Lending a helping hand in Angel Meadow

Boys' rest and coffee room, 1883

This rather faded photograph was found within a mixture of other photographs taken in the 1880’s, which showed several of the charity’s different homes and services. This image shows an old public house situated at the bottom of Angel Street at St Michael's Place and known as the Old Victory.

In 1881 it was taken over by the Manchester Refuge and turned into the 'Boys’ Rest and Coffee Room'. It was opened on the 26 October by Mr Henry Lee, MP. The object of this branch was to provide temporary aid to lads who frequented the common lodging houses of the district and give them safe accommodation for the night. During the day it was used as a coffee house. Most nights every one of the 18 beds was used by the boys, accounting for around 540 a month.

Ragged child under the stairs

Angel Meadow at this time was well-known as one of the worst districts in Manchester. A London journalist, Angus Reach, visited Angel Meadows in 1849 and reported:

“The lowest, most filthy, most unhealthy and most wicked locality in Manchester is called, singularly enough, ‘Angel-meadow.”

At the turn of the century the district was overflowing with lodging houses of the lowest and cheapest type. These were filled with boys from the streets earning a precarious living. For many youths who were too old for the main Central Refuge, or had no desire to enter the home, the Boys’ Rest provided a clean, respectable lodging place. It saved "many a lad from the downward path" (Taken from 'Making Rough Places Plain' by William Edmondson, 1920).