Commonplace 15 George & Manchester.
'Oh, Manchester - so much to answer for' - The Smiths.
Manchester is England's second city, the capital of the north. Small town Wakefield boy George must have marvelled at the vast
wealth living cheek by jowl with the direst poverty. Friederick Engels' 'The Condition of the Working Class in England', written when Engels lived and worked in Manchester in the 1840s (and written when he was 22) was a shocking indictment of the poverty associated with capitalism and if only George had put his considerable talents into serious social commentary and not frittered it away on Veranilda... In comparison, George's yomps round Lambeth getting material for his novels seems like self-indulgent dilettante meanderings.
The Dog Inn contained Hardy's Concert Room where shows such as Ben Williams' 1856 comic readings from Hamlet took place. It was on the north corner of Quay Street and Deansgate, where Royal London House now stands.
w.northmanchester.net/content/view/104/2.
Bizarrely, in the Heroic Life Part 1 Pierre Coustillas says, for George, danger from prostitutes lurked on every corner, though 'young Gissing is not likely ever to have entered the notorious Dog Inn, a fully-licenced house with singing room attached, at the back of which shocking scenes were enacted'. What were these 'shocking scenes' (cod Shakespeare, perhaps? One recalls Peter Sellers as Richard III doing 'A Hard Day's Night click ) and why wouldn't young George want to be in on the action? If ever there was a youth who tumesced at the thought of a shocking scene... As usual, Mr Coustillas wants to make George out to be some sort of English Prince Myshkin who stumbled around not really 'inhaling' when he was in Manchester - this, the boy who allegedly contracted a venereal disease, played truant from classes, told lies with skill and ease, stole money from his peers, went on debauched long weekends to seaside towns and ended up in Belle Vue - not likely to have gone in The Dog when he was 'going to the dogs'? I should cocoa. (And, yet, a little later in the same piece, Mr C quotes Morley Roberts calling George a 'natural born hedonist' !!)
In the 1860s, the stockpiling of cheap cotton in places like Madras and the emancipation of the American slaves (I am simplifying) had the knock-on effect of reducing the cotton-dependent city of Manchester to near ruin - the rise of Socialism was guaranteed. Many impoverished mill workers thought of emigrating to America - a passage to New York was about £3.15.6d in 1861, when the average wage of a female cotton spinner was 9/- for a 69-hour week.
William Gissing went to see Anton Rubenstein's Pianoforte Recital here in March 1877, and was impressed. In his letter to George, Will also says he is looking forward to Wagner appearing at some future time - Will thought Wagner was a 'coming man' of music who would not be appreciated in his own lifetime. Oscar Wilde's Lady Henry. after Lohengrin, famously says to Dorian Gray: “I like Wagner's music better than anybody's. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says. That is a great advantage.”
The psychogeography style intro to Workers in the Dawn shares a sense of vibrancy with that of Mrs Gaskell's Mary Barton - both novels rely on crisp descriptions of people and place to set the scene. Mrs Gaskell lived in the same 'hood as George - but a little earlier in the century.
Thomas was a Manc - George liked this quote so much he recorded it in his 'Notebook' - and it's to be found on page 78 of 'George Gissing at Work: A Study of his Notebook. Extracts from my Reading' Coustillas and Bridgwater pub ELT Press
'I do maintain that if your hair is wrong, your entire life is wrong': Morrissey.
George, the old trichophiliac that he was, would have agreed with Moz.
'Oh, Manchester - so much to answer for' - The Smiths.
Manchester is England's second city, the capital of the north. Small town Wakefield boy George must have marvelled at the vast
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| Victoria Station 1870 |
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| Fred Engels |
The Dog Inn contained Hardy's Concert Room where shows such as Ben Williams' 1856 comic readings from Hamlet took place. It was on the north corner of Quay Street and Deansgate, where Royal London House now stands.
w.northmanchester.net/content/view/104/2.
Bizarrely, in the Heroic Life Part 1 Pierre Coustillas says, for George, danger from prostitutes lurked on every corner, though 'young Gissing is not likely ever to have entered the notorious Dog Inn, a fully-licenced house with singing room attached, at the back of which shocking scenes were enacted'. What were these 'shocking scenes' (cod Shakespeare, perhaps? One recalls Peter Sellers as Richard III doing 'A Hard Day's Night click ) and why wouldn't young George want to be in on the action? If ever there was a youth who tumesced at the thought of a shocking scene... As usual, Mr Coustillas wants to make George out to be some sort of English Prince Myshkin who stumbled around not really 'inhaling' when he was in Manchester - this, the boy who allegedly contracted a venereal disease, played truant from classes, told lies with skill and ease, stole money from his peers, went on debauched long weekends to seaside towns and ended up in Belle Vue - not likely to have gone in The Dog when he was 'going to the dogs'? I should cocoa. (And, yet, a little later in the same piece, Mr C quotes Morley Roberts calling George a 'natural born hedonist' !!)
In the 1860s, the stockpiling of cheap cotton in places like Madras and the emancipation of the American slaves (I am simplifying) had the knock-on effect of reducing the cotton-dependent city of Manchester to near ruin - the rise of Socialism was guaranteed. Many impoverished mill workers thought of emigrating to America - a passage to New York was about £3.15.6d in 1861, when the average wage of a female cotton spinner was 9/- for a 69-hour week.
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| Manchester during the Lancashire Cotton Famine |
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| Inside the Free Trade Hall. |
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| Wood Street Methodist Mission, a beacon of hope and so much more |
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| Motherless Young Mancs - all much in need of a hug. |
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| HMP Bellevue - o, the horror! the horror!
It was completed in 1848 and admitted its first prisoners a year later. Initially it was owned by Manchester Corporation. The building was composed of four sections, three for male prisoners and the fourth for women. One description of the prisons says this about it, “The walls of the prison were strongly buttressed. The entrance on Hyde Road consisted of a double doored Janitors Office and a Courtyard, after crossing this you came to a ponderous iron lined Portcullis which was raised and lowered by a windlass on a side wall, this was worked by a key handle kept by the Duty Warden. Once through the Portcullis there was a lawn to cross before coming to the main entrance. Inside there were Reception Rooms, Waiting Rooms, the Governor's Office, Magistrates Rooms, the Hospital and the Chapel.” Below you can see a view along one of the prison ranges.
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| Mrs Gaskell's .Mary Barton is a good read. |
Thomas was a Manc - George liked this quote so much he recorded it in his 'Notebook' - and it's to be found on page 78 of 'George Gissing at Work: A Study of his Notebook. Extracts from my Reading' Coustillas and Bridgwater pub ELT Press
'I do maintain that if your hair is wrong, your entire life is wrong': Morrissey.
George, the old trichophiliac that he was, would have agreed with Moz.
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