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Created 19-Nov-12
Modified 19-Nov-12
Visitors 156
5 photos
The River Irk is a small tributary of the River Irwell in Manchester. Originally on the surface it has been subsumed by the construction of Manchester Victoria Railway Station in the 19th century. The pictures shows a drainage system from Long Millgate into the Irk beneath Victoria Station. 1973

There is a video version of the exploration at http:/​/​youtu.​be/​7Q1aW0vUQ1Q

The Irk infamously was one of the most polluted and disease-ridden rivers in the world during the 18th and 19th century and feature in "The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes employed in the cotton manufacture in Manchester" by James Phillips Kay 1832. It is no coincidence that Engel's was greatly influenced by what he saw around the Irk in Manchester, collaborating later with Marx on the communist manifesto in 1842.

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Keywords:communism, disease, friedrich engels, irwell, james P kay, karl marx, lancashire, manchester, manchester victoria station, pollution, poverty, river irk, rivers, tunnels, victorians

HRS 3887 Manchesterm Irk Tunnel beneath Victoria Station

HRS 3887 Manchesterm Irk Tunnel beneath Victoria Station

HRS 3889 Manchester, Irk sloping bank beneath Victoria Station

HRS 3889 Manchester, Irk sloping bank beneath Victoria Station

HRS 3890 Manchester, Irk sough tunnel arch

HRS 3890 Manchester, Irk sough tunnel arch

HRS 3891 Manchester, Irk sough chisel marks

HRS 3891 Manchester, Irk sough chisel marks

HRS 3892 Manchester, Irwell, Irk confluence near Victoria Station approach 1980

HRS 3892 Manchester, Irwell, Irk confluence near Victoria Station approach 1980