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Tag : architecture

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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22 Feb 2015

NEW GEORGE STREET, SMITHFIELD SQUARE, MANCHESTER. 7.32AM

NEW GEORGE STREET, SMITHFIELD SQUARE, MANCHESTER. 7.32AM Despite there being two chain hotels and a new apartment block surrounding Smithfield Square, the only colour was from the light of the Spar. The architects of the flats have tried to make an effort with some blocks of yellow, but somehow it feels like they’ve used the last bits of Lego left in the bag. I’m never quite sure why so much of the new architecture in Manchester is grey, and there […]

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20 Feb 2015

ALIEN LIGHTS, THOMAS STREET. 6.51AM

ALIEN LIGHTS, THOMAS STREET 6.51am I’d set down my tripod outside Bar 21 on Thomas Street. The building above is Victorian, but the front of the club below is modern, with an interior featuring sci-fi themed movie memorabilia. A large man came out from inside and firmly locked the door. For a few seconds he looked at me, nodded, lit a cigarette and sauntered across the road before disappearing. A young woman to my right ran to her small Corsa, […]

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