Why New Islington?
The "Cardroom Estate" wasn’t much more than 30 years old. The "Cardroom", the room where spun cotton from the great Ancoats Mills was 'carded', became the name for this area of the city 30 years ago (when it was last redeveloped!). It was home to many of the people who worked in the cotton mills - their sons and daughters live here today and have long memories.
The late seventies redevelopment of the area swept away the slums, and provided a modern standard of new homes (modern for those days). The problem was, there wasn’t enough of them and the layout of the area isolated it from its surroundings.
There were no through roads and many of the homes did not face streets, there was little definition between public and private space and the area was difficult to police. Many people moved away and those who stayed felt increasingly marginalised - shops had insufficient custom to stay open, pubs closed and the final blow was the closure of the primary school due to lack of numbers.
It was clear that a radical solution was needed to reverse this spiral of decline. Following consultation with the remaining residents about the way forward, it was agreed that a bid should be made to government for the area to become the UK's third Millennium Community. The bid was made in January and we had to wait until July 2002 before we got the green light, but we did and the whole process kicked off.
One of the first tasks everyone agreed on was the need to dump the Cardroom name and all its associations, so we asked for suggestions for a new name. We got everyone involved to vote on their preferences. The majority voted for New Islington - an interesting choice - it has nothing to do with that posh place Tony Blair lived in before No 10, it is about returning to the area's roots. Before it was renamed The Cardroom, it was always called New Islington, it’s called that on the 1840 ordnance survey and clues of this past remained in a street name.
