The Modern Backdrop Receive Collaborative Project Grant

The Modern Backdrop: The Impact of Architectural Modernity on Memory, Identity and Lives in Salford, 1952–1974 was awarded a Collaborative Project Grant in 2021 and ran for two years. Initially, the collaborators were: the University of Salford; the Modernist Society, Manchester; and the RIBA Northwest, Liverpool. During the course of the project the Working Class Movement Library in Salford and the Salford Museum and Art Gallery joined as collaborators. The principal investigator was Dr Tanja Poppelreuter, reader in architectural humanities at the University of Salford. Her research interests lie in the field of twentieth-century art and architecture with a focus on the perceptions and development of architectural space, social housing and women in twentieth-century architecture. Also from the University of Salford, Dr Alexandra Mitchell, university archivist, and Professor Peter Walker, professor of construction science, acted as co-investigators.

The aim of The Modern Backdrop was to explore and analyse how citizens in Salford were depicted in visual culture during the redevelopment period from the 1950s to 1970s. During that time, terraced housing was replaced with modern social housing projects following “slum clearance” efforts. The redevelopment of Salford was profound and formed the “backdrop” for several films; TV shows; photography, both professional as well as private; and print media. The project was mainly interested in better understanding the mechanisms of slum clearance and modernisation and investigated how contemporaneous depictions in visual culture helped in creating an “image” or perception of Salford as a place for and of its people. The project had academic outputs as well as being a comprehensive community engagement programme.

The academic element of the project helped to situate how the redevelopment of Salford and its depiction in visual culture was discussed within national and international contexts. The forthcoming paper will provide – for the first time – a comprehensive outline of redevelopment efforts in Salford paired with an analysis of the visual culture that helped generate and perpetuate the perception of Salford as the Dirty Old Town.

The grant enabled the project to host two workshops – The Making of Modern Salford 1950–1975: Ideas and Reality in Architecture, Planning and Housing; and Slums, Slum Clearance, and Slum Dweller in Britain (1950–1975) – and a conference entitled, Urban Modernisation And Representations Of The Working Class, 1950–1975. These events brought academics from the UK and Europe together with residents to consider the two key themes of the project; namely how social housing has been developed and how the working class has been represented.

The community outreach programme added another layer of history by making visible the memories of Salford citizens who experienced this transition in that we collected and exhibited their photographs and memories as well as publishing the catalogue.

In addition, the project participants were able to curate three exhibitions, two in the Working Class Movement Library. The first, Capturing the Modern Backdrop: Shirley Baker Photographing Salford, featured a selection of photographs by the Salford-born documentary photographer. It aimed to raise questions about how the changing urban environment of Salford was captured with a particular emphasis on human subjects. The second exhibition, In the Face of Dwelling, combined portrait photographs of working-class people in Salford with photographs and architectural drawings that illustrated the types of houses in which they lived. The exhibition also showcased family photographs that were shared with us by Salford residents, evoking memories and raising questions about the living conditions of people in the past.

Invisible Cities: Salford before, during and after redevelopment, 1952 to 1974 was the final and largest exhibition held at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery. It marked the end of the Modern Backdrop project. This exhibition brought together various visual depictions of Salford taken from family photograph albums, architectural drawings and stills from film and TV alongside audio recordings of memories of residents. This range of different images and material provided new ways of understanding the history of the transition of Salford from the slum clearances to the modern housing projects, not just because of what they reveal about the reality of the past, but rather in their function to trigger a range of memories, emotions and reflections related to the images represented. The exhibition was accompanied by a published catalogue with the same title.

Alongside these events we maintained an online blog throughout the project which featured contributions from a variety of writers, both academic and non-academic, on subjects ranging from the Salford-born writer Walter Greenwood to aspects of working-class terraced life, such as “donkey stones” and “knocker-uppers”.

The Paul Mellon Collaborative Project Grant enabled the project participants to carry out a range of activities for the Modern Backdrop project and to engage with a broad audience base. Through these activities the project has shown the complexity of the transformation of Salford from terraced “slums” to modern housing projects, revealing both the grand plans of urban renewal and the lived experiences of its residents. By fostering dialogue between academics, residents and the wider public, we have created a rich and textured understanding of this pivotal period in the city’s history.

Project website link: https://hub.salford.ac.uk/modern-salford/

Find out more about our Collaborative Project Grant.