Brian Redhead Court As the Mancunian Way
passes through Hulme, a large, red-brick, Edwardian
school building looms up on the south side of
the road. On closer examination you discover
that this former school, and the small collection of
buildings beside it, are in fact Brian Redhead Court,
a residential complex belonging to University of
Manchester. The University describes it as
follows: "Brian Redhead Court is for postgraduate,
partner and family accommodation. Residence consists
of 64 flats in two blocks, there are 3 three-bedroomed
flats, suitable for families with up to three or four
young children. There are 33 two-bedroomed flats
suitable for families with two young children and 28
one-bedroomed flats suitable for families with a baby
or couples without children Flats are situated
about a mile from the University of Manchester and
within easy reach of the city centre."
The "court" is named in
honour of Brian Redhead who was a British author,
journalist and broadcaster, who died in 1994.
During his career he was a regular on Radio 4's "Today"
programme. He began his journalism career with the
Manchester Guardian and went on to be its northern
editor in 1965. He became the editor of the
Manchester Evening News in 1969.
 As the plaque above
states the school was the 48th Municipal School opened
in Manchester. Its memorial stone was laid in
1908. The Manchester Central Library's image
database has photographs of the school in 1954 where it
is described as the "North Hulme Secondary Modern
School". However, the building suggests that it
had different roles during its life. On the west
side of the building the entrance says "Boys" but on the
eastern side it says "Girls" and "Infants" which
suggests that at some point it catered for primary and
secondary children.
    Beside the old school
there is a newer building that has been sympathetically
designed to fit with the older structure.
 Old photographs and maps of the area indicate that a church once stood on that site. This was St. Stephen's and St Mark's Church which was founded in 1865. The church closed in 1978 and was obviously demolished. Below you can see them on a map of 1935. I have coloured them red.  You can see the church and the school by clicking on the links below. North
Hulme Secondary Modern School
The image below
shows the school in the top left corner. The
photograph was taken after the demolition of the
church and prior to the building of the residential
block that replaced it. The date is after
1971, because it includes the Hulme Crescents that
were built in 71, but before 1991, because that is
when the crescents were demolished.
 The image above is
shown with the generous permission of BlomAerofilms
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