Rusholme
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Rusholme is a part of Manchester, England, about two miles south of the city centre. Most of the housing consists of low-cost terraced houses, around 70-100 years old, although some larger houses exist to the east of the main road that runs through the centre in the Victoria Park neighbourhood. Rusholme was an independent town until incorporation into Manchester in 1885.
[edit] Place-name
Rusholme, unlike other areas of Manchester which have '-holme' in the place name is not a true '-holme'. Its name came from ryscum, which is the dative plural of Old English rysc "rush": "[at the] rushes". The name was recorded as Russum in 1235.
However, the suggestion of 'holme' in the name is appropriate, as the area is in low-lying land, close to areas like Hulme.
[edit] Cultural diversity
Rusholme is acclaimed as home of the largest number of Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) restaurants in the United Kingdom. This led Wilmslow Road to be dubbed the "Curry Mile". It is said that the Curry Mile has the largest concentration of Asian restaurants anywhere in the world outside the Indian Subcontinent; there are more than 70 curry houses and kebab shops on the road. The main street is part of the B5117 which includes the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. It also forms part of the busiest bus route in Europe[citation needed], with many bus stops being serviced by one bus from one of many different bus companies every 60 to 90 seconds during peak times. There are a number of purpose built student halls in the area, and a large number of students who rent privately. There is a large, mostly Islamic, immigrant community as well as a community of working class white English people (often of Irish descent).
[edit] Social geography
Over the Victorian era, there were several different socio-political meanings of Rusholme. Primarily, it was a township based around a general area known as Rusholme since at least the thirteenth century. A 1235 document gives the spelling of the area as ‘Russum’, a spelling which evolved with the English language over the next five hundred years . The meaning was ‘place of reeds’, indicating that it was probably largely swampland. The area grew into a township, and by the beginning of the nineteenth century, it had its own government responsible for public health, roads, policing, poor relief, and other local government tasks. That Rusholme was originally a politically autonomous entity was vital to its self-conception as a discrete area even after it lost almost all political self-control upon incorporation into Manchester. The spate of low-cost terraced housing erected between 1880 and 1930 dominates the landscape, as does a sprawling council housing estate erected in the interwar era.
[edit] Politics
The community is surrounded by Fallowfield to the south, Moss Side to the west, Victoria Park to the east and Chorlton-on-Medlock to the north. It is served in Westminster by the MP for Gorton (election results), currently the Rt Hon Sir Gerald Kaufman.
Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was married in a Rusholme church, Richard Cobden, William Royle, and Thomas Lowe were long-time residents.
Conservative Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw was for 26 years the town's representative on Manchester City Council before becoming Lord Mayor of Manchester from 1975-1976.
The councillors elected for the ward in 2004 were Abu Chowdhury, Paul Shannon and Lynne Williams.
[edit] Culture
Rusholme is home to Platt Fields Park. It was founded in the early 20th century on the grounds of the former Platt estate.
L. S. Lowry grew up there. John Ruskin gave the lectures later published as Sesame and Lillies (1865) at the Town Hall.
Rusholme was immortalised in the song Rusholme Ruffians by Manchester band The Smiths on their 1985 album Meat Is Murder. Additionally, Mint Royale's 1999 album On The Ropes contained a track entitled "From Rusholme With Love". This track was used as the dream sequence theme from the opening scenes of the Tom Cruise movie, Vanilla Sky.
Rusholme was the home of the first indoor ice skating rink in England, although this has been replaced by a grocery store. From 1947 to 1954 it was the home of Mancunian Film Studios, many of whose productions were filmed on local streets. In its early years the BBC's weekly music programme Top of the Pops was broadcast live from a disused church in Rusholme.
