Building Name

Men’s Shelter, Hood Street, Ancoats.

Date
1898 - 1901
Street
Hood Street
District/Town
Ancoats, Manchester
County/Country
GMCA, England
Client
Manchester and Salford Wesleyan Mission
Work
New build

In addition to their evangelical work, the Manchester and Salford Mission ran a number of homes and hostels, following the principle of 'need, not creed,' including the Men's Home and Labour Yard, Hood Street, Ancoats  Women's Home and Refuge, Great Ancoats Street, Maternity Home and Hospital, High Street, Chorlton‑upon‑Medlock (later Lorna Lodge, Didsbury) and Hammond House Preventative Home for Girls, Reddish.

In 1898 J G Sankey was commissioned to design a new and much larger men's hostel next to the existing building, a converted rag factory, in Hood Street. Plans had been prepared by July 1898, and the foundation stone laid on 16 November of that year. A little over two weeks later Sankey was dead, and the construction phase of the work is therefore assumed to have been supervised and completed by John Cubbon. The new building was in use by the beginning of 1901 but not formally opened until May of that year. The Home closed in 1951. Housing 245 men, the building was to have a height of four storey and be well-lighted and pleasant in appearance. It was to be divided into three sections: Men employed in the casual ward, men temporarily employed until permanent work could be found and men with permanent employment who preferred to live in the home. The foundation stone was laid on Wednesday 16 November 1898 by the Lord Mayor, Councillor William H Vaudrey.  Notwithstanding the comments of the Manchester Guardian reporter, the arrangements are assumed to be generally similar to those in the Salford Lodging House. Here the cubicles were approximately 2000mm by 1500mm, containing a bed and chair. Partitions were approximately 2400mm high, built of iron plate with spiked tops, bearing a distinct similarity to ship's cabins.

SOCIAL REFORM IN MANCHESTER: WORK OF THE MANCHESTER AND SALFORD WESLEYAN MISSION. ....... It is of a new and larger Labour Yard, Casual Ward and Working Men=s Home for the further development of this (social) work that the foundation will be laid today. The new building will replace the old. It will provide accommodation for 245 men in place of a little over thirty, the number to which from lack of room the daily work has been hitherto restricted. The Mission has had to content itself with the best arrangements that can be applied to a building of three floors not originally intended for a home, with a casual ward on the opposite side of the road. Within a short time, in the new building in Wood (sic) Street, to be named "The Men's Shelter and Labour Yard," the Mission will, according to the plans, have one of the most complete homes of the kind in the kingdom. The Rowton and other Homes in London and elsewhere have been visited, in order that experience might help the missioners and their architect in the arrangement of the building. The workshop, the living and dining rooms, the bath accommodation, and the dormatories will be as carefully arranged as can be suggested by a knowledge of what is required. The building will be four storeys high, pleasant in appearance, and well-lighted. Ancoats has enough of natural gloom. [Manchester Guardian 16 November 1898 page 12]

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD WESLEYAN MISSION; THE MEN'S HOME The foundation stone of the Home, Shelter and Labour Yard for Men, established by the Manchester and Salford Wesleyan Methodist Mission in Wood(sic) Street, Ancoats, was laid yesterday. There was a large public attendance at the ceremony. Manchester Guardian 17 November 1898 page 5] The report continued with details of the ceremony - Stones were laid by the Lord Mayor, Sir James Fergusson MP, James Scarlett, the Lady Mayoress and J Fildes.  W J Crossley should also have laid a stone but was indisposed.

SOCIAL WORK IN MANCHESTER: A HOME AND SHELTER FOR MEN. The Central Hall Mission has recently completed a new Home for its Men=s Shelter and Lodging House, which, though it has yet to be formally opened, has been occupied and at work since the beginning of the year. The temporary premises used since 1891 had long been outgrown, and it was with the approval of people who take an interest in social work in Manchester that the present substantial building in Hood Street, Ancoats, was begun at the end of 1898. It would be impossible to speak too highly of the accommodation provided. Indeed one has the uneasy feeling that it is, perhaps, too good. After all the home and not the lodging house is the basis of society, and many respectable and hard-working men never attain in their own homes half the comforts which are to be had here for a few pence a night. That, no doubt, is a argument for making the homes better. Some social workers report as the result of their experience that the comparative luxury of the common lodging house is such that men of the lowest grades have been known to desert their families to become "dossers." The Hood Street building has accommodation for 245 men. The ventilation is according to the most approved principles, and the bathrooms and lavatories are as large and well-fitted as in the majority of hotels. The electric light is in use throughout, and the rooms are warmed by steam pipes and open fire-places. The paying lodgers are provided with separate cubicles, and the "casuals" sleep in Lawson Tait beds in one large room. There is a shop or "general store" in the building itself, the profits from which help to support the work. A complete laundry has been laid down on the most modern lines at a cost of £400, and a disinfector has been provided at a cost of about £150. Mr W J Crossley has given a gas engine which supplies the power for the laundry and for the circular saw and other machinery in the wood-chopping yard. The building is under the control of the resident manager, Mr Matcham, who discharges his difficult duties with consideration and firmness. .... report continues with a description of the routines. [Manchester Guardian 5 April 1901 page 8]

MANCHESTER MISSION: ANCOATS LABOUR REFUGE.  The new buildings of the Manchester and Salford Mission in Ancoats are to be opened on Tuesday by Mr W J Crossley. The Lord Mayor will preside at the ceremony. He will have the support, it is expected, of many leading citizens. The new buildings, of which we have already published a description, are situated in Hood Street Ancoats, and they comprise a men=s home, refuge and labour yard, which are directed from the headquarters of the Mission at the Central Hall, under the superintendence of the Rev S F Collier. ..... From the early days of the Mission the labour test has been applied whenever possible. Hence the importance of the labour yard to the work carried on. For a long time only the penniless have been accepted as inmates of the home and no money is taken from them on their admittance. Firewood is prepared in the wood-yard, of which the weekly sales have amounted to 8,300 bundles, and other kinds of work done comprise circular addressing, bill distribution, whitewashing and pulling down old buildings. The authorities of the Mission established a casual ward on new lines, and it has done good work providing in the first eighteen months 9,980 beds and food for the inmates, whose earnings met its expenses. Seven years= experience has convinced the committee of the value of this work and, therefore, the new buildings have been planned with a view of continuing it on a sufficiently large scale. The accommodation will be sufficient for 245 men, and the scheme will be self-supporting when the buildings are erected and paid for. The new buildings are not experimental but the outcome of ten years= experience; and it is considered that the past success warrants the venture made, and that the sum require will be forthcoming. The cost of the new buildings has been something like £18,000, and it is announced that of this total a sum of £8,000 is still needed. [Manchester Guardian 3 May 1901 page 3]

Foundation stones laid on Wednesday 16 November 1898;  Formal opening of Mens Home, Hood Street, Ancoats, May 1901; extended by John Cubbon; closed 1951

Reference    Manchester Guardian obit
Reference    Manchester Guardian 16 July 1898 page 6 - plans prepared
Reference    Manchester Guardian 19 August 1898 page 9 - plans prepared
Reference    Manchester Guardian 16 November 1898 page 12
Reference    Manchester Guardian 17 November 1898 page 5 - foundation stone ceremony
Reference    Manchester City News Saturday 19 November 1898 Page 6 Column 5
Reference    Manchester Guardian 11 May 1899 page * work in progress
Reference    Manchester Guardian 21 November 1900 page 7 - new hostel complete
Reference    Manchester City News 27 April 1901 Page 6 Col 6
Reference    Manchester City News 4 May 1901 Page 6
Reference    Manchester City News 11 May 1901 Page 5 CHECK
Reference    Manchester Guardian 5 April 1901 page 8
Reference    Manchester Guardian 3 May 1901 page 3