admin, Author at notquitelight.com

10 Mar 2015

ENGLAND’S NEW YORK – DALE STREET, MANCHESTER 5.52AM & TARIFF STREET 6.18AM

ENGLAND’S NEW YORK – DALE STREET, MANCHESTER 5.52AM & TARIFF STREET 6.18AM A friend once said to me that Manchester was England’s New York, that it shared more in common with that city than London. Often film makers seem to think this too, and the Northern Quarter has often doubled for Gotham. It’s common to see the old warehouses on Dale Street surrounded by trucks and wires, with huge lights poking through the empty window frames like curious Triffids. As […]

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08 Mar 2015

ROCHDALE CANAL, MANCHESTER 6.14AM

ROCHDALE CANAL, MANCHESTER 6.14AM The dawn breaks earlier now, and I have to be out by 5.30am, and no-one knows where I am at this time of day. Those close to me are still asleep and will assume that I’m safe, and probably at home. The streets are mostly free of people, and so I often make my way without witness. The clearing sky drew me south on this morning. Around Ancoats and the Piccadilly Basin the emptied land allows […]

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05 Mar 2015

GOULDEN STREET CAR PARK, MANCHESTER, 7.28AM

GOULDEN STREET CAR PARK, MANCHESTER, 7.28AM I’ve sometimes parked my car in Goulden Street, and have had to step in a puddle a foot deep just to get into the driver’s seat. The only selling point is that it’s the cheapest car park for a 24 hour stay. There are plenty to choose from around here, with SIP and Euro Car Parks the names that have now replaced Arkwright and Fairburn. It’s still land that’s creating wealth though. Parked cars […]

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04 Mar 2015

FROM GREAT ANCOATS STREET, MANCHESTER, 6.11AM

The weather forecast from the previous evening had promised clear skies, but I awoke at 5.25am to the sound of rain tapping against my window and distant police sirens. Out on the street the first person I saw was a thick set man, in ill-fitting tracksuit trousers and a luminous cagoule. He was maybe in his late fifties and had an unhappy, flat face, like a cartoon burglar. He was jogging like someone who knew he had to run from […]

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02 Mar 2015

REDBANK, MANCHESTER, 7.33AM

REDBANK, MANCHESTER, 7.33AM About a week ago, during one of my evening walks with my flatmate, a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties, approached us just near Redbank. She was well dressed in a knee length skirt, low heeled boots and a coat. She spoke with an Australian accent. “Good evening gents, sorry to bother you but I’m lost” she said. “I’m supposed to be meeting a male friend under an arch near here, we’re off to take some photographs […]

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27 Feb 2015

RIVER IRK, EDGE OF THE GREEN QUARTER, MANCHESTER. 7.04AM

RIVER IRK, EDGE OF THE GREEN QUARTER, MANCHESTER. 7.04AM The previous evening my flatmate and I had walked his dog through the Green Quarter of Manchester. It’s a collection of new apartment blocks between Cheetham Hill Road and the River Irk that has grown over the last few years. Whilst shielding my friend’s terrier from seeing another smaller dog that was approaching, we watched a Jewish couple having wedding pictures taken in the darkened light, her in full white dress. […]

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26 Feb 2015

MJT MOTORS, GOULD STREET, 7.36AM

MJT MOTORS, GOULD STREET, 7.36AM My flatmate has a dog, an English Bull terrier. He’s a dapper man and reminds me a little of Bill Sykes as he proudly walks his pet through the Victorian streets behind Angel Meadows at night. Walking around the district that we live in is what has inspired Not Quite Light, as we talk about the history of the streets and buildings, and of our thoughts towards the encroaching modern world. In many ways, this […]

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24 Feb 2015

WHERE ONCE STOOD UNITED BUILDINGS, OLDHAM STREET, 7.17am

WHERE ONCE STOOD UNITED BUILDINGS, OLDHAM STREET, 7.17am I know the streets of Manchester’s Northern Quarter well, as I used to own a shop on Tib Street and now live in there. When I step out of the door just before dawn, I tend to follow my instincts, with no clear plan as to where I might go. This morning was one of cloudless skies. Incisive cold air turned nose tips red, and sunlight cast a sheen the colour of […]

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22 Feb 2015

NEW GEORGE STREET, SMITHFIELD SQUARE, MANCHESTER. 7.32AM

NEW GEORGE STREET, SMITHFIELD SQUARE, MANCHESTER. 7.32AM Despite there being two chain hotels and a new apartment block surrounding Smithfield Square, the only colour was from the light of the Spar. The architects of the flats have tried to make an effort with some blocks of yellow, but somehow it feels like they’ve used the last bits of Lego left in the bag. I’m never quite sure why so much of the new architecture in Manchester is grey, and there […]

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20 Feb 2015

ALIEN LIGHTS, THOMAS STREET. 6.51AM

ALIEN LIGHTS, THOMAS STREET 6.51am I’d set down my tripod outside Bar 21 on Thomas Street. The building above is Victorian, but the front of the club below is modern, with an interior featuring sci-fi themed movie memorabilia. A large man came out from inside and firmly locked the door. For a few seconds he looked at me, nodded, lit a cigarette and sauntered across the road before disappearing. A young woman to my right ran to her small Corsa, […]

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Author Archives: admin

ENGLAND’S NEW YORK – DALE STREET, MANCHESTER 5.52AM & TARIFF STREET 6.18AM

ROCHDALE CANAL, MANCHESTER 6.14AM

GOULDEN STREET CAR PARK, MANCHESTER, 7.28AM

FROM GREAT ANCOATS STREET, MANCHESTER, 6.11AM

REDBANK, MANCHESTER, 7.33AM

RIVER IRK, EDGE OF THE GREEN QUARTER, MANCHESTER. 7.04AM

MJT MOTORS, GOULD STREET, 7.36AM

WHERE ONCE STOOD UNITED BUILDINGS, OLDHAM STREET, 7.17am

NEW GEORGE STREET, SMITHFIELD SQUARE, MANCHESTER. 7.32AM

ALIEN LIGHTS, THOMAS STREET. 6.51AM

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