# Manchester, UK - Red Brick City



## VDB (Jun 6, 2012)

*24/7/2014*

*CITY CENTRE*

*27C/81F: SUNNY, DAMN HOT*

This tour starts in the area around Albert Square. The Friend's Meeting House, below, is the base for the Manchester Quakers. I swear the guy on the steps wasn't there when I took the photo, he must be a ghost 













There's a lovely cafe on the ground floor of this building behind the steps to the Friend's Meeting House:













The Central Reference Library, from behind. I'll cover the CRL in more detail when St Peter's Square, in front of it, is no longer a construction site. They're redeveloping it to look more European etc, and make better use of the wonderful 1930s Library:














The Town Hall, approaching from Peter St:














Three great Manchester buildings. The Town Hall, Central Library and Midland Hotel:













Note the reflection of the Central Reference Library! I tried very hard, and annoyed a lot of pedestrians trying to pass me, to try and get this shot!












Past Albert Square, we come into Manchester's traditional business district. It's known as Spring Gardens, but more recently the media keep calling it "Little Italy" due to an apparent abundance of Italian restaurants in the area:













And if you look closely, the area does actually have a Venetian-style architecture to it:






















Spring Gardens is a well-stacked, dense area. With quite narrow streets, I love it!





































































The sun really did defeat me on this one - if it had just been a little lower, behind the building, it would've been great. This King St office tower was integrated into/attached to the grand building in front of it when it was built in 1995. Good job. Reminds me a little bit of the way the Metlife Tower looms over Grand Central in New York.. With the sun positioned the way it is on this picture, it looks as though there's a very shiny object, or even an angel, on top of the office block!















I moved further down King St, which has traditionally been quite an upmarket area of the city for shopping:
































I then took the arcade in the first photo, which leads into St Anne's Courtyard. There's a magnificent church and a lovely square here:

























Manchester is, of course, not all built out of bricks and mortar. More recently there's been a lot of development in the city centre. Spinningfields is one such area, a large new office district, sprung like a phoenix out of wasteland once on the edge of the city centre: nowadays very much at its core.

The John Rylands Library and this jutting office building provide a beautiful architectural juxtaposition, such is Manchester's speciality:













Some feel Spinningfields is quite corporate and cosmetic, lacking in character. I think it's quite exciting, although I can see how some would detest how grey it appears:


































I finished the tour by getting a drink in Great Northern Square. The art deco building is Sunlight House, named after Joseph Sunlight who, in the 1940s, also wanted to build a 30-storey art deco tower behind it!













It would've been wonderful, but alas the city council rejected it because most of the city was still rebuilding after the Blitz. Those Germans took more from Manchester than they think  I don't think the street scene is quite lacking, even without the tower...


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Nice updates!

Damn that sun!


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## VDB (Jun 6, 2012)

*4/8/2014*

*SALFORD, THEN CITY CENTRE*

*23C/73F: SUNNY*

I firstly wanted to show off an unknown area of Manchester: Central Salford. It's actually quite a pleasant place to be architecturally, however it's completely devoid of people.

Salford is, technically and historically, a separate city to Manchester. However most Salfordians, like myself, would claim to be "from Manchester" anyway due to the pull of Manchester on its hinterland. Salford is also officially part of Manchester's metropolitan area, and Central Salford is (quite literally) a stone's throw from Central Manchester, as the first picture demonstrates:

The River Irwell separates Salford from Manchester. Central Manchester is on the right, Central Salford is on the left:















The two cities are so close that it very much looks like one city. For instance, in the photo below, the surrounding streetscape was taken in Salford, but the blue tower in the distance (CIS) is in Manchester:
























Salford has some red brick architecture too:














And some surprisingly nice buildings:








































Victoria Bridge:













I like what they've done with the lights underneath this Victorian railway bridge:













Anyway, enough of that. Over the River I went, back to Manchester...........


Blackfriars House sits on the riverside:














Looking back at Salford. Blackfriars House is on the left:















I then continued into Parsonage Gardens, which is a really lovely little green space.












Friggin' love the apartment block on the left.























This lovely building is called Awkright House:
























Looking towards Piccadilly. City Tower can be seen from a great number of streets in the city:
























I pressed onto the other side of the city, to the Gay Village:














The Village is set around a canalside street named, unsurprisingly, Canal St. In the 1990s, for a laugh, local pissheads would scrub out the "C" on the Canal St streetsign, hilarious.
























The Minshull St Law Courts:














And wait! What's that poking up bottom left? Ah yes, it's the City Tower again:














More Village architecture:














I then walked through the tiny green oasis that is Sackville Gardens. (a few trees in Manchester=a park). 

If you have good eyesight you'll be able to see a statue sitting on the park bench in the bottom left of this photo. That's Alan Turing, an intelligent mathematician who is widely regarded as having invented the modern day computer: "The Baby", which was the size of a room and took a week to compute simple maths. Everything starts somewhere though? Anyway, he's also accredited to cracking the Enigma Code during WW2, allowing us to spy on the Germans and, eventually, win the war. Unfortunately for him and the time he was living in, he was also a homosexual. Word got out that he had spent an evening with another man in Manchester one night, and he was promptly arrested and given hormone injections, not long before he committed suicide. He holds an apple in his hand: his favourite fairytale when he was younger was Snow White. When he killed himself, he injected an apple full of cyanide and ate it. In his lifetime, the world never knew what he had achieved during WW2. There's now a movie coming out about him where he's played by Benedict Cumberbatch:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/














Sackville Park is overlooked by some of Manchester's most amazing architecture. Here we see the Whitworth Observatory:

























I then went to what is possibly my favourite collection of streets in Manchester, you'll soon find out why:-










This beauty, definitely a candidate for my top 5 buildings in Manchester, is Lancaster House:























Look at that detail:














Looking down Whitworth St:














I then headed down Princess St. There are some gorgeous/expensive apartments down here.

































Off Princess St you'll find Granby Row, one of Manchester's most prestigious addresses:

















































"Right at the heart of things" :banana:


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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

Lovely images VDB...


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## VDB (Jun 6, 2012)

*Miscallaneous*

A few photos by me that I don't think I've posted on here.

Italian Quarter/Little Italy:













Financial District:














Financial District:














The John Rylands Library & Spinningfields Square:














Jack Wills, King Street:


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## paul62 (Jan 27, 2012)

^^Italian Quarter/Little Italy? Is that because there`s a number of Italian Restaurants around there? I`ve never heard it being referred to as that before.
Nice shots VDB.


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## VDB (Jun 6, 2012)

paul62 said:


> ^^Italian Quarter/Little Italy? Is that because there`s a number of Italian Restaurants around there? I`ve never heard it being referred to as that before.
> Nice shots VDB.


Me neither up until recently - but the local press have started referring to it as that because of the number of Italian restaurants there. I think it was in the MEN where I first saw it.


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## paul62 (Jan 27, 2012)

^^Or some of the architecture perhaps?

(Written before I`d seen your reply VDB)


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## VDB (Jun 6, 2012)

paul62 said:


> ^^Or some of the architecture perhaps?
> 
> (Written before I`d seen your reply VDB)


There certainly is a Venetian style of architecture around Albert Square. It could be a combination of things, most likely it's marketing hype though :lol: I hope it catches on!


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## VDB (Jun 6, 2012)

*SALFORD QUAYS *

*12C/54F: SUNNY*

Haven't posted in here for ages because I've been at Uni in Newcastle - but now that I'm back in Manchester for a month (!) over Easter I decided to get out into the sunshine a bit.

Yesterday I was in the city centre to see a few friends, so I took these shots. While being in Newcastle, I had forgotten how big and busy Manchester is. Manchester and its metropolitan area is 3x the size of Newcastle/Tyne and Wear - and it shows in terms of the size of buildings and the general busyness of central Manchester. I'll be taking more photos during this Easter break, to try and show you what I mean:


































Today I headed out to Salford Quays, where I learnt that having candid pictures of people in shot makes the photo 10x better.


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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

Yes, people always add interest.....


I'd love to see some photos of Newcastle too when and if you get around to it.....


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## paul62 (Jan 27, 2012)

Nice shots VDB. Good to see you posting again mate.


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## VDB (Jun 6, 2012)

openlyJane said:


> I'd love to see some photos of Newcastle too when and if you get around to it.....


Went to Durham the other day actually, I'll think about posting those photos although it was quite a dull day so I'm not sure they'll come out great.


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## diddyD (May 12, 2014)

Good update.


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## firoz bharmal (Jul 16, 2005)

^^ Carry on....!....Nice pictures...!


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## VDB (Jun 6, 2012)

Some photos off my Instagram while I was back in Manchester:


City Tower, Piccadilly Plaza













Chapel Street, Salford at rushour:














The arches at the Town Hall Extension, St Peter's Square:














The Town Hall itself:













St Peter's Square:













Anchorage Quay, Salford Quays:














Whitworth Street in the rain and at rushour:













Gothic Beetham Tower:














Portland St daily grind:














Portland Street:














Cloudy day, Town Hall:














Statue by the Central Library:















Manchester Art Gallery:















And finally, Deansgate:


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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

Great pictures, Ed.


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## paul62 (Jan 27, 2012)

Good stuff mate.


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## VDB (Jun 6, 2012)

Thanks guys :cheers:


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## Limak11 (Apr 14, 2014)

Very good photos, city looks great


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