The population density of Angel Meadow in the mid-19th century was in excess of 350 per acre,[3] and as social and living conditions worsened some resorted to digging up the cemetery and selling its soil as fertilizer to nearby farmers.
A railway viaduct traversed Angel Meadow, whilst the obnoxious smells from the Irk and Irwell and the Gould street gas works darkened the landscape.
The mixture was ladled further by aromas from the tannery, the dyeworks, the iron foundry, the brewery, the tripe works and rotting vegetation from the Smithfield market, all added together with the neighborhood’s fried fish and bad sanitation smells, one would agree that the cauldron of Angel Meadow was indeed a potent brew.
[5]Ragged schools, such as Charter Street and Sharp Street, and other institutes for abandoned, destitute and neglected children, flourished in the area:Each winter, thousands of poor, helpless children are provided with food, clogs and clothing; and every Sunday morning during the season, hundreds of destitute men and women are served with breakfast; and we try, by God’s help and the bestowal of a word of comfort and cheer, to arouse in them a feeling of hope which may lead them to a higher and noble life.
[6]Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker and historian, best known for his Democracy in America (two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856), explored the effects of the rising inequalities in social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies; he visited Manchester in 1835, describing it in his work of the same year Journeys to England And Ireland.
The Flags became known for hosting prostitutes, street entertainers, Cock fights and bare knuckle brawls, with gathered crowds gambling on the competitions, in the second half of the 19th century.
[8] The Royal Geographical Society Discovering Britain series of walks: Slums, Squalor and Salvation guides people around the park and wider neighbourhood.
[7] In August 2012, BBC television broadcast scenes of the area as part of Michael Wood's The Great British Story: A People's History (Episode 8 Industry & Empire).