[7]

Also in Whalley Range are K D Grammar School (in Hartley Hall), Manley Park Primary School, and others.

Cultural associations

The writer Dodie Smith spent part of her early life living at Claremont, Wood Road, as she records in her autobiography Look Back With Love, 1974.

The area also has a number of musical associations, including:

• Whalley Range is home to Extraordinary Rendition Manchester Musicians' Collective (aka EXR) which is based at the Carlton Club, Carlton Road, Whalley Range, Manchester M16 8BE. EXR comprises upwards of 100 Manchester bands and acoustic performers. EXR records, established during 2007 released its first compilation album in December 2007.
• Dave Formula, St. Louis Union, Magazine and Visage keyboardist, was brought up there.^{[citation needed]}
• An earlier musical association is that Jimi Hendrix stayed in a house on the corner of Wellington Road during his final UK tour.^{[citation needed]}
• The mother of Irish rock star Phil Lynott, front man of Thin Lizzy, ran the now demolished, Clifton Grange Hotel, on Upper Chorlton Road: the hotel was used extensively by touring rock bands during the 1960s and 1970s. George Best also frequented the hotel. Lynott spent part of his youth living with his mother at the hotel and went to the nearby Princess Road Junior School.^{[citation needed]} Thin Lizzy's debut album featured a song named after the hotel.
• Morrissey briefly lived in Whalley Range with his friend the photographer and Ludus singer Linder Sterling, in a house shared with another musicians, such as John McGeoch and Barry Adamson from Magazine, and Willie Trotter, also from Ludus.^{[citation needed]}
• The Smiths', Miserable Lie, featured the lines:
  "What do we get for our trouble and pain? / Just a rented room in Whalley Range".
• Steve Hopkins, record producer and keyboardist of John Cooper Clarke, Nico, The Invisible Girls, lived in Whalley Range and has an art studio there^[8].
• Gillian Gilbert of New Order was born there.^{[citation needed]}
• James formed in 1981, in Whalley Range.^{[citation needed]}
• Nico, singer with the Velvet Underground, lived in Whalley Range in the 1980s.^[9]
• Former Stone Roses drummer Alan "Reni" Wren lives on Grosvenor Road, in Whalley Range.^{[citation needed]}
• Mark Collins, guitarist of The Charlatans grew up in Whalley Range, though he today lives in Chorlton.^{[citation needed]}

References