Thursday,
February 07, 2008
Italians Influence in
The
ANNOTICO Report
We
often forget how many "Little Italys" there
are in England alone, in addition to those in Canada , Australia, Brazil,
Argentina, and of course the USA, but there are few countries that
Italian Immigration has not touched.
Ancoats,
Ancoats: Our
Paul Taylor
January 30, 2008
The ramshackle
city streets are full of the sights, sounds and smells of
Dotted among the tumbledown streets are delicatessens selling pasta, olive oil
and garlic-infused sausage.
It is the start of the 20th century and this could so easily be a scene from
the urban melting pot of New York. But, no, this is Little Italy, Ancoats, Manchester - nestling at the edge of the city
centre, where Oldham Road meets Great Ancoats Street,
and home, at its height, to around 2,000 people of Italian extraction.
The story of how Little
Slum
"Ancoats was a slum with lots of back-to-back
houses, so it was a cheap place to live," says Susie Elliott, a
project officer at the museum. "The houses mostly had cellars which made
perfect workshops for setting up your own business. A lot started making ice
cream or manufacturing barrel pianos. There was the
Before
the Italians arrived, Ancoats had been home to many
Irish people, but had a terrible reputation for drink, violence and crime.
"The Irish blended well with the Italian community and crime started to
die down," says Elliott. "The Italians introduced traditions which
weren't based around alcohol and were very church-orientated. They had lots of
societies, and it brought the area up. There are a couple of really early
It's hardly surprising the
Italians were so well-regarded; they brought us so many of the good things of
life - ice cream, music, food and the marbled finery of many iconic buildings.
The exhibition will include the statue of the Madonna, still carried in the
Whit walks, an old ice cream hand cart, and a football medal presented to an
Italian-Mancunian team in
Among the
enduring stories of Little Italy is the rags-to-riches tale of accordion
player Rudi Mancini, born in
"The best story is Domenico Rea, known as
But
A campaign is
still being waged for an official apology. "The ironic thing is that
the sons of the Italian immigrants were all serving in the British Army, but
their fathers had all been interned," says Tony Rea, author of the
book
Ice Cream Wars
After the war,
Today, aside from the odd business bearing an Italian name, the only reminder
of a once-thriving community in Ancoats is the
annual Whit Walk, attended by over 1,000 people. The walk begins from St
Michael's Church, itself closed in 2004 because of dwindling attendances.
The pride of the Mancunian-Italians lives on, though.
Tony Rea, aged 45, worked in his family's ice cream business until seven years
ago, and holds dual Italian and British citizenship even though he is the
second generation of his family to be born in this country. He visits
"I tend to take the best bits of the British and the Italian ways of life
and mix t he two together," he says. "I eat Italian food every
night."
Ancoats:
The
ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:
Italia
Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com (3 years)
Annotico
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