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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]