This was like a Critical Mass with a Police escort. Organised to raise
awareness whilst the Tories are in town, the ride did a circuit of the
conference centre, Albert Square, Piccadilly and back to the start on St.
Peters Square.
And sundry other things the coalition would like to destroy or privatise. Over 40,000 people turned out from around the country for the demo and marched around the city centre on a route carefully designed, by someone, so that the Tories, hiding behind their ring of steel, didn’t have to see them. I took some photos, and some of my favourite sights and signs are in this Flickr gallery.
Cooperative Wholesale Society Limited.
Another large turnout. Next month is the Halloween special.
After a bit of searching online, I’m fairly confident that this is a Bond 875 Mark 1 saloon.
Spotted on Deansgate.
It took a lot of self control not to see if the lower ladder section would
still swing down to the ground.
I don’t know where I found this, but I’m sure I haven’t posted it before.
This is the rear of the terrace in the previous photo. It’s like a film set.
Even boarded up, I guess these are a nicer sight for the folks across the
road from them than waste land would be.
This terrace marks one of the edges of Chimney Pot Park in Salford. It’s an
interesting development. I used to cycle part it regularly before the
office moved, but today was the dirt time I dropped in for a look around.
You’ll notice that the houses are boarded up and lacking roofs. In the next
photo I shall reveal more.
Red Bull may taste awful, but you can’t fault the quality of the events the
company puts on. Today, they brought world class trials bike riders to
Exchange Square to run head to head races over obstacles that included a
pair of trams.
Originally sent on Saturday, but it doesn’t appear to have arrived.
Cobden House Chambers.
This is a long and sad list for one building to have on its side wall. I
couldn’t fathom why it was there until I found the blue plaque around the
corner which said the building was the base for Owens College- the
institution which became Manchester University- from 1851 to 1873. A lot of
young men would have made their way through the building over those years,
and a large number of them later found themselves in foreign fields.
I’ve probably passed several of these, but this is the first one I’ve
noticed. Outside a University of Salford building on the Crescent.
It’s behind me, but it’s a pretty little something to brighten my walk
along a rainy Crescent.
I’m not sure what to order. Outside the Black Horse, which you may be able
to guess is closed.
This is as far as they had got with numbering the bricks on the Old Bank
Theatre’s side wall last night. They’d started up again this morning.
Anyone know why they’re doing this.
My new route to work offers me a lot of interesting buildings to
photograph. And I’m walking, so I can stop to shoot more easily.
They were sequentially numbering the bricks on the back wall of this
building whilst diggers stirred the rubble of whatever had been next door.
I’m not sure what that means for the Old Bank’s future.
A new phrase recently entered my vocabulary- estate pub. If you’ve ever
seen an estate pub the name clicks instantly. The Flemish Weaver* is such
an establishment, and one of the more basic designs. Further down the road
is the Woolpack, which is currently in one of the other natural states for
an estate pub- boarded up and scary looking.
*Or Lemish Weave. I imagine a lemish weave being a combined wig and fake
beard which makes you look like the lead singer of Motorhead.
Perhaps it’s waiting to pounce on some unsuspecting hatchback. Or maybe its
hunting days are done, which would be ablea shame.
And it is. No, really, it is.