Salford at 100: what a city built on community can teach us

Salford has changed beyond recognition in the last 100 years.

The docks have become MediaCity. Old industrial buildings now sit beside glass towers. Creative and technology industries are booming, and investment continues to reshape the city.

But for many people, Salford’s identity has never really been about buildings.

It’s about the people, the community.

Long before regeneration projects arrived, Salford was built on working-class communities surviving hard times together. People shared what they had, looked after neighbours and found ways to keep going, even when money was tight.

That spirit is something Sarah Emmott, founder of the Salford-based arts organisation Art with Heart, believes still defines the city today.

“The thing about Salford is that we share our nothing. If we’ve got nothing, we’ll still share it.”

As Salford celebrates 100 years since becoming a city, we spoke to Sarah about poverty, working-class identity, vulnerable communities and why creativity should never be reserved for people who can afford it.

“I should never have been a southerner”

Although Sarah grew up in the south, she says Salford always felt like home.

“I always say I accidentally grew up in the South because I should never have been a Southerner,” she laughed.

Her family are from Salford, and childhood visits left a lasting impression.

“People always laugh because I spent my school holidays in Salford.”

From an early age, she knew she wanted to live there permanently.

“From the age of about four, apparently I said to my mum, ‘I’m going to live in Salford with my cousin when I’m older.’ And the second that I was old enough, I was like, ‘I’m gone.’ I’ve never gone back.”

For Sarah, Salford’s identity is rooted in working-class solidarity and shared experience.

“Even when you don’t have everything you need, you might have nothing, but you have everything because you’re all connected.”

Growing up without money

Sarah says her own experiences shaped the mission behind Art with Heart.

“Being founded by a working-class, neurodivergent person, that lived experience is a driver for us.”

She remembers relying heavily on neighbours and school support while growing up.

“Growing up, I was clothed by my next door neighbour. We got food from the school that sent me home with a little pack of dinner.”

Those experiences taught her resilience and resourcefulness early on.

“I’ve been helping my mum ration things and make money spread since I was a kid.”

Sarah believes working-class people often develop practical skills that are overlooked.

“You should always have a working-class person in charge of the budget because I’ve been budgeting my entire life.”

She also spoke openly about the barriers many working-class people face entering the arts or setting up businesses.

“People like at my school didn’t talk about further education or university or building your own business. None of that stuff existed.”

“I didn’t know what an invoice was. I didn’t know what a UTR was. I didn’t know what self-employed meant.”

For many people from low-income backgrounds, opportunities can feel hidden behind invisible doors.

“No one gives it to you, so you have to go out and find it. But it’s really difficult because you don’t know where to look.”

Why working-class voices matter

Sarah believes working-class people bring valuable lived experience and perspectives that are often missing from leadership and decision-making.

“There are loads of skills that working-class people have in their bones that we’re not given credit for because we’re not given opportunities.”

“People on the ground are the people feeling it and fundamentally understanding what they need, not someone in a suit in an office doing a spreadsheet.”

Art with Heart was created in direct response to those barriers.

Creativity should not depend on income

At the centre of Art with Heart’s work is a simple belief: creativity should not be a luxury.

“Accessing creative sessions and anything creative often comes with a price tag, and that can be really difficult when actually accessing it not only brings skill, but it brings joy.”

That’s why the organisation works hard to keep projects free.

“I actually think 100% of what we offered last year was free to access.”

The team works with food banks, care-experienced young people, LGBTQ+ groups, people experiencing homelessness, survivors of domestic abuse and residents struggling with isolation or poor mental health.

Sarah says removing financial pressure changes the atmosphere completely.

“It’s really important to us that every single person, no matter what your financial position is, can enter that space feeling like we’ve all come through the same door.”

For many participants, the projects become about far more than art. They create friendships, confidence and support networks that continue long after workshops end.

“This friendship has really saved my life”

One story in particular has stayed with Sarah.

Two men met through an Art with Heart community project despite living near each other for years without ever speaking.

Within weeks, they had formed a close friendship and began meeting almost every day.

Months after the sessions ended, they were still regularly meeting to chat and make things together.

“One of the guys said, ‘This friendship that we’ve got, we didn’t know each other six weeks ago, and now we see each other every other day.’”

And that relationship became life-changing.

“He said that friendship has really saved my life, in a really not overdramatic way. He was like, ‘This has really shifted things for me in my mental health.’”

Sarah believes creativity allows people to connect in ways everyday life often no longer does.

“Being creative is a vulnerable space. Once you make something together, the bond is stronger because you’ve been through that process together.”

Salford’s next 100 years

Today’s Salford looks very different from the city Ewan MacColl wrote about in Dirty Old Town more than 70 years ago.

But beneath the redevelopment and investment, many of the same values remain: resilience, mutual support and community pride.

For organisations like Art with Heart, creativity is not simply about painting, theatre or performance. It’s about tackling isolation, rebuilding confidence and making sure low-income and vulnerable people are not excluded from joy, culture or opportunity.

Because ultimately, Salford’s future may not be defined by buildings or investment figures, but by the strength of the communities continuing to hold the city together.

As Sarah puts it:

“If we know each other, we’re together.”