This was a world of heavy and light engineering, which reached in a broad swathe across Greater Manchester, from Stockport to Cheetham Hill and beyond.
This is the Gorton Works – illustrations taken from Graces Guide.
This was a world of terraced houses and corner shops, side by side with the local works.
This is that corner of Williams Street and Sunny Brow Road today.
Victoria Works Sunny Brow Road.
Victoria Works Williams Street
Victoria Works Williams Road
Manchester’s engineering industry has subsequently been seriously diminished.
The building became a base for toilet paper manufacturing and distribution.
But the metal beat goes on in both Wolverhampton and Florida.
Originally formed in 1847, Kendall and Gent enjoyed many years as one of the biggest machine tool manufacturers in the UK, producing many large machines which are still in production today. Many of the tangential threading machines are still used in pipe, bolt and stud threading.
In recent years these homes have been under threat of both demolition and refurbishment.
Rochdale Boroughwide Housing – RBH had sought help from a developer to pay for its £107m plans to refurbish the College Bank high-rise apartments, known in the town as the Seven Sisters.
But the social housing landlord has been unable to reach a commercially viable agreement to help improve the blocks where 250 people live.
Amanda Newton, RBH chief executive said the lack of a deal was disappointing but all options for the future of the site would still be explored.
Many of the apartments spread across the Seven Sisters remain unoccupied after a plan was announced to demolish four of the blocks in 2017, leading to an exodus of hundreds of tenants. RBH later reconsidered the plan, and instead signed a deal with developer Legal & General Affordable Housing last year, to find a viable way of refurbishing the apartments.
All 700 flats in the 1960s blocks were set to be redeveloped under the plans, but the pair’s agreement has now come to an end without a solution emerging.
So an unsatisfactory stasis prevails across the windswept piazzas, podium garages and towering towers.
Local photographer Ellie Waters has her pictures of the flats displayed in the underpass.
Notes From College Bank is an ongoing project which documents the College Bank buildings in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Known locally as ‘The Seven Sisters’, College Bank is formed of seven high-rise social housing blocks, four of which have come under recent threat of demolition.
Drawing from found imagery and photographs taken by my late Grandfather – M J Burgess – who like me grew up in Rochdale, I’ve been working with past and present residents to create a collective record of life in and around College Bank.
This project is ongoing, if you would like to share your stories of College Bank please get in touch via email – notesfromcollegebank@gmail.com
Here is a recent post from Municipal Dreams outlining the history state of play – Rochdale Housing Part II.
Fast forward to the present, the Seven Sisters still stand – an impressive architectural statement in the heart of Rochdale and, to my mind, as powerful a testament to municipal endeavour and aspiration as the town’s nearby town hall. But much has changed. In the slow evolution that affected council housing more broadly, the flats became less desirable, even, in some eyes, a ‘sink estate’. In Robin Parker’s view, the Council started re-housing people in the blocks ‘not suitable for high-rise living’ – a typical occurrence when the most vulnerable on the waiting list and those with least choice are allocated to so-called ‘hard to let’ estates.
We have often walked by the Magistrates’ Courts on the Preston Walk.
So, it’s about time this low lying white tiled delight received some well deserved attention.
Though recently there have been structural problems:
The safety of everyone who uses our courts is paramount and the decision to temporarily close Blackpool and Preston Magistrates’ courts was made in line with professional advice following the detection of defective Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete. These court buildings will reopen once they are assessed as safe by professionals following the completion of required remedial works.
There have also been solutions:
Preston Magistrates’ Court is currently scheduled to reopen in January 2024.
Local lad Tom Finney was unable for comment, though saddened to hear that the Microgramma sign was no longer in situ.
Copyright Rex Shutterstock
Microgramma is a sans-serif typeface designed by Aldo Novarese and Alessandro Butti for the Nebiolo Type Foundry in 1952. It became popular for use with technical illustrations in the 1960s, and was a favourite of graphic designers by the early 1970s.
The building is the work of the Borough Architects under John Hatton – though I am reliably informed that County Architect Roger Booth took an advisory role.
The Courts certainly echoes many of the stylistic and material characteristics of his work, particularly the County Archives, with similar piloti and glazing.
So let’s take a circuitous tour.
This is the seriously neglected seating area.
The Courts once had a Roger Booth Police Station as a neighbour.
Photographs – Richard Brook
Converted to apartments in 2013, with current plans for further developments.
More than 200 student flats are set to be built on part of Preston’s former divisional police headquarters.Preston City Council planning officers have recommended that councillors give the go-ahead to the scheme – at the junction of Walker Street and Lawson Street, to the rear of the magistrates’ and crown courts.
The part of the plot where the new ‘studio apartments’ would be erected is currently occupied by a multi-level public car park, accessed from Saul Street, which has been operated as a pay and display facility by Chorley-based Parking Eye for the last nine years.
Other Roger Booth police stations have also been visited by the wrecking ball, Blackpool and Bury are now no longer extant.
Well well here we are again, third time around following a visit in 2018 and later in 2021.
Almost inevitably, changes have taken place.
There is an almost constant tension between order and/or disorder.
Between those who prefer the shambolic aesthetic of the shotgun shack, and those whose hearts and minds are in the double spread of Homes and Gardens.
It’s also a question of economics, there are those with capital who may wish to make investments in property. Buy to let, second homes that yield a return above the current savings’ rates. Thus raising the cost of housing, both ordered and disordered.
The chalet is a unique wooden clad cabin painted in lovely complimentary colours of Cream and Seaspray Green. A porthole window peers into a generous open plan living room and adjoined kitchen with subtle seaside touches of stripes, driftwood, shells, all quality wooden furniture and large comfy corner sofa plus two relaxing reading chairs with plenty of blankets to snuggle up in.
So the march of big money heralds the arrival of complementary after dinner mints, uPVC cladding, tasteful nautical bric a brac, prohibitive signs, off road parking and a Hampton’s aesthetic – a little bit of New England inna little bit of England.
Despite the incursion of those folks on a week long excursion, there is still an air of lukewarm anarchy which pervades the Fitties. An array of wonky homemade fences constantly askew, refusing to be aligned to the orthogonal.
Mañana never comes here on this little stretch of the Lincolnshire coast, get it while you can.
Coniston, Windemere and Rydal were among the first council homes to be built in Stafford, between 1951-52, under the direction of County Architect CM Coombes.
The flats were built as a result of The Housing – Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1946, which gave subsidies to local authorities to provide social housing. The expansion of the Borough Council’s civic duties included the employment of County Architects, in this case CM Coombes FRIBA, to whom these flats are attributed.
54 flats were built in total, to a distinctly Modernist design, and their appearance and setting are very well preserved.
Whilst there are some common stylistic characteristics the Corporation Street Flats are of a more modest order. There are communal areas and a grassed apron, balconies and arched passages.
Over time the standard of maintenance seems to have declined, and the Crittall Windows have been replaced by white uPvc, where once there was a bowling green, this is now roughly mown and unused.
A bit of stream-of-consciousness slapstick, wall-to-wall with visual gags, editing tricks, and effects.
I was out and about exploring Pomona Island when I chanced upon the path which led to the ramp that carries the Metro from Trafford Bar and Pomona to Cornbrook.
It proved to be what is currently known as an immersive experience, not unlike a Gong Bath.
Firstly, some participants become so relaxed that they fall asleep, and the body uses this time to re-balance, restore and nurture itself. Most people however, flit in and out of consciousness and notice their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual responses during the Gong Bath. This opens the possibility of becoming aware of the ‘chattering mind’, your mood or emotional state, visual experiences, physical sensations, intuitive insights, inner wisdom, or spiritual encounters. By keeping your eyes closed and not falling asleep, people can often have a far richer experience.
Except in this instance, one is surrounded by the tumultuous roar of tram upon concrete and steel, with the extra added bonus of pungent canal and associated detritus aromas.
By keeping your eyes open and not falling asleep, people will have a far richer experience.
X1 has launched the first phase of its major Manchester Waters development on the outskirts of the city centre. The development will be delivered in partnership with property developer and landowner Peel and is located on Pomona Island. Phase one will include 755 flats, with the first completions scheduled for 2019.
Thus far phase one has arrived, other phases less so.
A Covid induced hiatus has meant that the masterplan has hit the buffers.
The revamped masterplan, covering almost 25 acres of currently underdeveloped brownfield land, would transform around 60% of the masterplan area into public realm and open space to help promote active lifestyles and the natural beauty of the waterfront site which is surrounded by the Manchester Ship Canal and the Bridgewater Canal.
Over time there has been resistance to the tidal wave of regeneration that is sweeping down the Ship canal engulfing Pomona Island.
Save Pomona are a group of Manchester/Salford and Trafford residents committed to seeing the future of Pomona be a community based and sustainable one rather than a purely commercial one that benefits only a few.
Last Thursday, campaigners aiming to save the old dockland site across the Manchester Ship Canal from Ordsallheld a Pomona Day, and yesterday it was the Pomona Festival as the community turned out to view the wildlife and flora that has sprung up on the abandoned dockland site.
Peel have already cleared most of the scrub, before they submitted the planning application, probably because they know they can get away with it and because they think there is less chance of objection from the public.
Several Years ago Martin Zero celebrated the flowers and fauna in video from.
However the overwhelming might of Peel Holdings, along with the collective commercial imperatives of the local Local Authorities, has proved to be an unstoppable force, with few unmovable objections.
Friday July 4th 2025, I happened to slip through the often locked gates at Cornbrook, to take a look at the current state of play. Over time the site has been mechanically scraped and cleared, but the undergrowth simply grows back again.
The pub was open, but the Alan Boyson mural was in need of repair.
The missing panel, stored in the pub’s cellar was subsequently reinstated.
Then, following a Modernist crowdfunding project instigated by Richard Brook and Christopher Marsden, Alice Vincent-Barwood restored the work, during July 2022.
Sadly in August 2023 the pub lost its licence and remains closed.
Wandering from Town to Moston yesterday, I happened to pass by, so I took some photos, here they are:
Yesterday, Wednesday 21st May 2025, the sun was shining and the tide was out, I decided to walk along the sands, and look towards the land.
To the right the Imperial Hotel – 1866-7 by Clegg and Knowles of Manchester, wing added 1875 by Mangnall and Littlewood.
The hotel was established in 1867. Charles Dickens stayed at the hotel in 1869. In 1904, the hotel was extended with the addition of a large neo-baroque style dining room. In 1912, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll stayed at the hotel.In the mid 20th century, Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and The Beatles stayed at the hotel. Queen Elizabeth II stayed at the hotel when visiting Blackpool. In 1985, Margaret Thatcher celebrated her 60th birthday in the hotel. In 2002, US President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair stayed at the hotel for the Labour party conference.
Join us at The Imperial Hotel Blackpool for an unforgettable experience where entertainment, family fun, and group leisure come together. Book now and start creating memories that will last a lifetime.
Grand Hotel – the hotel was built as the Pembroke Hotel in 1982, became the Hilton Hotel in 1999 and The Grand Hotel in 2017
The hotel was built next to the site of the Derby Baths 1939 – architect: John Charles Robinson who between 1920-1944 designed many of Blackpool’s landmark civic buildings including libraries, schools, swimming baths, leisure facilities and tourist infrastructure.
The Savoy Hotel, just north of Gynn Square, is one of the series of large red brick and red terracotta hotels built around the turn of the century. The architect was TG Lumb and the hotel opened in 1915; the sun lounge in Hathern’s cream faience was added in 1935 by Lumb and Walton.
The Cliffs Hotel started in 1921 – architect Halstead Best substantially rebuilt and enlarged the building 1936–37 and added an underground carpark
Castle Casino – architect: Arthur Hindle 1906
Arthur Knowles built the Castle at 64 Queens Promenade North Shore for his wife, who unfortunately stayed in France. The couple stayed in the house for a mere nine months during 1929. Apart from housing Belgian refugees during World War 1, it stayed empty until 1935. It then opened briefly as an old people’s home, before being bought by Lawrence Wright – AKA Horatio Nicholls, as his home.
Wright sold it in 1941, and after several years as the home of the Blackpool and Fylde Motor Club, it became the Castle Casino of today in 1965, first owned by wrestler Jack Pye, who moved to Blackpool in 1950. It has had various identities, and was last taken over in 2005, now being known as the Genting Club – part of a national chain of that name.
Former Miners Convalescent Home 1925-27 – architects: Bradshaw Gass & Hope, Grade II listed
Converted to apartments in 2005 – trading as Admiral Point.
Norbreck Castle Hotel originally built as a large private country house in 1869, it was bought around the end of the 19th century by JH Shorrocks, who used the house to entertain friends and colleagues at lavish weekend parties. The popularity of these parties led to Shorrocks running them on a commercial basis by taking paying guests.
The S Block by architect WH Longworth 1912 – the N Block by Halstead Best 1933-34.
In the 1970’s the Motel wing was added along with, the large Norcalympia exhibition hall, the name was changed from the Norbreck Hydro to Norbreck Castle.
European Regional Development Fund cash of £450,000 was granted towards a regeneration project on Cleveleys Promenade. Wyre Council improved 64,000 sq ft of the promenade to create a more attractive place for visitors to the town. The latest work complements the £20m sea defence installation.
Broadbent Studio worked collaboratively from the outset with Wyre Council, Ferguson & McIlveen and Faber Maunsell in 2008, to create an exciting new promenade and sea defence scheme for the coastline at Cleveleys.
The Sea Swallow is a 10m tall structure that brings to life Wyre’s Mythic Coast storybook ‘The Sea Swallow’. The coated aluminium sculpture, has the feel of ‘a book coming to life’, with the two sea swallows symbolic of the town’s protectors emerging from the page.
Once upon many times ago we all went to Belle Vue – formed from John Jennison’s Victorian pleasure gardens and zoo, into an inner city funfair and entertainment extravaganza.
I went to the circus, competed in school sports days, watched the wrestling and music, I still go to the speedway – Belle Vue Aces now racing at the nearby National Speedway Stadium.
Then one day it all fell apart.
In 1979 the amusement park was leased to the main concessionaire, Alf Wadbrooke, although by then it was only open at weekends during the summer season. The long-promised restoration of the Scenic Railway had not happened and the Water Chute had closed. In August 1980, Wadbrooke was given notice to close down the park by 26 October 1980 and to have all his equipment removed by February 1981.
In 1963 the Top Lake, formerly known as the Great Lake, was filled in and a 32-lane ten-pin bowling alley built on its site, just behind the Lake Hotel.
Known as the Belle Vue Granada Bowl, it opened in 1965, advertised as “the north’s leading luxury centre”. In 1983, after the rest of Belle Vue had closed, it was sold to First Leisure Group, and bowling continued for a time.
Wikipedia
The 32-lane Granada Bowl at Belle Vue, Manchester is believed to have been the first centre to be opened by Granada and the centre went on to become one of the most successful in the country.
The centre was equipped with lanes and machines supplied by AMF and the rest of the centre was well appointed with a licensed bar and food operation. The centre was a joint operation between Granada and Belle Vue with two directors from each company on the board of Belle Vue Granada Bowl Limited.
To mark the opening ceremony Lee Kates, with the support of the band of the 8th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and trumpeters of the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry, introduced Granada’s Mr Chapman, who made a short speech and welcomed the guests. The golden ball was handed to guest Pat Phoenix, star of the TV soap Coronation Street, to roll the first ball.
Gala Bingo came and went too.
Buzz Bingo have announced plans to close nine of their 91 clubs across the country.
One of those earmarked for closure is the club at Belle Vue. Bosses are blaming the dwindling number of players following the Covid lockdowns as well as the ‘ongoing and challenging operating environment’ of increased energy bills and other costs.
The William Mitchell concrete panels are of a modular design, rotated to form distinct groups of horizontal and vertical rhythms. A number of the buildings elevations are clad in linear, diagonal and vertical forms, though the majority are curvilinear and organic.
Local Image Collection 1972
The Ellen Wilkinson building, home to Education and Communication, is one of the few buildings on campus named after a woman. She gained the nickname of ‘Red Ellen’ in her political career, due to her socialist politics and vibrant red hair colour.
Wilkinson was a successful Labour party politician and feminist activist, and a passionate and bold personality in the Houses of Parliament. She was made Minister of Education under Clement Atlee’s government, making her the second woman to ever get a role in the British cabinet. She was brought up and educated in Manchester, making her legacy on the Manchester campus even more significant.
Ellen Wilkinson is a large sized building with three blocks. There are six floors in C Block, five floors in B Block and seven floors in A Block.
There are three lifts and six main staircases within the building.
The floors are signed as Ground, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. This is slightly different inside the lifts where control buttons are marked as 0 instead of Ground.
There are link passages from A and B Block to C Block on levels Ground, 1 and 3.
This scheme pre-dates Wilson Womersley’s appointment as masterplanners for the Education Precinct but exists harmoniously with the later series of buildings. This is most likely due to the method of development before any ‘grand concept’. The incremental expansion of the University, following WWII, was largely dictated by the progress of compulsory purchase orders; this group was no exception. At the planning stages, the lack of a masterplan led to organising the wings of the buildings in an open, orthogonal arrangement. This would allow expansion in a number of directions, according to the next available site in ‘the dynamic situation’. The result was the creation of a small courtyard flanked by two five-storey blocks and a two-storey structure. All three buildings use the same pink-grey concrete. The plastic qualities of concrete were explored in both cladding and structural panels and the textural qualities exposed in the bush hammered columns, to reveal the Derbyshire gravel aggregate. The sculpted and moulded panels on the two-storey block and on the gable ends of the larger blocks were designed in collaboration with William Mitchell. The only other materials in the external envelope were the windows of variously clear and tinted glass. The window modules were set out against a basic geometry in three standard patterns and applied across the façade. This resulted in a clever interplay of vertical and horizontal expression. Phase II, a seven-storey teaching block, was not as refined in its details.
I was invited by Richard Brook to tick off the names of those attending the launch of his book.
The book was launched at the City Tower, part of the Piccadilly Plaza development.
We began at the top – up in the lift to floor twenty eight the Sky Lounge.
On display were the architectural drawings of the Piccadilly Plaza scheme – including my favourite spiral car park ramp.
Back to the ground floor to administer the entrance of exactly eighty eight participants.
Who were subdivide by coloured dot, into sub groups for the forthcoming tour – a tour of the sub basement.
Former home of the diesel boilers – temporary home to eighty eight and a bit Modernists.
A talk or two later and it was almost all over, biggest thanks to Richard, Manchester University Press, The Plaza and the Modernists.
Testament to one man’s healthy preoccupation with Manchester’s modern history and the legion of fellow travellers that have supported and encouraged him down the years.
Health and safety regulations state that markings should be placed around obstacles or dangerous locations. This includes where any of the following present a risk:
people tripping or falling
objects falling
people or vehicles colliding with objects
These markings should be made up of alternating red and white or yellow and black stripes of equal size at a 45 degree angle. Barricade tape can be used to satisfy this requirement as long as the tape is “commensurate with the scale of the obstacle or dangerous location in question”
I hereby lay claim to this symbol, sign, icon, the combination of black and yellow, wherever it may appear, in this or any other world, in whatever shape, form, pattern or composition, be it civil or military. I hereby claim to be its originator and owner.
Designed by Ben Kelly, upon recommendation by Factory graphic designer Peter Saville, upstairs consisted of a stage, dance area, bar, cloakroom, cafeteria area and balcony with a DJ booth.
The Haçienda was opened on 21 May 1982, when the comedian Bernard Manning remarked to the audience:
I’ve played some shit-holes during my time, but this is really something.
His jokes did not go down well with the crowd and he returned his fee.
The black and yellow stripes on Manchester City’s away shirts were meant to be an uplifting homage to Manchester’s cultural heritage, but the choice of design now risks becoming a chip on the team’s shoulders.
The team’s jersey is embroiled in a controversy after Ben Kelly, the man who originally designed the stripes for famed Manchester nightclub the Haçienda, complained in a recent interview to Gaffer magazine that he was not credited or consulted by the creators of the football apparel.
When Manchester City and Puma launched the team’s 2019/20 kit last July, they said in a press release that the uniform paid tribute to the “Madchester” years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the city in north-west England became a hub of alternative music and dance culture.
Thanks to L Kaye and the Manchester Local Image Collection there is a photographic record of Tib Street through the years.
Shot on 35mm black and white film, cautiously clad in gaberdine and trilby. The legwork aside the processing and printing of a whole heap of exposures was a gargantuan task.
The river’s source is a spring in Miles Platting , from where it flows underneath Oldham Road and the eponymous Tib Street to reach the city centre. After flowing underneath West Mosley Street, the Tib crosses Princess Street to flow underneath the Manchester Town Hall Extension, the Central Library and the Midland Hotel’s dining room, before joining the Medlock at Gaythorn (now First Street, close to Deansgate railway station.
The distinctive street signs the work of my old pal Tim Rushton.
There are those who will remember Tib Street, as a street of pet shops.
Whilst on Sundays the area was transformed into an al fresco menagerie – a land of caged birds and cuddly coneys.
I have long been curious about the faience fronted shop on the corner of Tib and Swan Streets, it featured on my modernist mooch around the north of the city centre.
I have been informed by Lee Hutchings that it had originally been home to Tuttils Ltd.
It was also, formerly the showrooms for local manufacturers Johnson & Nephew.
Here it is in 1959 – with a Burton’s for a neighbour.
Pragmatic Manchester is far from awash with Art Deco – the lost Paramount/Odeon of Oxford Street comes to mind, demolished in 2017.
The Paramount Theatre was built in 1930 to the designs of architects Frank T. Verity & Samuel Beverley for the U.K. arm of the American Paramount Theatres Ltd. chain. The Manchester Paramount Theatre was a sumptuous American import.
Along with the Rylands Building on High Street – currently receiving a facelift following the demise of Debenhams.
The building was originally built as a warehouse by J. Gerrard & Sons of Swinton for the Rylands textile company, which was founded by the entrepreneur John Rylands. That firm had occupied warehouses in High Street ever since 1822; its west-facing side is on High Street. The building was designed by the eminent Manchester architects, Fairhursts – Harry S. & P. G. Fairhurst, in an Art Deco style. It is clad in Portland stone and features a decorative corner tower and eclectic ‘zig zag’ window lintels. The work was completed in 1932.
Rylands will be sensitively restored to its elegant past. The building will comprise workspace, retail and leisure, creating an exciting new destination in Central Manchester.
I began walking when quite young, then like Felix, I kept on walking, walking still.
The photograph was taking during the Whit Walks in 1958 – aged three, I was engaged in religious pilgrimage, as we know there are many reasons for walking, this is but one.
I was fortunate to grow up at a time when youngsters were permitted to roam freely, less traffic, less anxiety, gave me access to a wider axis of exploration.
The photograph would have been taken I assume, by my mam, on the Brownie 127. When aged nine I wandered alone through the local woods and exposed twelve frames of 44mm 127 film, the prints are long gone, yet I remember each of the photographs and locations clearly.
I went to school, then I didn’t, then I went to Art School, eventually becoming a teenage Constructivist, tutored by Jeffrey Steele, a leading light in the British Systems movement.
The rigidity of the grid, symmetry and orthogonal framing have stayed with me.
Then I went to work for a very long time indeed, then all of a sudden I didn’t. Taking early retirement aged 59 some ten years ago, subsequently taking to the roads, streets and hills of Britain in search of nothing in particular.
In recent years there has been a rapid development in the culture of walking, theories, films, guides, songs and literature. I am fully cognisant of such, yet believe at heart that walking can be free of such baggage, we can stride unhindered, atavistic and carefree/less.
Walk tall, walk straight and look the world right in the eye.
Getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing.
In my own small way, I have become part of that baggage, having been asked to lead a walk around Stockport by the the modernist neé Manchester Modernist Society.
The photograph depicts Alan Boyson’s concrete screen wall, attached to the former Cooperative super store designed by Philip Andrew. The two worked to gather on the Hull Cooperative store, which is adorned by Alan’s huge Three Ships mosaic.
Philip was a childhood friend of Alan Boyson and it was Alan’s father, manager of the Marple Co-operative Society, that recommended Philip for an apprenticeship job in 1951 to the chief architect at the CWS in Manchester HQ.
In preparation for the tour, I visited the town’s Local Heritage Library and read extensively from serendipitous charity shop finds.
The two hour route was designed around an economy of distance and elevation, allowing time for others to take in, what may be for them unfamiliar surroundings. A group of around twenty or so folk became sociable and engaged, with a suitably concise and apposite contribution from myself. There are those who busied themselves taking snaps along the way, chatting amiably or simply gazing in amazement.
The service building above the former Debenham’s store.
Famed as an imaginary TV police station, this civic building is a civic building I simply can’t resist. I return on a regular basis to wander and snap. This is an open public space that seems little loved and has few visitors.
From then onwards I have been taking folks on Modernist Mooches on a regular basis, two or so a month, during the less inclement times of year.
At about the same time I was asked to exhibit my photographs in Stockport, I chose to mooch about at night. Walking around an almost deserted town, avoiding the glare of streetlights, there is a mild frisson to be about when nobody else is about. The air feels different, exposures are longer, the almost waking world feels arrested, by the low available light.
My local shopping centre and as such part of my weekly walking and shopping life.
NCP Car Park located on Stockport Station approach.
Regent House
Asda superstore
I found a copy of Charlie Meecham’s book Oldham Road in a charity shop.
Inspiring me in 2014, to walk in mostly straight lines, though often as not zig zagging along the main arterial roads of Manchester.
Taking pictures on Sunday mornings, in order to avoid traffic, mildly amused to be ignoring the primary function of the routes.
This is one of the more familiar roads, having walked up and down several times over several years. It was to have been an extension of the Mancunian Way, forming a trans-pennine motorway. Much of the property lining the route was cleared in preparation, it was never built, and for years a strange semi-deserted ambience hung over the A57.
Bus Depot
Railway Bridge
The car showrooms which later became an African Evangalist church.
Having cleared away both Victorian and Sixties housing, new architectural forms arose in West Gorton.
Now, everywhere I go, I see launderettes – so arriving in Hanley with time on my hands, wandering around I found this exemplary example.
Having a blog entitled Manchester Estate Pubs, the national media became interested in my photographs. I had spent quite some time, wandering around in search of this endangered architectural typology.
This was Billy Greens in Collyhurst, named for a local boxer, now demolished.
Which in turn became the second modernist calendar.
Followed the following year by fish and chip shops.
So building a vocabulary for my mooching, discovering yet another chippy, laundry, pub, Burton’s, telephone exchange, glazed stairway or underpass.
These things find you, yearning for some small amount of attention and affection.
The Trawl – my favourite peg board menu, my favourite Bridlington chippy.
We are now coming to the end of the car park year – seen here on the wall of my command centre.
Home to William Mitchell’s Totem, the homes long gone and the Council pledged to move the totem too.
The state of play this week, the detritus removed and the base filled in, repaved and safe for a while.
Off now to the Weaver Valley another day another river, passing under Weaver Viaduct
The looking toward KouraGlobal – leader in the development, manufacture, and supply of fluoro products and technologies, opened a new HFA 152a production facility at their Runcorn site in the UK.
Further rural Modernism as we pass under and traverse the M62, whilst walking around the Piethorn Valley
The newest of the Modernist Mooches was to Burnley where we visited the Keirby Hotel.
The former GUS Offices with a mural by Diane and William Morris.
Plus the Charles Anderson concrete relief at the Crow Wood Hotel.
Finally a little light relief – a visit to the Boots factory in Nottingham.
Having innocently board a bus outside the station with a Boots head code , I alighted within the factory gates. Then innocently walking around taking snaps, unheeded until the men in the van stopped me in my tracks.
Who are you, what are you doing?
I am the Modern Moocher going about my business – well it turns out this was not permitted and I was red carded by the earnest security guards and asked to leave forthwith. Suitably rebuked, I politely bade them farewell and headed for the gates.
The masterplan states that Radcliffe has many unattractive buildings and few architectural assets. But this could work to its advantage as a lack of protected or noteworthy buildings makes it easier to replace them with contemporary structures.
This could include demolishing the “unwelcoming” St Thomas Estate and replacing it with a mix of private and social housing on the old street layout. Existing tenants would be rehoused in the new houses so that the community would not be broken up.
During his term, Sheffield’s housing grew upwards with multi-storey flats constructed at Low Edges, Park Hill, Hyde Park, Netherthorpe and Woodside. It was Womersley’s response to 13,000 families on the council’s waiting list and 10,000 condemned properties waiting to be demolished.
In the space of a decade they shaped Manchester’s urban fabric, leaving a questionable legacy. The technical quality of their buildings was undoubtedly poor, but their qualities – bold forms, monolithic materiality and streets-in-the-sky – were of the moment, and captured a particular brand of urban renewal, imported from North America and inflected through British post-war planning.
Social housing has been, and continues to be, a contentious arena. This seemingly well-constructed estate was once deemed unfit for habitation by its residents.
Tenants of the St Thomas’ Estate in the town centre allege they have been forgotten by Six Town Housing, which manages the properties.
Magda Csatlos, former chairman of the now disbanded Tenants and Residents Association said rotten bricks with visible gaps between them, badly-designed leaking roofs and damp and mouldy conditions plague many of the 90 homes.
Happily the Local Authority are able to remedy the problem.
After some residents on the estate, who were visited by Bury South MP Ivan Lewis, called for the properties to be “condemned”, the Council agreed to invest £2 million to bring the homes up to standard.
A total of 90 social housing properties on St Thomas Estate have been provided with new external rendering, roofing, windows, doors, insulation and brick cladding.
Along with the Renold Building– which is already home to start up tech businesses.
The city council has approved Bruntwood SciTech’s change of use bid to transform the 110,000 sq ft Renold building into a tech and science hub.
In a joint venture with the University of Manchester, Bruntwood will create 42,000 sq ft coworking and business incubator spaces for businesses in the sector at the Altrincham Street building.
Sister is Manchester’s new innovation district. A £1.7bn investment into the city, its setting – the former University of Manchester North Campus and UMIST site – is steeped in science and engineering history. Home to the UK’s most exciting new ideas and disruptive technologies, Sister is a worldclass innovation platform in the heart of one of the most exciting global cities. It stands as the city’s symbol of a new era of discovery that promises progress against humanity’s greatest challenges.
So it is with a bitter sweet feeling that I took a group of Modernist Moochers around the site this Saturday – a number of whom had been students there.
As a former UMIST student 1990-1997, I had a wander round the old site recently, sad to see it so empty and run-down.
So let’s take a look at the current state of affairs.
Modern Mooch 