One giant leap for Man(chester)kind...

Leap Day deserves a special post so I have decided on one of my favourite Mancunian interiors, The Royal Exchange Theatre.

The Royal Exchange was a cotton exchange with its current (and third) reincarnation on this site completed in the 1870s. It suffered bomb damage in both World War II and 1996. Trading ceased in 1968, in 1973 a theatre company moved in and by 1976 a theatre in the round had landed in the centre of the grand hall.

The clash of 19th century opulence and 20th century theatre venue, studio, gallery, craft centre and restaurants somehow works.  The theatre part has always reminded me of a giant version of the Apollo pods which landed on the moon. You can see the theatre/pod partially to the bottom right of this photo. I'll post other photos to do the pod and the rest of the building justice another time.

I fondly remember coming here on my first ever trip to Manchester in 1984 (an ominous literary year...). I was here for the weekend from London and, after an all night film show at the Uni, queued for cheap banquette tickets at about 8 a.m. The play I got to see that evening was Tom Stoppard's Jumpers with Julie Walters and Tom Courtenay, if memory serves me right...(Yes, it does, I just checked).

Linked to the Weekly Top Shot blog.

Mcr Histories Festival

The Manchester Histories Festival is on this week. It's a celebration of Greater Manchester’s "unique history and heritage" - an odd statement in my view as surely every city's history and heritage is unique?

That aside, this year's mouth watering programme includes talks, walks, exhibitions, performance and archaeology.  A few gems I'm looking forward to are Scott of the Antarctic and Manchester; Slavery and Abolition; Frances Lockett- Britain's first queen of cotton; food heritage; music fanzines; Egyptology in Manchester, Communism in Manchester and much more: http://www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.org.uk/

A photo of mine is being used to promote the New Manchester Walks' tours of the Town Hall. It is ringed to the right above (thanks Tim!) and appears in the thousands of festival brochures printed. I first posted it here last September. The photo is also in use at New Manchester Walks  and Quay Tickets.

The use of my photo on the festival website I gave free of charge, as I am a passionate believer of the Histories Festival itself.

Happy Mondays: Delamere Forest foray

The Forestry Commission describe Delamere Forest as having "over 950 hectares of mixed deciduous and evergreen forest, open grassland and wetlands. It is the largest wooded area in Cheshire and lies within the Mersey Forest. Blakemere Moss is an excellent habitat for a wide variety of wildlife and is particularly popular with ornithologists".

Hilton Hotel: a humdrum conundrum

The Beetham Tower, Manchester; the first 22 floors are a Hilton Hotel, floor 23 is the Cloud 23 bar, and floors 24 to 47 contain 219 private apartments and 16 penthouses.

But I relate to the dilemma posed by Irma Kurtz in her 1994 book The Great American Bus Ride:

“When I was young and learning to survive on the roads of Europe, Hilton was anathema to me and other wanderers of my ilk. Hilton was the home away from home for all bourgeois American tourists. Hiltonites were be-cameraed and wore Bermuda shorts...[but] was it such a big deal nearly 40 years on to spend one lousy night, the first of my entire life, in a Hilton Hotel?”

Linked to the Weekly Top Shot blog.

Weekend Reflections: The mysterious W.B. Tyler...

This is 2 Charter Road in Altrincham. The previous shop sign has fallen off or been removed. This has revealed the wonderful wooden signage of a bygone era, I would guess the 1950s.

I couldn't find anything out about W.B.Tyler or what the premises were used for but the Altrincham local history society have shed a little light on it. David Miller tells me that a bomb dropped on Charter Road on 22 December 1940 and made a big crater with considerable damage to property including this one. He has put me on to Trafford Local Studies and I will see what I can discover in their 1942 street directory... 

Update 20 March 2012: David tells me that "the present occupiers of the shop say it was a butchers before them, probably Tylers". As a vegetarian I am very saddened.
The blue tinted window does however, reflect a good example of local terraced housing, a vintage lamp, a tree near the entrance to Stamford Park and a myriad of telegraph wires. Have a look at some other Weekend Reflections.

Metrolink millions

Late afternoon, just before the start of the commuter rush hour on the ever expanding Metrolink tram network.

Evidently it carries about 20 million passengers a year- which is one of those uses of statistics I always find slightly odd. It means that there are 20 million individual journeys rather than there being 20 million different people who use it annually.

Millions of pounds are being invested in several new lines. Overall it's a good, cleanish and fast system, although often overcrowded and fares aren't cheap- they increased again last month, unlike most of us poor passengers' wages...

Linked to Friday's fences at: http://lifeaccordingtojanandjer.blogspot.com/

Winter waterway

There are miles and miles of pretty stretches along the Trent and Mersey canal. It sometimes looks more like a river than a canal and is attractive even when cloaked in winter colours. 

The pancake stakes

Shrove Tuesday saw some traditional pancake tossing and consumption all across Manchester. The On The Eighth Day cafe was offering vegan versions as well as the usual kind. At home we settled for a large batch, courtesy of Susie, with some of us sticking to lemon and sugar as a filling, whilst others boldly experimented with banana, strawberries, nutella and vanilla ice cream...

Photo by Holly Sutton-Brand

Cheshire Cheese - oldest in England

The Cheshire Cheese pub at Wheelock in Cheshire.There are many pubs of this name in the county and, indeed, throughout the country. I like the way the lamp fitting also has the pub's name engraved on it.

Cheshire cheese is the oldest cheese in England. Dense and crumbly it is produced in Cheshire and four neighbouring counties: two in Wales (Denbighshire and Flintshire) and two in England (Shropshire and Staffordshire). It is first mentioned by Thomas Muffet in his book on nutition for the layperson, Health's Improvement, written circa 1580.

Wheelock village was named after the River Wheelock which runs through it, and comes from an old Welsh source meaning "winding river". The first recorded name for the village was Hoileck/Hoiloch in the Domesday Book. By 1396 the name had evolved to Quelock then in 1382 to Whelock. Two years later, it was Welock and by 1390 the name Wheelock was settled upon.

See also the Signs, Signs blog.

Kings of King Street: Jamie vs Rio

These grand buildings at the top end of King Street were built by Manchester wealth of the 19th and 20th centuries. Two of them are former banks which now house restaurants owned by two of today's wealthy celebrities. On the left we have Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Italian and in the turreted building on the middle right we have footballer Rio Ferdinand's Italian, Rosso.

The white building was formerly the Midland Bank (where I banked in splendour for many years!), built in the 1930s to an Edwin Lutyens design. Original features have been retained, including marble clad columns, intricate mahogany wall panellings and a number of historic art deco features. Thе vaults аnԁ safety deposit boxes hаνе bееn also incorporated іntο thе design.

Jamie says of his restaurant which opens today: “I hope thаt whеn Manchester see thе restaurant thеу feel wе′ve looked аftеr thеіr building sensitively. [I hope] thаt thеу Ɩіkе іt, іt’s got energy, gorgеουѕ food, fаntаѕtіс ingredients, cooked bу community people аnԁ really accessible. I јυѕt hope thеу delight іn іt and wе really wіƖƖ look аftеr thеm, аnd whаt саn thеу expect? EхсеƖƖеnt food, ехсеƖƖеnt drink, ехсеƖƖеnt atmosphere, fοr sure.”

Photos of the inside at Manchester Confidential.