"If it stopped banging on about its football teams and its bands and its shops and its attitude, Manchester has something that it can be genuinely, enormously proud of, something that it should shout from the rooftops. Manchester changed the world’s politics: from vegetarianism to feminism to trade unionism to communism, every upstart notion that ever got ideas above its station, every snotty street-fighter of a radical philosophy, was fostered brawling in Manchester’s streets, mills, pubs, churches and debating halls." - Stuart Maconie, Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North (2008)
Hi Chrissy, Looking forward to learning more about Manchester other than Man United haha! Had a scroll down your page, great pictures.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
Grace
Mmm ... now THAT is a very bold statement by Mr Maconie. Actually, it could probably be said about every city in the world. I hope he has concepts to back up each of his assertions.
ReplyDeleteI do like the photograph you have used here. I like the mix of old and new. I also am surprised by the openness of the streets. Many streets in major English cities are narrow and twisty, but I guess as they are modernised they are broadened. I guess there to now be a mixture of the two.
How beautiful a scene.
ReplyDeletedaily athens
Very nice. I would love to visit there one day.
ReplyDeleteJulie, to speak for Mr Maconie ;-), I think he would say the Vegetarian society formed in Manchester in 1847; Engels worked here and wrote Conditions of the English working class in 1844, which led to him and Marx collaborating & the communist manifesto etc; the Pankhursts and the suffragette movement in England started here, and the Trade Unions were a result of the industrial revolution. I am sure many other cities to have their own versions of some of these and also their own claims to fame ;-)
ReplyDeleteIn the spirit of friendliness,
Chrissy
This must have been taken from the new footbridge - I've never noticed that tree in the middle of the road before.
ReplyDelete