The Last Days Of Hulme

£20.00

When Al Baker moved to Hulme, Manchester, in the mid-1990s, its notorious crescent-shaped housing blocks – the Hulme Crescents – were already earmarked for demolition. This new book captures the estate and the people, through those final days.

The first 300 orders get an exclusive free 8” silk print. Shipping on the 20th of November 2024.

Softcover
132 pages
130 Photographs
210mm x 210mm
ISBN - 978-1-874171-16-4
Barcode - 9781874171164

When Al Baker moved to Hulme, Manchester, in the mid-1990s, its notorious crescent-shaped housing blocks – the Hulme Crescents – were already earmarked for demolition.

Planned as a gleaming post-war replacement for grimy pre-war housing, the blocks quickly failed in their utopian purpose… but once the original residents moved out, a new kind of community moved in.

Cut loose from suburban norms, Hulme became the blazing centre of Manchester’s creative furnace, where young people lived cheaply, resourcefully, expansively, and dangerously. With his camera under his coat and lenses stashed in a Kwik Save bag, Al Baker documented Hulme’s razor-edge existence – its squat parties, graffiti jams, cellar raves and lost weekends – capturing image after image of an extraordinary moment in time.

Against the apocalyptic backdrop of an estate whose days were numbered, Al’s photographs reveal the characters, culture and chaos of Hulme… before the bulldozers finally arrived.