Salmon Cabs/ Sam Sams

Hulme Manchester

Infotaining article on the legendary SamSams formerly home of Salmon Cabs Hulme Manchester

Late night Caribbean nyam

 

Many a late weekend night/ early Sunday morning in the late 80s, my partner would drive us both over to Salmon Cabs for a munchies-inspired scran of Caribbean takeaway.

We lived on Freeman Walk so it was only a 10-minute walk away but at 3am we didn’t feel like making the effort by foot. A jump into our Mini Cooper with its racing stripes, clad only in our Saturday clubbing clothes – thermal layer optional and we raced down Bonsall St, a sharp right at the junction opposite the MacDougall Centre then skidding to a swift halt behind various parked Salmon cars waiting for a fare.

It was bright, cosy and comforting under the takeaway lights and vague hum from its glass-warming cabinets filled with Patties and dumplings. There wasn’t usually a queue then but after all-night raves at The Kitchen started apace, the place became heaving with locals, students, ravers and Rastas.

We ordered ackee saltfish an rice& peas with extra dumplings. Plus portions of carrot cake and homemade Irish Moss / Guinness punch for a late tipple back at home. The video at home was loaded with Ealing Comedies readying for our return wid da goodies and sometimes a few hungry mates from upstairs hanging around after hours with tales to tell.

When you weren’t under siege from chancers in your flats then Hulme was great indoors – floor to ceiling windows, balcony, 3-beds and a fab night out to local jaunts as well. I enjoyed my time across the bridge as squatter and tenant and met the Dogs of Heaven – a Hulme-based Performance Circus Theatre group led by Mike Mayhew who I knew from my dancer dayz in M20 in the early 80s.

I was a photographer/ Cine-8/ VJ/ Soundscape artist and easily slotted in to Dogs of Heaven, making visuals for their last performance – SAFE AS HOUSES – about the demolition of Hulme flats. SEE BELOW 🧨

Hulme will RISE again

My favourite apocryphal Hulme story among many involves a Manchester University Arts student who had been given an expensive miniature painting by her art auctioneer -father who worked at Christie’s art auction. It was a small Picasso and she hung it in her lounge along with her paintings and curios.
She was burgled and thieves stole white goods – toaster, washing machine, hifi sounds system, kettle, coffeemaker, fridge/freezer.
When she returned to her Hulme flat it was nearly empty except for her pictures on the wall including the expensive Picasso miniature… the thieves were not art lovers but ignorant locals intent on the next free fix of drugs probably heroin which was ravaging the UK at the time. Many heroin addicts had been given Hulme flats because the area was rundown and families had been moved further out due to the bad social conditions and housing decay.
But the Manchester students populations loved the area – cheap, airy and bohemian filled with art, design and drama graduates, travellers and musicians.
I lived there while finishing a 3-year Arts degree in industrial Sheffield- an hour away by train across the Peaks or a fast drive along the Snake Pass with breathtaking scenery covered in gorse and heather and the sight of random wild sheep on a crag.
I returned to Hulme most weekends walking home from the train station along Oxford Rd past the Students Union and whole foods cooperative and a famous second-hand shop selling musical instruments and castoff technology for a cheaper price. Through All-Saints Park and past The Salvation pub or via the bus route past The Royal Northern College Of Music which delineated the edge of Hulme and where I saw Sun-Ra, John Zorn and Pharaoh Saunders performances at various occasions.
This was my Hulme – edgy, avant- garde, chill and cheap, surrounded by motorways, pubs and churches.