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 […]
SWAN STREET, MANCHESTER 7.19AM “WHERE YOUR ACCENT IS AN APHRODISIAC I was in bed, having a lie in, and my partner happened to be intently watching a video on Facebook in which Ian Brown and John Squires from the Stone Roses were being interviewed. It had been posted by XFM under the title “Most Awkward Music Interviews Ever“, and the conversation between the 2 young Roses and the interviewer contained wastelands of silence, interspersed with the sharp, confident insight peculiar […]
FARADAY STREET, MANCHESTER, 6.09AM I was looking at this scene a few days back, when I bumped into some old friends who invited me to join them in the Pie and Ale Beer Hall. They had pies for big eyes on their menu and I was sorry it was closed when I returned to take the picture. The sleek glass of the pie bar and the barbed wire on the gate at the end of the street were clear, but […]
I’d seen the abandoned pub on Honey Street the previous evening, whilst eating a falafel wrap, bought from a take-away on Cheetham Hill Road. Many of the pubs in this area have been closed down, and often demolished. I sometimes hear my flatmate talk wistfully about nights out in them. He calls them “boozers” still. Around the Northern Quarter and the city centre there seems to be a new bar or restaurant opening every week, with London businesses now beginning […]
CREAMLINE DAIRIES, REDBANK, MANCHESTER 5.55AM I awoke at 4.55AM to a single bird chirruping, sensing dawn’s approach, and my first thought of the day was whether the other birds had murderous feelings towards this lone piper as it roused them from their slumber. As I was readying myself, for some reason I kept wondering as to why I never felt threatened when I went out, why I just assumed I would be safe from being mugged or assaulted. The morning, […]
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 […]
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 […]