Beeton Grove, Manchester, 1970s: Photographs by Chris Hunt

In 1974, photographer Chris Hunt set out to document the lives of working-class families in Beeton Grove, Longsight — a narrow, terraced street just a couple of miles from Manchester city centre. At the time, Longsight was a microcosm of Britain’s changing urban landscape: a densely packed neighbourhood where English, Irish, Pakistani and Cypriot families lived side by side, navigating the challenges of industrial decline and social change.

After spending a year living on Beeton Grove, Hunt began knocking on doors, asking his neighbours if he could photograph and interview them about their everyday lives. The resulting portraits — candid, tender, and quietly political — offer an intimate glimpse into a resilient community at a pivotal moment in Manchester’s history.

Chris recalls how not every door on Beeton Grove opened to him: “I was turned away from four houses. One belonged to an Irishman, drunk when I knocked, who wanted nothing to do with me. Two others — one Irish, one Pakistani — felt I’d be too much of an intrusion. The fourth was home to an old man who never opened his door to anyone, unless he’d had so much to drink he had to be carried back from the pub.”

“But everyone else,” he adds, “welcomed me in, often with a cup of tea and a story to tell.”

Irish Community

“Among the houses where I was welcomed, three belonged to Irishmen — Mr Kielty, Mr Killeen and Mr Guilfoyle. None of them wished to be photographed or interviewed, for reasons they chose not to share, but they were happy enough for me to speak to and photograph other members of their households.”

Warmth

“I was struck by the many different ways people lived. In some houses, there was a palpable warmth and affection within the family — the children were happy, and everyone took a genuine interest in what I was doing. In others, I felt very much the outsider, never quite accepted. Perhaps arriving with a tape recorder didn’t help, but even after three or four visits, that sense of distance remained. The interviews themselves were more like conversations than formal questioning. After my first visit to each household, I gave the families a few free photographs, which helped to break the ice and made it easier to return.”

Every house on the street showed signs of disrepair. Many were rented, and the tenants — understandably — felt it was the landlords’ responsibility to fix them. But with the future of Beeton Grove hanging in the balance, and the threat of demolition already looming, landlords were reluctant to invest in properties that might soon be torn down. It left the street in a kind of limbo, with neither side willing — or able — to make the first move.

Mrs Keegan and her husband came to Manchester from Ireland in 1961, when they bought a small grocery shop just around the corner from Beeton Grove for £2,000. Over the years, Mrs Keegan transformed the shop into something more than a business — it became a social hub for the neighbourhood, a place where people would linger for hours, exchanging gossip and catching up on local news. More meeting place than store, it reflected the tight-knit character of the community around it.

Community

I left Manchester soon afterwards, convinced that this small community would soon vanish. At the time, everyone seemed to be dreaming of the day they could afford a place of their own and leave Beeton Grove behind once demolition came. As it turned out, the plan was abandoned, and Beeton Grove survives to this day — outwardly little changed from forty years ago. But the families who once gave it life have almost all moved on, leaving behind just one household from those days.

"Chris Hunt created an important social record, capturing not only photographs of the families but also candid recordings of them speaking about their lives in this close-knit community — their hopes, their worries, and their thoughts about the future."

//GALLERY//

//SHOP//

Chris Hunt Prints | BCA

Published
December 7, 2020