GREG Garlick was excited. It was 1989, he was Canadian, he was in Manchester and his name was Garlick.

He probably wasn’t excited about his surname, but I was. It amused me that his initials were GG or even Gee Gee and it amused me he’d come such a long way but not on a horse. We’d struck up conversation between songs by the Railway Children (I think), a Factory Records-signed band. We were both stuck to a beery floor in the Boardwalk club on Little Peter Street and I was slugging on a pint of disastrously bad lager. We were two of roughly five people in the club who weren't on ecstasy.

Manchester 1980S King Street — **View down King Street, 1983**

Greg was holding a carrier bag packed with vinyl, maybe ten albums, from assorted Manchester bands. He was older than me by about five years and was sporting an outrageous pair of flared trousers on skinny legs. He’d flown over from Montreal because of the music, particularly that emanating chaotically from Happy Mondays.

He had come because he wanted to be part of the Madchester moment. “It’s so real,” he gushed, “the music coming out of here makes it the best scene in the world.”

It was a wonderful time to be in a city which seemed at the centre of things.

I didn’t know about that, but I did know that I’d just returned from teaching English in Madrid where there’d been a club called El Sitio which reserved Thursday nights exclusively for music from Manchester. This included not just the Madchester groups but bands such as The Smiths, James, The Fall, Joy Division, New Order and even Simply Red.

GG wasn’t alone in being a moth attracted to the Manc flame. Music fans from all corners of the globe were hanging around on every corner, the queue for the Hacienda reached the moon. I recall seeing a group of Japanese boys and girls falling out of Affleck’s Palace in 1988, every last one of them sporting a Morrissey quiff and clutching a Smiths record, despite the band having broken up the year before.

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 7655699020 89B1A8B91E O — **Fashion Show at Manchester Polytechnic in 1984**

Meanwhile the noise of the city traffic was drowned out by Tony Wilson philosophising the moment and Terry Christian making sweeping statements. It was a wonderful time to be in a city which seemed at the centre of things.

The energy of the music scene in Manchester in the eighties was a counterpoint to a lot going wrong as the economic decline of the seventies continued through much of the decade. As one commentator put it: ‘In the decade from 1979, when Mrs Thatcher applied ‘monetarism’, 94 per cent of all job losses occurred north of a line drawn from the Wash to the Severn. Of the manufacturing jobs lost, 70 per cent were from the North.’

Manchester 1980S Rochdale Canal 1983 — **Rochdale Canal, 1983**

Understandably there was a lot of politics about.

In 1986, the Conservative government abolished the metropolitan counties, such as Greater Manchester, as it considered them inefficient and addled with Labourites resisting the new neo-Liberal reality. Such repeated attacks, or perceived attacks, and the evident economic decline in the older industrial areas polarised much of the country. Thus the 80s were the decade in which Conservative influence on the council politics of the City of Manchester began to rapidly whither. There are no Tory councillors in the City of Manchester today because of the path chosen by the Tory government in the 1980s.

Don't forget to check out our galleries from 1960s and 1970s.

Initially the Labour Group in Manchester became as militant as that in Liverpool. This can be seen in council initiatives such as becoming the first Nuclear Free City in 1980, a response to the palpable threat of nuclear annihilation at the height of the Cold War. It was a progressive gesture but largely symbolic. More significantly the city became a centre for anti-Thatcher protest over issues such as the Poll Tax and Section 28, the latter attempting to ban the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ by local authorities.

Yet, at the same time, seeds were planted for reconstruction. Council Leader Graham Stringer, once a firebrand of the left, began to create alliances that would lead to Manchester becoming a beacon for public and private sectors working together to deliver results. It was during the 80s, for instance, that Manchester began bidding for the Olympic Games. This failed but led eventually to the 2002 Commonwealth Games. More importantly the bids showed how the city, in both the public and the private sectors, could pull together. That legacy remains.

Manchester 1980S Central Station — **The abandoned Central Station was converted into the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre (G-Mex)**

There were many physical changes in the 80s, such as when the shattered and abandoned Central Station was converted into the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre (now Manchester Central) in 1986. Chinatown came into its own during the decade and the Gay Village became a reality. The creation of the Central Manchester Development Corporation in 1988 started to deliver renovation in the former warehouse areas and canal basins. The Museum of Science and Industry opened in 1983 and Castlefield was dragged back to active life.

For the first time in almost sixty years city centre living was being recreated with flats on top of the Arndale Centre, and in townhouses in St John's and off Tib Street. The St John's Gardens flats were completed in 1980 and despite appearances their design must have worked very well because several of them are still occupied by people who moved in forty-three years ago.

Along Whitworth Street, the packing warehouses were also becoming flats. Even the rundown ex-markets area around High Street gained a sniff of a hint of future gentrification when the late Peter O'Grady's team opened the Market Restaurant: although Mackie Mayor, Sea Urchin, Wolf at the Door seemed a very long and very unimaginable way off. Ancoats with a Michelin starred restaurant would have seemed science fiction.

Unfortunately new architecture during the decade was appalling

Over in Salford an Enterprise Zone was created at the redundant headwaters of Manchester Ship Canal. By the mid-80s the area was being transformed with offices, houses and flats, although it would take the best part of two decades for the redevelopment to begin to mature.

Unfortunately new architecture during the decade was appalling. It’s hard to bring to mind a single good new building aside from Siemens House by Mills, Beaumont, Leavey on Princess Parkway. The worst of the worst, because of the location, was the apologetic, ugly and unambitious duo of Heron House and Commercial Union House facing the Town Hall. These were disastrous non-entities that still blight what will be, in a year, our finest civic space.

So much of the inner core was being felled. The 80s was the period of maximum contraction of the city centre when it became a shadow of its nineteenth century self. The top picture here shows a surface car park where the National Football Museum presently sits, it shows a wasteland.

One writer Charles Jencks put it this way when viewing that older city: 'Look again at those buildings. As examples of frozen energy they fill you with amazement. Some Mancunians must have been giants. What dreams did those people have? And do they still have them?'

Fortunately as the 80s progressed it was becoming clear we did.

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 21302065961 E700014E0C O — **Maisonettes on the roof of Manchester Arndale Centre, 1985**

Some elements of city life were probably much better than presently. Retail was far healthier in the 1980s than in the present post-Covid Amazon age. While Oldham Street slipped, the Arndale Centre and Market Street got busier every year. The notion of there ever being an empty shop unit on King Street or St Ann’s Square would have been laughed at - look at the pictures on this page. Affleck’s Palace and the Craft and Design Centre opened. The Corn Exchange became a crazy emporium of leftfield shops.

In sport, while City drifted, United began to realise its potential as it began to improve the ground, add hospitality and push attractions such as the museum. In 1986 Alex Ferguson became the manager, and after a difficult start, it was clear United were heading for national domination under the Scot. Crazy as it would seem in the mid-80s, United were about to 'knock Liverpool off their perch'.

The music scene was already dominant, as we have seen.

This was underlined when in 1989 the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays appeared on the same episode of Top of the Pops. They had a distinctive look and a distinctive sound. Madchester suddenly became a UK phenomenon and not just amongst music fans. That Top of the Pops show seemed a fitting way for the 80s to close. The 90s were coming and there was a sense things were on the move. There was a sense the city could find a role for itself in the post-industrial world.

Greg Garlick, all the way from Montreal, would have been in total agreement.

Jonathan Schofield

Manchester 1980S King Street 1985 — **King Street, 1985**

Manchester 1980S Albert Square C1985 — **Albert Square, 1985**

Manchester 1980S Glossop Station 1983 — **Glossop Station, 1983**

Manchester 1980S St Anns Square — **St Ann's Square, 1984**

Manchester 1980S Summer St Marys Parsonage — **Summer in St Mary's Parsonage, 1983**

Manchester 1980S Ashton Under Lyne Bus — **Ashton-Under-Lyne Bus Station in 1981** David Dixon

Manchester 1980S Heaton Park Tram 1989 — **Heaton Park tram, 1989**

Manchester 1980S Screen Shot 2018 03 01 At 14 43 27 — **GNR goods warehouse, Deansgate, 1980**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 14967907011 Dc1D4B7Ee4 O — **Picture House cinema, Oxford Street, 1987**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 16492282576 49F0139D97 O — **Piccadilly Gardens, 1983.**

Manchester 1980S Bus Beside The River Irk — **Bus beside the River Irk, 1981**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 21283346332 A8Aa15143B O — **Manchester Arndale Centre, 1985**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 24268186854 7A3F278Bd3 O — **All Saints Building, c.1980**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 5080787857 87B15405Fc O — **Demolition of flats on the Hulme/Moss Side border, 1985**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 5407460664 30E410A1C2 O — **Market Street and the Arndale Centre, 1989**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 5457360374 3E763F9317 O — **Hollings Building, c. 1980**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 8141972335 30557F530C O — **St Mary's Gate, c. 1980**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 5497724109 Abac0B11F1 O — **Shambles Square, 1983**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 7629592610 4A02D73Fca O — **Fashion Show, Manchester Polytechnic, 1980**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 7982553298 36798B7D65 O — **Slide Library, Manchester Polytechnic, 1983-84**

Manchester 1980S St Anns Square 1984 — **St Ann's Square, 1984**

Manchester 1980S Screen Shot 2018 03 01 At 14 44 02 — **Central Station, 1980**

Manchester 1980S Screen Shot 2018 03 01 At 15 14 29 — **Piccadilly Gardens, 1980**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 14970993225 31610651E0 O — **Rotters night club, formerly the Gaumont cinema, Oxford Street, 1987**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 14970994215 541617B0Ba O — **The former Picture House cinema, Oxford Street, 1982.**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 8467733169 383013Dc25 O — **Manchester Polytechnic, 1981.**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 7745399612 4295C7Bd79 O — **Fashion Show, Manchester Polytechnic, 1989**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 8443864693 911Aa82Fc8 O — **Students working in the embroidery machine room, Manchester Polytechnic, 1982**

Manchester 1980S Victoria 1982 — **Victoria Station, 1982**

Manchester 1980S Market Street 1989 — **Market Street, 1989**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 8468716484 F95419Ee54 O — **Embroidery studio, Manchester Polytechnic, 1985.**

Manchester 1980S Market Street 1988 — **Market Street, 1988**

Manchester 1980S Parker Street 1989 — **Parker Street, 1989**

Manchester 1980S Manchester Victoria 1982 — **Victoria Station 1982**

Manchester 1980S Barton Arcade 1984 — **Barton Arcade, 1984**

Manchester 1980S Red Lion Street — **Red Lion Street, 1980**

Manchester 1980S King Street 1988 — **King Street, 1988**

Manchester 1980S John Rylands 1981 — **John Rylands Library, 1981**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 14042023726 8C59D6D127 O — **Workshop, Manchester Polytechnic, 1982.**

Manchester 1980S Cafe Yaqub 1987 — **Cafe Yaqub, Back Turner Street, 1987**

Manchester 1980S Miles Platting Rail 1989 — **Miles Platting station, 1989**

Manchester 1980S Market Street 1988 2 — **Market Street, 1988**

Manchester 1980S London Road Signalbox 1989 — **London Road signalbox, 1989**

Manchester 1980S King Street 1983 — **King Street, 1983**

Manchester 1980S 218 Bus To Ashton — **218x bus to Ashton, Piccadilly, 1981**

Manchester 1980S 82 King Street Manchester — **Bank of England, King Street, 1982**

Manchester 1980S Cherry Blossom St Marys Parsonage — **Cherry blossom in St Mary's Parsonage, 1982**

Manchester 1980S Screen Shot 2018 03 01 At 14 40 57 — **Central Station, 1980**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 24621316212 D781Fe19A1 O — **Deaf & Dumb Institute, 1987**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 21283346252 E68D91A745 O — **Manchester Arndale Centre, 1985**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 14967907641 86D4F78E60 O — **Rotters night club, formerly the Gaumont cinema, Oxford Street, 1987**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 15089500059 6510687306 O — **The Grosvenor Picture Palace, 1985**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 14555553980 4F0B7D999A O — **Demolition of the Manchester Ear Hospital, 1984**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 21302065891 9C92952161 O — **Roof of the Manchester Arndale Centre, 1985**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 7703402984 67F53C36B2 O — **Fashion Show, Manchester Polytechnic, 1988**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 24193971484 2556Ab738F O — **Demolition of Georgian Houses, Grosvenor Place, 1988**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 24269453343 6B5E8210A3 O — **All Saints Building, c.1980**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 14948028326 6Ee335A802 O — **Rotters night club, formerly the Gaumont cinema, Oxford Street, 1987**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 7703301532 D22Dfb31Cb O — **Fashion Show, Manchester Polytechnic, 1987**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 5507707302 Cee2D07193 O — **St Mary's Gate, c. 1980**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 7982549745 71D7580C94 O — **Slide Library, Manchester Polytechnic, 1983-84**

1980S 2 Manchester 1980S Manchester 8444953644 541D2612E1 O — **Students working in the embroidery machine room, Manchester Polytechnic, 1982**

Don't forget to check out our galleries from the 1960s and 1970s. The 1990s edition will follow soon...

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