It was “the handsomest pleasure room in the district” noted the Daily News in 1864. Wilton’s Music Hall, nestled down an unassuming alley way behind Cable Street in London’s East End, was in Victorian times a popular variety venue enjoyed by Whitechapel locals and international sailors visiting the […]
Shoreditch is known today for its trendy bars, arty coffee shops and retro clothing stores, but it was once more famous for being the beating heart of England’s furniture trade. Wholesale warehouses lined Curtain Road, from Old Street to Great Eastern Street, while workshops and factories were sandwiched […]
“We went like a shot from a gun,” wrote an excited railway passenger in 1835. “No sooner did we come to a field than it was a mile behind us.” Charles Young was travelling on the pioneering Manchester to Liverpool line just five years after its opening and […]
Peter Beuth, a German visitor to Manchester in 1823, wrote of a place where “machinery and buildings can be found commensurate with the miracles of modern times – they are called factories.” Clearly not believing his friend would be familiar with this new type of workplace he felt […]
Entrepreneurs will tell you that to succeed in business the political environment needs to be right. For William Hesketh Lever, the son of a wholesale grocer from Bolton, the removal of tax on soap and the government’s desire to promote a clean living agenda amongst working classes created […]
Birmingham grew rapidly in the 19th century as wave upon wave of immigrants arrived in the workshop of the world. In 1801 the population of the city was around 70,000, but by the end of the century it had more than 500,000. Many found work in the metal […]
“I shall never forget Mr Boulton’s expression to me: ‘I sell here Sir, what all the world desires to have – POWER’,” wrote James Boswell of his visit to Soho Manufactory. Just a few miles from the centre of modern Birmingham, the diarist and author had come in […]
William Blake’s reference to ‘dark satanic mills’ in his Jerusalem poem, conjures up negative connotations of the industrial revolution and the impact it had on the lives of ordinary people. Workers toiled away for long hours in dirty factories, with little time for leisure, contemporary commentators suggested. Machines […]
On the tow path of the Cromford Canal it’s possible to escape the hustle and bustle of busy city life. Visiting on a sunny weekday afternoon out of school holidays I barely saw another person as I walked along this wonderful stretch of water in Derbyshire. Along the […]
Rochdale appears at first glance like many other former mill towns in the north west of England. Rows of terraced houses greet drivers as they leave the open plains of the Lancashire countryside and enter the suburbs. Then there’s the ring roads which get clogged up in rush […]
Past In The Present 