From 1840 onwards, particularly the next fifty years, the city's reputation, if anything, got worse. This was in part due to the flight of the wealthy classes to the suburbs, but the dehumanising living conditions of those left behind further contributed to manchester's descent into squalor and crime. 

large families were forced to live in damp, overcrowded rooms, where disease was rife and the life-expectancy of infants below the age of twelve months, amongst the worst in the country. 

Both men and women, on low incomes, sought temporary relief from bestial filthiness of their homes and workplaces, by pickling their brains with copious amounts of beer and gin. Troublesome children would be treated with a dose of laudanum. 

Drink was a contributory factor in the many cases of wife-beating and assault that came before the beak. It was a common sight to witness heavily-bandaged women testifying against brutish husbands. Most, however, simply suffered in silence. 

Life was particularly harsh for women. They were poorly paid, barred from many professions and often dependent on men in and out of work, many of whom preferred to hand their money over to publicans than the family purse. Given the choice between the long hours and hard graft of domestic servitude, factory work or life on the streets, thousands of women turned to prostitution to make ends meet. 

Join us for a journey to the grim realities of life, from the birth of the City (1853) to the true end of Victorian values (1914), in Manchester... the Sinister Side.