Moss Side

For other uses, see Moss Side (disambiguation)

Moss Side
Population
OS grid reference	SJ835955
Metropolitan borough	City of Manchester
Metropolitan county	Greater Manchester
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MANCHESTER
Postcode district	M16, M14
Dialling code	0161
Police	Greater Manchester
Fire	Greater Manchester
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Manchester Central

Moss Side is a residential suburb, district and electoral ward of Manchester in North West England situated two miles (3.2 km) south of Manchester city centre.

With a total resident population of 10,977, Moss Side is the traditional centre of Manchester's large Black British community, though there are many people from a non-black background (most notably one of the country's largest Greek communities outside of London, and a large community of Irish descent).

Consisting of terraced housing, with some interwar council housing (now largely rebuilt and regenerated), the area gained notoriety across Britain during the 1980s and 1990s due to several gang related shootings/murders, high crime levels and several riots.

History

Mass development in Moss Side occurred at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries when large numbers of red brick terraced houses were built, and soon attracted numerous Irish immigrants.

Large numbers of West Indian and Asian immigrants arrived in the area during the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1970s Manchester City Council demolished much of the Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses to the west of Moss Side and replaced these with new residential properties.

After the race riots of 1981 the area came to national attention again in the 1990s for 'turf wars' between rival drugs gangs, resulting in a number of fatal shootings. Many of the notorious flats in Moss Side and neighbouring Hulme were demolished in the late 1990s to make way for new low rise homes, while the Alexandra Park Estate housing has been renovated with streets redesigned to reduce the fear of crime. Since the early 1990s there has been a steady rise in the Somali population in the area as a result of people seeking asylum. In the 2000s, there has also been a concentration of Iraqi and Romanian asylum seekers in Moss Side.

Crime

Moss Side has achieved notoriety since the early 1980s for a high-profile gang culture and its associated criminal, drugs and firearms activity. This allegedly began in the 1970s at a time of rising unemployment and racism towards Moss Side's significant Black British/Afro Caribbean community. Unable to make a living from legitimate means some Moss Side residents turned to the drug trade - mainly the sale of cannabis, in order to make a living. '

By the mid/late 1980s drug dealing in Manchester started to become more and more lucrative. This coincided with the arrival of a new style of music at the city's Haçienda nightclub - acid house, and associated with that was the use of a drug called ecstasy. A rapid rise in the use of ecstasy along with the 'Madchester' culture this spawned drew the attention of criminals in Greater Manchester not just in Moss Side but from other area's as well - in particular Cheetham Hill, Longsight and Salford. Furthermore there's an urban legend that criminals from Moss Side took part in an armed robbery in a part of Manchester that Cheetham Hill considered as their 'territory' and in turn lit the fuse for a turf war for the control of the city's drug and criminal activity.

As the 1980s drew to a close the use of firearms by criminals in Greater Manchester soared along with membership of gangs. The members of these gangs - some of which were still in their teens, were much more willing to use firearms than criminals of the previous generation not only to protect themselves but to settle sometimes 'petty' disputes and more worryingly to gain 'respect' from their peers. Within Moss Side two high profile gangs emerged - Gooch named after Gooch Close and Pepperhill named after pub of the same name. After closure of Pepperhill Pub, Pepperhill have changed it's name to Doddington after moving their headquarters to nearby Doddington Close. Moss Side's gangs became engaged in feuds with each other for the control of Manchester's drug trade as much as they were with their rivals across Greater Manchester. Shootings and murders became more and more frequent in Manchester and Moss Side in particular started attracting negative news and media headlines with the perhaps unfair nickname of Gunchester being used to sum up this increase in gang, drugs and firearms activity. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/5335114.stm

A watershed to Moss Side's seemingly endless cycle of firearms violence occurred in January 1993 when 14 year old Benji Stanley was shot dead as he queued for a takeaway. The reasons surrounding his shooting are not fully known, however the general consensus is mistaken identity with the police maintaining he wasn't involved in any of Moss Side's gang and drug related activities. To date nobody has been charged with Benji's murder and as the youngest casualty of Moss Side's firearms violence his murder sent shockwaves not only within Manchester's underworld but within wider British society as well. However, despite community leaders persuading some of Manchester's gangs - including Gooch and Doddington in Moss Side, Cheetham Hill and Longsight, to call a brief truce in their hostilities with each other and Greater Manchester Police organising a gun/knife amnesty which was widely viewed successful as the amount of illegal firearms incidents in Manchester and Moss Side in the mid-'90's dropped, a further series of gang related feuds, firearms incidents and murders would once again plague Moss Side - and Greater Manchester more generally, from the late '90's onwards.

In 1999 there were a total of 81 shooting incidents in Greater Manchester, 68 per cent of which happened in the south Manchester area that includes Moss Side.

From 2001 to 2002, there were 11 fatal shootings, 84 serious woundings and 639 incidents involving violence with guns, with Moss Side once again staging a high percentage of these atrocities.

Much of this gun crime has occurred because of tension between rival gangs in the area such as the notorious Gooch Close and the Longsight Crew which have both gained a national notoriety.

Several high profile gangs in the Moss Side area are; Gooch Close gang, Doddington and Moss Side Bloodz.

Maine Road

Main article: Maine Road

From 1923, Moss Side was the location of Manchester City Football Club's stadium at Maine Road which on several occasions in its early years drew crowds of more than 80,000. But its capacity was gradually reduced over the years and by the mid-1990s it held just under 35,000 spectators all seated. Plans to rebuild Maine Road to seat 45,000 were abandoned in favour of moving to the City of Manchester Stadium. Maine Road has since been demolished and houses and a school are expected to be built on the site.

Breweries

There are two breweries in Moss Side. The Royal Brewery brewed Kestrel, McEwan's and Harp Lager, but is now managed by Scottish and Newcastle for the production of Foster's Lager. Hydes Brewery brews traditional beers including Hydes' Bitter and the cask version of Boddingtons - the latter since the closure of the Strangeways Brewery in 2005. The more widely available keg version of 'Boddies' is no longer brewed in Manchester. Hydes have now also taken over the brewing of Harp lager under contract.

Government and Politics

Manchester Central constituency is represented by the Labour Party MP Tony Lloyd. Lloyd recently organised the face lift scheme for many houses in Moss Side in an attempt to change the image of the area.

Moss Side is a ward within the local authority of Manchester City Council. The ward is represented by Labour Councillors Sameen Ali, Alistair Cox and Roy Walters.

Geography

Moss Side lies on the A5103 (Princess Park Way/Princess Road), the main road out of Manchester towards Manchester Airport, the M56 motorway and Chester.

The built environment of Moss Side is broadly characterised as a high-density residential area.

Neighbouring districts and places.

Demography

Further information: [[:Demography of Greater Manchester]]

Moss Side Compared
UK Census 2001	Moss Side	Manchester	England
Total population	10,977	441,200	49,138,831
Foreign born	36%	15%	9.2%
White	48%	81%	91%
Asian	9.0%	9.1%	4.6%
Black	32%	4.5%	2.3%
Christian	52%	62%	72%
Muslim	15%	9.1%	3.1%
Hindu	0.7%	0.7%	1.1%
No religion	16%	16%	15%
Over 75 years old	3.9%	6.4%	7.5%
Unemployed	7.9%	5.0%	3.3%

According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 in the Moss Side electoral ward of Manchester there were 10,977 residents of which 48.41% were male and 51.59% were female. Compared against the demography of England, Moss Side is home to a diverse range of people.

In terms of ethnicity;

• 48.25% are white
• 31.83% are black
• 9.37% are Asian
• 7.45% are mixed
• 3.10% are other

Qualifications and employment

(of economically active 16-74 year olds)

• • 36.04% have no qualifications
  • 13.88% have only GCSEs or equivalent Level 2 qualifications
  • 12.18% have only A-Levels or Level 3 qualifications
  • 20.91% have degree level qualifications

• • 7.85% are unemployed (Manchester Average: 5.02%, National Average: 3.35%

Housing

• 4,977 households of which:

• • 27.85% is local authority accommodation
  • 26.98% is rented from housing associations
  • 24.03% is owner occupied
  • 16.05% is privately rented
  • 4.52% is rented from other sources
  • 0.56% is said to be of shared occupancy
  • 0.01% is of unknown origin

Notable inhabitants

• Barry Adamson, musician, played with Magazine and The Bad Seeds amongst others. His solo work includes 'Moss Side Story', a soundtrack to an imaginary film
• Chris Bisson, actor, best known for Coronation Street, Shameless and East is East
• Anthony Burgess, author, although born in Harpurhey, lived in Moss Side as a child.
• Darren Campbell, Olympic gold and silver medal sprint athlete
• Cleopatra, pop group
• Steve Diggle, guitarist with Buzzcocks
• Phil Lynott, lead singer of Thin Lizzy, grew up in the area, although born in West Bromwich
• Morrissey, vocalist, spent much of his childhood in Moss Side and neighbouring Hulme
• Remi Moses, footballer, West Bromwich Albion 1977-81, and Manchester United 1981-89
• Emmeline Pankhurst, leading British suffragist, born in Sloan Street
• Finley Quaye, vocalist, has been one of the faces in Moss Side since 1989, having lived in Hulme, Longsight and Levenshulme
• A Guy Called Gerald, producer and musician, grew up in Moss Side.
• Simon Webbe, formerly of boyband Blue

External links

• Gang Members named and shamed