Get the latest tech news

The First Suburb

How Whalley Range changed the course of history

The story I uncovered — about a merchant and banker called Samual Brooks who finally decided that he could no longer stand to live in the city centre and instead built his suburb — felt like it belonged to me, as things do when you discover them from the original sources. Samual Brooks was the first to break ranks, converting his Moseley Street house into a warehouse and building a new suburban villa for his family far enough away from the smog and dirt of the city but near enough to be able to travel to work in his carriage every day. In this story, he probably represents the early gentrification of the area but he had rubbed Mrs Tipping up the wrong way and had been subject to multiple complaints, not least because he liked hosting big parties (for all the poets and failed artists).

Get the Android app