In the early 1980s, several traditional and local industries were declining and many of them were closed under the radical economic restructuring often known as Thatcherism. “In the decade from 1979, when Mrs Thatcher applied ‘monetarism’,” said one commentator. “94 percent of all job losses occurred north of a line drawn from the Wash to the Severn. Of the manufacturing jobs lost, 70 percent were from the North.” The city, however, was also developed rapidly in the 1980s. On November 5, 1980, Manchester became a nuclear-free city. It was a progressive gesture but largely symbolic.
There were many physical changes in the eighties as well. The city center was contracted and became a shadow of its nineteenth-century self. The abandoned Central Station was converted into the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre (now Manchester Central) in 1982. It was also during this decade that Chinatown came into its own and the Gay Village eventually became reality instead of mere fantasy. The Museum of Science and Industry opened in 1983 and Castlefield was brought back to active life. Then came the opening of The Jewish Museum in 1984 and The Chinese Arts Centre in 1986. In order to renovate former warehouse areas and canal basins, The Central Manchester Development Corporation was created in 1988.
Take a look back at the city in the 1980s through 26 fascinating vintage snapshots from the Visual Resources Collection at Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections and Manchester Archives Plus:
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| Piccadilly Gardens, 1980 |
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| Central Station, 1980 |
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| Hollings Building, 1980 |
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| St Mary's Gate, 1980 |
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| View along St Mary's Gate towards Market Street, around 1980 |
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| Oxford Street Cinemas, 1982 |
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| Rotter's night club, formerly the Gaumont cinema on Oxford Street, 1982 |
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| Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, 1983 |
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| The Wellington Inn and Sinclair's Oyster Bar in Shambles Square, 1983 |
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| Shambles Square, 1983 |
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| St Ann's Square, 1984 |
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| Tib Street, 1984 |
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| Corner of Hilton Street, 1984 |
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| Demo, Albert Square, 1984 |
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| The Grosvenor Picture Palace building at All Saints, 1985 |
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| St Peter's Square Gardens, 1985 |
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| Manchester Arndale Centre, 1985 |
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| Manchester Arndale Centre, 1985 |
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| Manchester Arndale Centre, 1985 |
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| Demolition of flats on the HulmeMoss Side border, 1985 |
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| Piccadilly Gardens, 1986 |
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| Santa on Manchester Town Hall, 1986 |
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| Chinatown, 1987 |
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| The former Picture House cinema on Oxford Street, 1987 |
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| Rotter's night club, formerly the Gaumont cinema on Oxford Street, 1987 |
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| Market Street and the Arndale Centre, 1989 |