Criminal Manchester

“The first fruit of our mission from the Charter Street Roughs”

Robert was admitted to the Central Refuge on Francis Street on the 1 November 1875. The first admission book, where his entry is recorded, is scant in detail, as was typical for the first few years of the charity. We do know however that he was admitted at the age of 17, both parents having passed away and that he was ‘rescued’ by the charity from the notorious district of Angel Meadow. 

Admission Entry for Robert, November 1875

He was the first of many lads guided away from an area of Manchester rife with criminality and vice. His residence, prior to admittance, was at ‘One Armed Kittys’ establishment in Charter Street. As well as owning a brothel she was a well known 'fencer' in the area, receiving stolen goods and selling them on. Charter Street and its immediate vicinity in the early 1870s was a hotbed of brothels, taverns and lodging houses for thieves. Robert would have found himself surrounded by pickpockets, prostitutes and scuttlers, an environment the charity would have been desperate to remove children from.

                                                     Boys Rest, Angel Meadow

In 1874 a journalist compiled an investigation into the slums of the city for the Manchester Evening News.
 

“The truth of the rather trite saying that half the world knows not how the other half lives is so generally acknowledged that ignorance of certain phases of life in our city can be pleaded with equanimity by the vast majority of us”.

There were four districts in Manchester at this time in which the criminal classes of the city could be located. Alongside Charter Street, these included part of Deansgate (where the charity’s first home was located), Ancoats and Gaythorne. The first admission book reveals many a child being admitted from these four districts. It was the Committee’s desire, unlike other members of the Manchester community to acknowledge ‘Criminal Manchester’, and try rescue boys from its grip. It became their mission to seek out children in the ‘Charter Street Roughs’ and give them an opportunity to better their lives.