Ancoats Archives - Page 2 of 3

20 Sep 2015

CORNELL STREET, ANCOATS, 6.24AM

CORNELL STREET, ANCOATS, 6.24AM It felt, on this early Autumn morning, that there was a boldness to the birds singing their dawn songs, and the night sky was showing early pools of blue. Clouds shrugged and melted away, leaving a definite zing in the air. Soon there was a simple, unspoilt patch of sapphire colour above me and the day promised to be clear. I arrived at the bottom of the terraced streets that lie behind the Express building, an […]

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02 Sep 2015

PASSIONS, DUCIE STREET, 5.36AM

PASSIONS, DUCIE STREET, 5.36AM This morning there was the musk scent of early Autumn. I breathed in deeply, and the air rasped the inside of my nose, causing my nostrils to flare. A softening mist embroiled the warm, enticing lights that illuminated streets as old as the professions that once lined them. An open doorway at the side of Passions massage parlour, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, revealed stairs leading up to a first floor that […]

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26 Aug 2015

radium-street-wing-yip-andcoats-manchester

RADIUM STREET, ANCOATS 5.43AM

RADIUM STREET, ANCOATS 5.43AM My alarm went off at 4am, and a couple of early birds were already chirruping as I turned on the light, causing me to hurry onto the street around 20 minutes later. In the the sky above me, though, there was not even a hint of daylight. For some reason, they’d begun their songs of hope a full hour before the dawn actually arrived, and I felt deceived. I pulled up my hood against the thumping […]

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01 Aug 2015

STORE STREET, PICCADILLY 4.43AM

STORE STREET, PICCADILLY 4.43AM When I can see that the dawn will be clear and rain free, I try to look East, where, behind Ancoats, the sky begins its daytime shift soft and golden. As this morning began there was a stillness in the area, at odds with its past and its future intentions. Here, amongst tatty trees and unruly undergrowth, living is slowly encroaching upon working as factory units begin to quietly retreat, and flats trespass further into what […]

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19 Jul 2015

BELOW NEW UNION STREET, ANCOATS, 4.21AM

BELOW NEW UNION STREET, ANCOATS, 4.21AM When I awoke I had that moment a lot of us experience, of not being quite sure where I was. I wasn’t really free of sleep an hour later when I was staring at the sky, and waiting on the cusp of Redhill and New Union Street in Ancoats for a reluctant night to finally leave. A large, square board opposite me proclaimed the potential joy of the New Islington development, depicting a couple […]

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30 Jun 2015

JUNE 21ST, THE LONGEST DAY, 2015

JUNE 21st, THE LONGEST DAY, 2015 The Longest Day began with me dancing on a table with my flatmate’s girlfriend. He’d been out with her to some do, and they’d come in full of wine and had woken me up, demanding that I get my shoes on and go out with them. We compromised by dancing in the flat and so, when I left to photograph at just after 2.30am, my spirits were as high as a buzzard circling a […]

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04 Jun 2015

OLD MILL STREET, ANCOATS 4.16AM

OLD MILL STREET, NEW ISLINGTON, ANCOATS 4.16AM – I’ve recently returned from North Carolina where people were astonished to hear, over an honest glass of Moonshine, that Manchester’s economic fortunes were so badly affected by the American Civil war. I told them about the statue of Abraham Lincoln, and the principled boycott of southern cotton that led to real hardship in the city. I also met a man who’d been part of the team that developed GPS mapping, who now […]

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15 May 2015

OLD MILL STREET, ANCOATS 4.27AM

OLD MILL STREET, 4.27AM – Old Mill Street, where the Ancoats Dispensary still exists, is at one edge of my project, the other being Strangeways. From redemption to restitution I suppose. This area, once the industrial core of Manchester, is now known as New Islington and was supposed to be the vanguard of urban development on this side of the city. And then the recession came. This particular morning the sky was clear, and the colours rich. It reminded me […]

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07 May 2015

OLDHAM ROAD, ELECTION DAY, 4.57AM

OLDHAM ROAD, 4.57AM, ELECTION DAY – The alarm went off at 3.50am, and the birds were already chattering excitedly at the new dawn, like children up too early on their birthday. The sky hung darkly above, revealing patches of blue that reflected in puddles across empty streets and pitted car parks. The soft whirr of a milk float was all that intruded on the songs being whistled around me. I’d decided the night before on what I was going to […]

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31 Mar 2015

JERSEY STREET, MANCHESTER 6.20AM

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 […]

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Tag : Ancoats

CORNELL STREET, ANCOATS, 6.24AM

PASSIONS, DUCIE STREET, 5.36AM

RADIUM STREET, ANCOATS 5.43AM

STORE STREET, PICCADILLY 4.43AM

BELOW NEW UNION STREET, ANCOATS, 4.21AM

JUNE 21ST, THE LONGEST DAY, 2015

OLD MILL STREET, ANCOATS 4.16AM

OLD MILL STREET, ANCOATS 4.27AM

OLDHAM ROAD, ELECTION DAY, 4.57AM

JERSEY STREET, MANCHESTER 6.20AM

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