Challenging Domesticity in Britain, 1890-1990

AHRC Network Challenging Domesticity Workshop One: The Deviant Home

Manchester was uncharacteristically sunny for the first workshop of the AHRC Network Challenging Domesticity. The theme focussed on ‘the deviant home’ and we met at the Pankhurst Centre, home of the Pankhurst family, 1898-1907 and where the first meeting of the militant and deviant suffragettes took place. The AHRC Network funding has allowed us to forge a new partnership between the University of Manchester and the Pankhurst Centre, which is key to our intellectual aims of the project. We are particularly interested in thinking of the home as a site of action and the mutually constitutive relationship between domestic space and a range of forms of behaviours. Bringing together scholars in fields that have overlooked the importance of domestic space – crime, activism, and care – and by drawing on an interest in the locality, we plan to establish a new rationale for investigating the history of domesticity in Britain.

Workshop One at The Pankhurst Centre.

Our first workshop took place over two days with the first with a scholarly focus on discussions on the ‘deviant home’ and the second with an emphasis on public engagement, knowledge transfer and research impact. Day one saw a fabulous range of speakers on topics that included domestic crime scene photographs; surveillance of criminal homes and families; policy and probation. We discussed the challenges of defining what we meant by ‘domesticity’ and the legal discourse that attempted to deal with the slipperiness of the criminal home. On day two, we were delighted to welcome some PGR and ECR delegates to join our audience and we were fortunate to have contributions from Ruth Singer from the Criminal Quilts project and Safina Islam from the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre. We also had sessions from a range of academics talking about their public engagement work, including a very honest discussion about what has worked and what hasn’t. Finally, the fabulous Tessa Chynoweth, manager and curator of the Pankhurst Centre, talked about the varied and fascinating history of the Pankhurst house and some of their ongoing redevelopment plans.

It was a very stimulating and regarding workshop that has helped us reshape our conceptual framework around the ‘deviant home.’ We were thrilled to bring together such a vibrant and engaging range of speakers and it was certainly one of the most positive and enriching academic meetings that it might be possible to create. Now we look forward to our next events…

A catwalk parade held aboard the Cunard liner Franconia during Liverpool’s Civic Week. (Photo by Brooke/Getty Images)

In 1925, a mannequin parade of young women dressed in the latest fashions (a precursor to catwalk shows) took place on the Cunard liner Franconia as it docked in Liverpool. As the image shows, a model in an evening gown and fur-collared coat braved the Liverpool autumnal climate in front of a crowd of cloche-hatted, fashionably dressed women as sailors busily maintained the ship around them. The event also included numerous models parading in flapper evening gowns, smiling for the camera and eager to please the crowd of women. Pathé footage  shows the event also included the slightly odd feature of a female model wearing a model ship for a hat and a model of the world around her middle, flanked by two (rather bored looking) costumed children.

The parade occurred as part of Liverpool’s Civic Week 1925, the second hosted by the city and the first in Liverpool itself (after it hosted a week at Wembley Exhibition Hall in 1924). Manchester followed and hosted its own Civic Week in 1926, anxious not to lag behind its great rival Liverpool. The mannequin parade was a slightly surreal attempt to merge the city’s civic identity, focussing on Liverpool’s long history as a successful port, with the new cultures of consumerism that were emerging in the city, and such events took place in conjunction with the big department stores, such as Lewis’s and George Henry Lee’s. Crucially, as the image makes clear, these events targeted the woman citizen, identified by the local state as an agent of economic regeneration through their role as shoppers as consumers.

The image encapsulates the key claims of my new book, Urban Redevelopment and Modernity in Liverpool and Manchester, 1918-1939. Both cities responded to economic instability and political instability after the First World War by investing in ambitious programmes of urban redevelopment. Redevelopment was heavily publicised in the local press and through promotional events, such as Civic Weeks. Local politicians and planners in Liverpool and Manchester displayed innovative approaches to urban governance and strong cultures of civic pride, not usually associated with the post-1918 period. Consequently, new forms of consumer and religious cultures emerged and the book focuses on the ways in which business owners and Catholic leaders embraced urban redevelopment to foster new forms of urban modernity.

As the image suggests, the book is especially interested in how these new forms of urban culture changed women’s experiences of Liverpool and Manchester. The mannequin parade brought together women’s role as shoppers with the new forms of showy civic cultures that sought to engage citizens and distract attention from ongoing problems of unemployment, poverty, and the appeal of political extremism. Whereas urban historians tend to focus on architects, planners, and politicians in accounts of urban development, the book suggests women’s roles in urban life needs greater attention. The mannequin parade on board the Franconia may seem surreal but it reflected a new form of civic pride that reflected the unique conditions of the post-1918 period.

Historians usually focus on male architects, planners, and politicians in accounts of urban redevelopment and regeneration. During 1920s in northern cities such as Liverpool and Manchester, however, female politicians and civic patriots had an important influence in shaping urban culture. In 1927, for instance, Margaret Beavan became the first woman to hold the position of Lord Mayor of Liverpool. During her time as mayor, Beavan presided over grand and ambitious civic celebrations, such as the opening of Gladstone Dock in 1928. Beavan presided over the city’s Civic Week of 1928, a large and ambitious civic celebration that transformed the city into an exhibition, where she declared that ‘civic pride was good citizenship.’

Margaret Beavan presided  over important civic celebrations, including the ceremonial launches of new ocean liners and the opening of Gladstone Docks

Yet typically, Beavan’s contributions remained understood in gendered terms and her image as Little Mother of Liverpool and became strongly associated with her commitment to child welfare and maternal health. Although important, this legacy has overshadowed the important contribution she made to local government and civic pride at a time of economic and political turbulence.

Perhaps better known was Lady Sheena Simon of Wythenshawe who, along with her husband Ernest, donated the land to Manchester Council to build the Wythenshawe Estate  in 1926. A committed socialist, Simon founded the Manchester Branch of the Women Citizens’ Association, which aimed to encourage women’s active political participation once they suffrage was granted. Simon was committed to improving the living conditions of Manchester’s inhabitants, campaigned for better secondary education, and emphasised the importance of a strong local government.

Lady Simon in 1920

Simon was not afraid to publicly criticise the local council or its citizens and, in her book A Hundred Years of City Government, Manchester 1838-1938, Simon wrote that she hoped Manchester’s centenary anniversary of incorporation would ‘inspire citizens with courage to go ahead with the task of re-moulding Manchester nearer to their hearts’ desire.’ Yet Sheena’s commitment and civic passion has been overshadowed by her husband: Lord Simon was MP for Liberal Party, Withington, 1923-1924, and again, 1929-1931, a member of Manchester City Council, 1911-1925 and Chairman of the Housing Committee, 1919-1923, he became Lord Mayor of Manchester in 1921.

Beavan and Simon are important examples of the important ways in which women contributed to vibrant urban cultures in cities such as Liverpool and Manchester. They demonstrate the influential political roles women held locally and shows the range of contributions they made to public life. Yet, Beavan and Simon’s contributions remain overshadowed by male politicians and their histories point to the importance in drawing attention to women’s stories, which still remain hidden from history.

In June 2014, Chancellor George Osborne visited Manchester and announced the need for a ‘Northern Powerhouse’, his prestige investment project to redress the North-South economic imbalance. His speech evoked a well-worn stereotype of depressed and decaying northern cities that represented parochial outposts in comparison to economically-diverse and forward-thinking metropolis that had their roots in the early twentieth-century. For example, George Orwell’s accounts of working-class life in Wigan and Carl Jung’s vision of ‘dirty, sooty’ Liverpool where ‘everything was extremely unpleasant, black and opaque’, are typical of how we often think about these cities.

It is true that these northern cities experienced higher levels of poverty and unemployment during the twentieth-century and particularly after 1918: whereas London’s official unemployment rate stood at 12% in 1932, the peak of the interwar economic depression, it reached nearly 27% in the North-West of England and approached 30% in the North-East. As the old, staple industries such as coal, steel, cotton and shipbuilding collapsed dramatically in England’s industrial heartlands, the new light industries, such as the factories manufacturing consumer durables like radios and washing machines, emerged in the South-East and the Midlands. Local politicians were worried about political instability and the impact of economic decline.

Yet these problems overshadow the level of dynamism and ambition displayed by local politicians during the 1920s and 1930s in cities like Liverpool and Manchester in response to unemployment and economic decline. In particular, they invested in ambitious programmes of urban redevelopment that sought to improve the local economy and make local inhabitants feel more confident in the politicians’ ability to govern. For example, Manchester Corporation invested in the Wythenshawe Estate, one of the largest and ambitious council housing estates, new civic buildings such as Manchester Central Library and the Town Hall Extension, as well as expanding the tram network. Liverpool built the Mersey Tunnel to boost trade, worked hard to publicise the city abroad to boost the economy and pioneered extensive civic celebrations.

Local politicians, planners and businessmen in Liverpool and Manchester responded to the challenges and regional economic imbalance after 1918 with great ambition. The monograph demonstrates that the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ existed far earlier and that the negative twentieth-century images of these cities needs to be readdressed.