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Tag : architecture

28 Mar 2015

KELVIN STREET, MANCHESTER 6.14AM

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 […]

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24 Mar 2015

REDBANK, TOWARDS THE GREEN QUARTER, MANCHESTER 5.50AM

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 […]

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19 Mar 2015

SWAN STREET, MANCHESTER 7.19AM “WHERE YOUR ACCENT IS AN APHRODISIAC”

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 […]

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17 Mar 2015

FARADAY STREET, MANCHESTER, 6.09AM

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 […]

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12 Mar 2015

CREAMLINE DAIRIES, REDBANK, MANCHESTER 5.55AM

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, […]

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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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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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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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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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