Moving out of the city and to the North the districts of Cheetham Hill, Blackley, Crumpsall and Harpurhey are found. They form the western side of North Manchester but are never referred to as such as West Manchester is really Salford.

Cheetham Hill is a vibrant busy area teeming with business and life. It has a large immigrant community made up of Irish, Jewish and Asian families. The mix gives the area a bustling facade and there always seems to be something happenening. It’s a little run down nowadays, but in the past was considered one of Manchester’s better areas, away as it was from the grimy city centre. Investment is being made in the area to update the housing stock, but it’s to be hoped that the character of the area isn’t wiped out.

Blackley was in old times a rural area of Manchester, and was up until the 1930s when land was needed for housing. It houses Boggart Hole Clough, a park popular with the residents of North Manchester and on its border lies Heaton Park, Europes largest municipal park. The district is often mispronounced. The first syllable is pronounced “Blake” and not “Black”.

Largely simialr to both Cheetham and Blackley, Crumpsall was a rather isolated rural retreat for the richer of Manchester’s inhabitants in Victorian times. Nowadays it is largely a working class suburb. It is notable for two institutions, Crumpsall Hospital and the Abraham Moss Centre. Crumpsall Hospital is nowadays known as North Manchester General and is housed in a sprawling site based around the imposing Victorian workhouse. The Abraham Moss Centre is a school, library, swimming baths, gymnasium and sports hall amongst other faciliities. Abraham Moss was a local Jewish businessman who helped to set up the King David school.

Like most of the districts of North Manchester, Harpurhey was a rural suburb for many years. It didn’t last as industry and housing for the swelling city were brought in. The area is being improved greatly after it had the dubious (although entirely incorrect) title of England’s worst area a few years ago.