'Everyone knew and looked after each other': Manchester's lost estate where people would go back to live 'in a heartbeat'

A housing estate remembered for the way "every one looked after each other" met a sad end as part an extensive programme of city-wide demolition.

Brook House was a housing estate made up of over 400 flats, built in West Gorton shortly before World War Two broke out. Early newspaper references to the estate can be found in an advertisement in the Manchester Evening News dated October 1939, advertising vacant shop premises at "the new block of flats known as 'Brook House,' in Gorton Lane".

Impressive in size, the blocks of four-storey flats were part of a self-contained estate in what was then a heavily industrialised part of the city. Separated by Gardner Street, a neighbouring but smaller group of flats was built at the same time called Surrey and Hartland Gardens.

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Photos of the estate held in the Manchester Libraries archive show the imposing housing blocks, dignified by a large archway that suggests a fortress-like appearance in parts. But pitched roofs and tall chimney stacks softened its appearance – a contrast to the alien modernism of later estates, perhaps most oppressively realised by Fort Ardwick.

The chimney stacks were a necessary feature for the expulsion of smoke from the coal fires used to heat the estate's hundreds of homes. Large bags of coal would regularly be brought up and their contents poured down the coal hole for storage.

The ground floor of one of the blocks was taken up by a shopping precinct, while smack in the middle of the estate was a public wash house – later a laundrette. The superintendent's office was also part of the wash house building – a title given to the estate's caretaker, handyman and rent collector.

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