Brunswick at 10: Ross Hemmings

This interview comes from Ross Hemmings, who works at S4B to manage Brunswick's neighbourhood and has worked on the project since its conception.

What was your role at Brunswick? How did this change and evolve over the decade?

Manchester City Council had previously been in charge of Brunswick but S4B took over in 2014. My work started as community regeneration with a focus on the social and economic impact of the area and has since evolved to be more of a community management role. At the start of the project, a huge amount of time was spent moving residents as their houses got demolished and renovated. We wanted to try to keep these people in the local area to disrupt their lives as little as possible.

Our offices are located in Brunswick so it was incredible to see the work evolve over the decade and be right there in the middle of it all. I think this has also helped us communicate with the residents who have watched the entire neighbourhood change too. For example, those in the maisonettes have sat through demolitions, new roads, refurbishments and new houses. But now they’ve seen the end result, it all makes it worth it.

How would you describe the community in Brunswick?

It’s such an incredibly diverse and welcoming community. And it’s just interesting – it’s hard to describe it. There are over 36 languages spoken in Brunswick. It’s a really global community. There’s also a big Chinese community from Hong Kong. They’ve settled in Brunswick because there are so many opportunities for work and leisure in the centre whilst still feeling like they’re in a suburban neighbourhood.

The community are involved in Brunswick too – and has been involved since its conception. They had a say in the bidding process to hire contractors and have been part of consultations throughout to shape the design of the area.

The Residents’ Association (RA) was created by the residents themselves and S4B have the job of supporting them without interfering. It works well for everyone because the RA works as a collective voice to report back to S4B on any opinions and ideas they may have. The Association now even run some of the facilities in Brunswick like the community space in the extra-care facility.

What celebrations have you been a part of for the 10th anniversary?

Celebrating ten years at Brunswick felt like a really momentous thing. We hosted a summer event with local partners and residents and screened a short film. But we didn’t just want to throw a party. We wanted the celebration to be an ongoing thing – for residents to get involved and contribute.

We first commissioned an artist called Dave Draws to paint a mural in the extra-care facility. The mural is a map of Manchester with significant landmarks, both old and new. In the extra-care facility, we also framed photos taken by staff and residents.

We’re currently working on a community calendar with photos from Brunswick residents collating their photos from their experience of living in Brunswick. The calendar will be given out to residents and partner organisations.

There is such a diverse representation of people from all different cultures at Brunswick. Is there something other neighbourhoods should be doing to encourage this?

As I mentioned before with the Residents Association, the people here are incredibly involved. There are so many reasons for the amount of community cohesion here that it’s hard to narrow it down to one or two reasons. I think the best advice I could give would be to create and support local groups and organisations to bring people together. The allotment society started two years before the actual allotment was created.

These people were from different places, maybe spoke different languages, had completely different jobs, and had one thing in common to bring them together. But it worked.