May 2012
3 posts
23 tags
Help with The Lost City Memories Project
I have a small request of you, my lovely readers, and that’s to help me spread the word about a project.
It’s all explained in the link but basically I’m trying to raise some funds so that I can try to turn my site, associated projects and tours into something more than it is. Something of a higher quality, more frequent, with more purpose, the chance to expand nationally and...
Northern Quarter Stories
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The wonderful Documentally came to visit to help out with the Northern Quarter...
April 2012
3 posts
6 tags
Boardman's Entry, and other alleyways
For a short stretch of the city centre it’s possible to bypass the crowds and the traffic and to walk across several pedestrian areas and finally down a series of alleyways. In fact you can walk almost traffic-free from Victoria station all the way to Lloyd Street, and in doing so you might spot some rather unusual artwork.
To walk this route you begin at Cathedral Gardens, down Cathedral...
inthemindofthebourgeoisreader asked: Hello Hayley, what happened to the piece you were writing about the post office murals? I've been waiting ages for that to pop up! :)
5 tags
Dodge Hill
with photos by Andrew Brooks
These days a modern urban environment often makes it difficult to realise the origins of a town, of how it was formed, why its location was vital to its survival or even to properly step back and see the lie of the land. Stockport thrived because of the standstone cliffs it was formed around and there’s plenty of evidence of this all around you to this day.
...
March 2012
2 posts
The House on Ship Canal House
There are two things of interest on this aerial shot of Ship Canal House on King Street. The first is one you can see quite clearly from street level if you crook your neck enough, and it’s a rather grand sculpture of Neptune.
Neptune, being the god of water and sea, is clearly a symbolic choice for the premises but it’s also a practical one. Neptune’s three-pronged fork that...
January 2012
2 posts
11 tags
Beneath Trafford Town Hall
with photos by Andrew Brooks
If you’d ever looked closely enough at the shrubbery around Talbot Road you may just have uncovered an emergency entrance to Trafford Town Hall’s cold war bunker.
The entrance, pictured above, led to a series of rooms and passageways with concrete walls and steel doors but is now just an open space devoid of any fixtures or fittings and, at the time of our...
The Onward Buildings
What on the face of things is a small commercial site on Deansgate, you’ll find a beautiful building complete with wrought iron balcony and decked out inside with personalised bottle green ceramics. Look above Topkapi and the model shop on the corner of Bootle Street and Deansgate and not only will you spot the golden sign bearing the name ‘Onward Building’ but below a tiny,...
November 2011
1 post
8 tags
Hulme Hippodrome
With photos by Andrew Brooks
Although you’d never know it from the rather dowdy, reclad exterior, inside this Hulme building you can time travel.
On October 10th 1901, exactly 110 years prior to our visit, the Hulme Hippodrome as it is now known opened its doors as a spectacular melodrama venue. Originally named the Grand Junction Theatre and Floral Hall (which explains the neighbouring pub;...
October 2011
1 post
5 tags
Lewis's
What we now know as the premises of Primark was originally built to house a Lewis’s Department store. By virtue of housing such a spectacular venture the building has some wonderful features that you wouldn’t expect to find when you’re fighting through the crowds on a sticky Saturday.
What’s hidden on the rooftop isn’t actually visible from the street but you can...
September 2011
3 posts
7 tags
Great Abel
Autumn in Manchester is one of my favourite times of the year for one reason only and that is the calendar of events. The Science Festival, Literature Festival, Food and Drink Festival, Comedy Festival, the Manchester Weekender and preceeding all of those, there’s the nationwide, National Heritage Open Days. And it’s that particular event which leads me the Town Hall.
There are 14...
12 tags
Godlee Observatory
The Godlee Observatory makes up part of the Sackville Building of UMIST on Sackville Street. It’s quite a large spectacle to overlook yet so many people are unaware of this treasure in the centre of the city.
The Sackville building itself is one of imense beauty, with fine details like intricate glass etchings of the building itself carved into the grand doorways. The building is by...
12 tags
Upper Walkways of Oxford Road
Wilson & Wormersley’s Oxford Road plans, 1960s
This time what we see when we look up isn’t so much an architectural quirk, nor is it an example of street art but it’s the ghost of an idea that was never executed.
At various points along Oxford Road, the education mile, you can find recesses at first floor level that were intended, one day, to be the connecting points of...
August 2011
3 posts
14 tags
John Street Birds
On John Street in the Northern Quarter, and around the corner on Tib Street, you may have spotted these ornamental birds and their neighbouring ceramic parrots. There’s no shortage of street art to be found in this area yet it’s surprising how few people know the motivation behind each installment.
As Manchester moved into the Victorian Era this particular area transformed from...
8 tags
Pear Mill
Began in 1907 and completed in 1912 by A.H Stott & Sons, this is Stockport’s Pear Mill. The mill is Grade II listed and was one of the last cotton spinning mills to be built and to go into production. It ceased operation as a textile mill in March 1978.
Although an usual feature to gaze upon now, the pear that nestles on the water tower wasn’t particularly out of character at...
July 2011
1 post
13 tags
The Thomas Street Pineapple
Thanks to Sam Newiss for the image.
This old building on Thomas Street, sometimes known as the Binks Building, is on one of the busiest corners of Manchester when it comes to nightlife. The current tenant is Odd Bar and the neighbours are a collection of bars, restaurants, secret cocktail lounges and traditional boozers. But as well as all this the area is steeped in history, art and culture...
May 2011
1 post
5 tags
Blank Pages
I’m featuring as this month’s highlighted blog over in issue 34 of Blank Pages.
The Blank Media Collective champion emerging artists and run some fantastic events; the creative writing group (that I only ever made it to once - shame on me!) is a great place to meet and motivate each other and if you can make it down or support these guys in any way then you truly are a lovely...
April 2011
2 posts
9 tags
The little men of Piccadilly
I was delighted to spot a little man, decked out in Alpine clothes and straw hat, catching some sunshine on the roof of 79 Piccadilly. Just around the corner, leaning on the balustrade, I discovered he had an identical friend. It was surprising to find that there’s no real information online about the figures and so I considered taking the story in another direction; talking about the O.K...
Words and Fixtures →
The wonderful Sarah-Clare Conlon has been kind enough to mention me on her award winning blog Words and Fixtures
If you’re involved in the writing scene in Manchester then you’ll almost certainly know her, mainly because she’s brilliant and knows more than a thing or two about language and literature.
If you don’t know her then go and check out her blog, or see if she can...
March 2011
3 posts
6 tags
Piccadilly Mirror Ball
Thanks to Ian Pattinson for the image
If you look up to the roof of what was Piccadilly 21 nightclub you might find yourself dazzled by the light. Up there is a giant disco ball. It’s mounted on a strange metal plinth that holds the surrounding spotlights steady and looks like a space age egg about to hatch.
You might also notice that of the six floors, only one storey is currently in use. The...
6 tags
Thoroughly Modern Winnie
To celebrate International Women’s Day this is an article for the Modernist Heroines edition of (the wonderful) Shrieking Violets, in association with the Manchester Modernist Society and the Loiterer’s Resistance Movement.
Read the full zine by picking up a copy at the Town Hall this Sunday, or online here
embroidered zine cover by Rosa Martyn
At just 22 Winifred Brown became...
7 tags
Big Boys Toy
How did I miss this? I mean, I walk around town often enough and like to think I know Manchester quite well. I am always on the lookout for the Space Invaders that are hidden about town so I do routinely cast my eyes vertically yet I’ve come to realise that I rarely bother to look up beyond the height of say, a first floor window.
The twelve metre high tower that straddles the NCP car park is Big...
February 2011
1 post
6 tags
The Epicure Ate Egg
I’m sure at some point most of us have experienced some sort of culinary epiphany; salt and vinegar crisps and a mouthful of milky chocolate or maybe something more savoury? Super Noodles tucked into a slice of bread, for instance. For Ben Holden a pickled egg, a nibble of black pudding and a handful of Seabrook’s paved the way for a much more gourmet delight; the reanimation of the Fortnum and...