PHOTOGRAPHER Eric Latham went back to his roots to capture the changing face of Manchester.
Eric, 43, who grew up in Beswick, is an author, photographer and a lecturer in design at Manchester Metropolitan University.
He has been taking pictures around the streets of his home town since the 1970s and used many of his archive snaps along with a fresh set of images to produce a new book, On Class Street.
Beswick was once the home to factories and a burgeoning manufacturing industry and was revitalised when it became the centre for Manchester's 2002 Commonwealth Games.
The book looks at key landmarks in the area and records the working and home lives of several of its residents.
As well as recording new buildings and signs of regeneration, some of the photographs show abandoned cars and run-down streets.
Stereotypes
Eric said: "I'm interested in challenging stereotypes. A lot of people make assumptions about the type of people who come from Beswick and I try to change their views and about working class people generally.
"I think a lot of the changes have been welcomed, but it is still harder for working class people to fully access education and there are a lot of barriers to getting good jobs.
"I can still remember when there were a lot of people and a lot of jobs in the area, which comes across in some of my work. Things now are still a far cry from then."
As part of the process of writing the 80-page book, which is his first, Eric held a number of photography workshops with teenagers in city schools and youth centres.
Click on the gallery above to see some of Eric's pictures.
Comments
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Good luck to Eric, East Manchester has a proud history which is neglected due to the fact that there is no one so far who has been prepared to document it ,there are thousands of unheard voices out there ,I have heard countless stories of the donkey common which they are about to build houses on ,I remember the new road full of shops ,the heavy industry on forge lane and I,m only 42! look forward to the book
Good article about Beswick but unfortunatley it does fall on deaf ears meaning planners and all other officials who never give the people what they want but what they think they should have.
Take for instance Beswick fort housing and the addjoing shoping. That didn't last long, and rebuilding of the Clockface pub didn't last amongs otherbuilding which they (who ever they are) think you should have.
I was born in beswick in 1938 and lived there going to Nansen street school which overlooked the Donkey common with its Saturday & Sunday football and cricket matches. I also attended Birley Street boys.
There was a good community there and local work with various manufacturing factories, a coal pit in Bradford and hundreds of local shops you didn't always have to travel to far to find work. I lived in Beswick unill 1965 and buy this time I was wed with one child and moved from the area as there was very little left of it as I knew it. All they have ever done is export one community out and import another, the community that is there now is the third community I have known at the age of 71.
What? I wonder will They! do next
Beswick? Not exactly Weaste or Seedley is it though?
My father Eric Webster lived in Beswick, 14 Croston Street. Went on to play with Manchester City and remained in football all of his life. I have fond memories of him chatting about the crowds and football played on Donkey Common. Pub teams like Seven Stars, General Birch, Clockface, Old House at Home. Dad can remember a Barrage Balloon being tethered at Donkey Common. Dad had a sister Ivy and two brothers Tom and Bill (Wilfred), Ivy lived in Croston Street too. His friends as a lad himself were John Dolmer, John Ryder, Gerrard Owl, Ernie Lynch, Andy Gallagher, Tommy Alroyd, Ray Noble (Nobby) amongst many. For all it's so called advancements there is a huge amount of 'essentialness', that was not brought through or even considered during the transition of moving Beswick into the 'modern' world, sadly it disappeard with the Beswick I am talking about. Dad reckoned that the Planners did more damage to the people than the Blitz. I have as a child fond memories of the beautiful ordinary people of the area, and the sense of community that they allowed me as a child to experience and carry with me.