Since the early ’90s, Al Baker has been photographing the Hulme he knew from the inside. This was the era of the crescents — Manchester’s notorious concrete maze where squatters, punks, ravers and students shared the same broken walkways. By then the council had stepped back. Buildings were crumbling, whole blocks stood empty, and the area sat in a space between neglect and possibility.

Hulme could be tense. Poverty, police raids and the pressure of daily life shaped it. But it was also alive in a way that felt unmatched elsewhere in the city. With low rents and vacant flats, people moved in and made the area their own. Free parties ran through the night. Punx Picnics turned the grass into a meeting point for bands, kids, dogs, blankets and crates of whatever people could bring. It wasn’t polished, but it carried a feeling of collective ownership that defined the crescents during those years.

Baker photographed the area as it edged towards demolition. His images reflect a community working on its own terms — making use of what was available and building something temporary but meaningful in the process. They stand as a record of a brief chapter in Manchester’s history, seen from within rather than from the outside looking in.