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Tag : Northern Quarter

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

05 Mar 2015

GOULDEN STREET CAR PARK, MANCHESTER, 7.28AM

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 […]

02 Mar 2015

REDBANK, MANCHESTER, 7.33AM

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

18 Feb 2015

HAND CAR WASH, DANTZIC STREET, MANCHESTER 7.20am

HAND CAR WASH, DANTZIC STREET. 7.20am This morning the sky was clear. A pure blue emerged from this grey night, and the dawn seemed to hurry quickly through, so that it was light enough for the street lamps to go off a full fifteen minutes earlier than the clouded yesterday. A sharp cold caused cars to be frosted over. Dantzic Street runs from Collyhurst Road into the city centre, where at its end the glowing, new Co-op Bank building rests, […]

16 Feb 2015

CAGED JAGUAR, FARADAY STREET. 7.35AM

CAGED JAGUAR, FARADAY STREET. 7.35AM Manchester is unfairly famed for its rain. If it’s raining in Manchester, then somewhere else along the west of Britain is also getting it, and I’d rather this new, soft water than drought and lime. It’s not easy to photograph in though. The camera drips miserably and the lens needs constant attention. This morning my hood was up and my chilled hands were thrust deep into dampened pockets. A bin lorry, or waste re-cycling vehicle, […]

12 Feb 2015

THE ANGEL, MANCHESTER 6.55am

THE ANGEL, MANCHESTER 6.55am Each morning I only have around 35 minutes to work in, before the light lifts and the street lamps go off. People who are on their way to work in this transient half-light have tense faces; they resist eye contact, shoulders are hunched, there are no smiles. There’s a sense of isolation. Great Ancoats Street and Swan Street sometimes feel to me as if they are a tarmac moat, nestled as they are at the bottom […]

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