Hulme Arch....

The roughty toughty suburb of Hulme, just south of city centre Manchester on the airport road, has had three incarnations in many people's living memories. First there was the old Victorian suburb with rows of tiny houses, cheek by jowl. The Victorians, who lavished so much time and care and money on their grand projects in the city centre didn't spend near enough time or money on the houses of the working people, who built them and phsically created the wealth, here in Hulme.

That was all swept away and a huge estate of deck access flats, built in concrete, was erected. Exposed concrete and the Manchester climate have never seen eye to eye and the area quickly deteriorated into a crime ridden, no-go area. That was swept away and the Hulme we have today was built. I think we are still paying off the loans on the middle incarnation of Hulme. The latest incarnation is not at all bad.

And it's set to develop further with a huge project to build four skyscrapers of apartments. The largest will be a 200m tower that will be the tallest building in the city by 2020, stealing the Hilton Tower's crown.

My family have an interest in this area as this was where we came from originally. My grandfather was brought up in a tiny house just under the student hall of residence in the picture. When the archaeologists went in before these halls were built we took him in to see what they were doing. The archaeologists were pleased to meet him as he could explain how the houses functioned. He was a kind of living fossil. No hot water, outside toilet...our family have come on amazingly in a couple of generations living in comfort in leafy suburbia.

Hulme has changed a lot as well. Here it is in its present incarnation looking leafy and green itself.