My second recent visit out at dawn took me to the area around Manchester Piccadilly Station. It’s a difficult area to photograph, being slightly chaotic in its layout. Looking at the departure board in a time when our travel is restricted I felt such a strong urge to visit places I’d not normally consider spending a day in. You can read the text, see images and listen to audio recorded whilst there by clicking this link
PICCADILLY STATION 04.22AM April 2020 LISTEN TO DAWN AUDIO FROM PICCADILLY Manchester Piccadilly comes into view not long after the London Road has bent under the Mancunian Way, on the way in from Ardwick. This terminus station was built high off the ground, the trains arriving and leaving by tracks laid on viaducts of tainted, red brick. The surrounding area sets the standard for Mancs, being a place of compromised promise, of bold ambitions impaired by the nagging ghosts of […]
A new post has been added to the first Not Quite Light project – ‘From Old Mill to the End of Empire’. It’s inspired by a recent dawn visit I made to Angel Meadow during the time of lockdown in the Coronavirus crisis, and I felt compelled to spend time in this ancient place, the site of inspiration for Not Quite Light in 2015. It was the first proper trip out into the city before daybreak since we were told […]
ANGEL MEADOW, 4.36am April 2020 Listen to the birdsong at dawn in Angel Meadow It is still dark when I arrive at Angel Meadow, just to the north of Manchester City Centre. It is during the time of Coronavirus and, since this unnatural hibernation, I’ve rarely left home. I’m unusually nervous; fearful not of this twilight space, but of other humans, who may carry death in a single breath. I pull my mask further above my nose and follow the […]
OUR FUTURE IS ANCIENT Following on from the success of ‘On The way There, On The Way Back’ for the inaugural Macc Lit Festival back in November 2019, I’ve been commisioned by the Barnaby Festival to produce a piece of work that explores our urban relationship with nature and folklore. I’ve called the project ‘Our Future Is Ancient’. Work began on the Winter Solstice, and I’ll be visiting Macclesfield Forest around full moon every month between now and the Summer […]