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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