CAR PARK, DUCIE STREET, 6.33AM – This morning, the first after the Easter holidays, I was awoken not by my alarm but by an industrious bird sensing dawn at 4.55am. There was a thin but effective mist hovering above the streets, and anyone that was out seemed to have bent down their heads, as if the weight of the fog was too much on this first day back to work. The sun was due to have risen at 6.33am but […]
LEVER STREET, MANCHESTER 6.00AM – On the streets at dawn there is a relationship to the space which feels highly personal, a temporary sense of ownership even. Without the distraction of traffic and people and purifying daylight there exists an awareness of detail often absent without the collusion of shadow and streetlight. Also, and unbeknownst to them, I’ve begun to develop a relationship with the workers of the morning, the hidden heroes of our city, who have become familiar to […]
JERSEY STREET, MANCHESTER 6.20AM I was at a friend’s house recently and Scooby Doo was on. I noticed that the drawings of the deserted buildings were often depicted in the half light, with deep blue skies and vivid foreground colours. The sets were remarkably claustrophobic for a show loved by children, with no hint that there was another world beyond the blocked shadows. The first 2 days after the onset of British Summer Time brought gales that caused an unearthly […]
KELVIN STREET, MANCHESTER 6.14AM I was driving around the city with my partner recently, who isn’t from Manchester, past derelict land and injured buildings, and she said “You have to know Manchester to love it”. I’ve thought about what she said a lot in the last couple of weeks, as I’ve entered the still streets at dawn, and I think it may be a truth. To the immediate eye Manchester has a twisted grandeur, with its monumental Victorian buildings blemished […]
REDBANK, TOWARDS THE GREEN QUARTER, MANCHESTER 5.50AM I’ve always been an owl, enjoying late bedtimes. In fact I’d do without sleep if I could, and so it’s becoming quite the challenge to get to bed early enough to cope with the very early starts that come with the approach of Spring and Summer. I’d managed midnight, and knew that I’d only have just under 5 hours before the alarm would sound at 4.45AM. The fear of oversleeping must have settled […]