Suburbanization in the Manchester Area (INDUSTRIALIZATION AND URBANIZATION)

Abstract

Suburbanization is a process in which urbanism spreads from a town to the neighbouring country. We can list a number of factors making for suburbanization: population growth, prolongation of commuting hours, the availability of capital for development, the widespread acceptance of both the convention of the single family dwelling and the quest for social exclusiveness, the reduction of working hours, relative healthiness of suburban life, the general rise of real income, etc. The writer, in this paper, sketches suburbanization in the light of population change and the development of public transport facilities, for they have been the most remarkable features of the process. And then he points out that there were two ways in the response made by suburban administration. In England there occurred population change among the large cities in the middle of the nineteenth century. It was the population decrease in the central zone of the cities and the spread of the population into suburbs. In the years 1851-91 the population density of the center of Manchester decreased by 58.7 per cent, while the suburban population increased at a much greater rate. The growth of suburbs was due in part to the movement from Manchester, but largely to their own increase in the number of people whose occupations were within the suburb itself to offer routine services for the suburban dwellers. Before the nineteenth century, suburbs had been monopolized by the wealthier class. This monopoly did not survive the advent of public transport facilities which made it possible for the middle classes to live in suburbs. The first horse omnibus service between the center of Manchester and its north-western suburb Pendleton was opened in 1824. But a more drastic change was brought about by the construction of the tramway in 1877. A larger, faster, cheaper, and more extensive transport could be made by means of this tramway. On the other hand, the effect of the railway upon suburban growth was, at least in the course of the nineteenth century, much less than that of the two kinds of the transport facilities mentioned above. This was because the railway fare was too costly for commuters. One of the most striking features of nineteenth century urban England was the deterioration of the environment both in the central cities and in their outer suburbs. Confronted with 'urban problems', local authorities had to rationalize their administrative mechanism. We can see this theme in the response of the local authorities under the Rivers Pollution Act of 1876. While Manchester planned an extensive sewer project which included out-townships, less wealthy suburban townships such as Harpurhey had to ask Manchester to be incorporated with the city under the pressure to construct sewers and sewage disposals. Wealthier and remoter suburbs such as Eccles could, on the contrary, plan and pursue their own sewer schemes. But even in this case it needed much more effective legal power to improve social circumstances. Thus in Eccles the proposed municipal incorporation of the borough received the approval of an overwhelming majority of ratepayers at a meeting in 1890.