Mancunian Tourist

Less than 3 hours in Manchester on a Saturday afternoon?

Sorted!

Coffee ✅
Wander✅
Hindi Mela ✅
Free front row seat at a musical rehearsal at Manchester Cathedral ✅
Cheeky wine at Wethers ✅

Mancunian Bestie works for Boots & we have an in-joke that wherever she visits a different town in the UK, she has to visit a Boots store there, too.

Today, I noticed a plaque outside the side entrance of the big Boots in Manchester. Bestie doesn't work for this particular store.

Can any of you tell me what was special about this building before it was Boots?

Only in Manchester!

I arrived at Manchester Victoria to a young man playing YMCA on a piano! Then, turning a corner, I saw a chain of hearts on the walkway. You are encouraged to take one. How lovely 😍

Angel Meadow: Where angels watched over "Hell on Earth".





Now a public park just a stone's throw from the Northern Quarter, Angel Meadow was initially an affluent area before its notoriously dark history.

The Church of St Michael's and All Angels opened in the late 18th Century on the land between the River Irk & Rochdale Road. Its parishioners consisted mostly of the wealthy inhabitants of the area.

However, the river attracted mills, factories, gasworks, the railway and cheap houses for workers, driving the wealthy out, and key finances for the church. Angel Meadow soon became overcrowded, with underpaid workers crammed in dirty housing without any sanitary provisions, often invaded by vermin.

The death rate was unsurprisingly high, and the church had to close its burial ground. By this time, a new burial ground had been consecrated just outside the church grounds - the largest in the city - for the sole purpose of burying paupers who had no money for a proper funeral.

It's estimated that over 40,000 paupers were buried here with nothing more than planks covering the bodies. The planks were locked at night to prevent rats and "curious individuals".

But the planks did nothing to stop the stench of the rotting bodies from seeping out of the ground.

The burial ground was soon notorious and became a magnet for the morbidly fascinated. Friedrich Engels visited and wrote about it in his book "The Condition of the Working Class In England".

The new burial ground filled up rather quickly, and closed in 1816, less than 30 years after it first opened.

The open ground became vulnerable to a number of questionable activities including cockfighting, gambling & prostitution. It was flagged in the mid 1800s after a public enquiry (hence the name, "St Michael's Flags"), and in the late 19th century, a children's park was erected. The church fell into debt, and was demolished in 1935, and the rest, they say, is history.

At the turn of the millennium, the Friends of Angel Meadow formed to restore the area to how we see it today. Human remains found in the pauper's burial ground have since been reburied in Southern Cemetery, a few miles south of the city.

Engels wasn't the only notable person linked to Angel Meadow. L.S. Lowry often visited his maternal grandparents who lived nearby in Oldham Street in the early 1900s, and his drawings, The Steps and Britain at Play, were studies of the area at the time.

And Angel Meadow was home to Manchester's very own Sherlock Holmes - Jerome Caminada. In 1897, he became the city's first CID superintendent. Caminada's most famous case was the Manchester Cab Murder of 1889, in which he not only solved the case, but the perpetrator was brought to trial and convicted within three weeks of the murder.

I'm back. Thanks for being so patient.

A few weeks ago, Mancunian Tourist toddled off to Town & found herself following an unsavoury looking chap down a ginnel for no other reason than curiosity. But the alley looked interesting.

Manchester is indeed known for its rain, but could it be so much so that it's the very reason a marble image of two umbrellas is mounted on a wall there?

Apparently, no. This is called Boardman's Entry, and it connects King Street to South Kings Street. The umbrellas are a tribute to John Dalton who devised atomic theory.

He was a bit of a weather geek, and studied meteorology for fun, hence the umbrellas.

Fancy going on holiday? Come to the city tomorrow!

Travelling into the city centre for Manchester Day on Holiday this Saturday 29 July? 🌞

There are lots of sustainable ways to travel:

🚶‍♀️ Walk
🚴 Cycle
🚌 Take the bus
🚋 Hop on the tram

Plan your journey with TfGM at https://orlo.uk/QGJki

One of my favourite moments in Manchester Central Library was holding Elizabeth Gaskill's handwritten journal on cat medicines...and you can, too. Pop into the library & ask about it!

From generation to generation - the 'jewel in the city's crown' - Manchester Central Library continues to inspire In the heart of Manchester, stands an iconic city venue designed by the visionary architect E. Vincent Harris.

They're back! You can pick up a trail leaflet from local shops, the tourist information centre at the market, or download it from the link below.
https://totallystockport.co.uk/frogs-2023-this-summers-great-frogtastic-invention-trail-its-free-for-everyone/

Look out for small things! Manchester is crammed with stuff that's easily missed.

I had an appointment yesterday in town. On my way, I couldn't help notice this bin and this open letter to Mancunians plastered by a travel blogger!

I also popped into Virgin bank to take a photo of their lovely bee!

If you had only one hour in Manchester, where would you spend it?

Mayfield Park: From drab, disused station to wildlife haven.

I wasn't supposed to be visiting the city last week. I was going to just make up my mind somewhere on the route: basically, whatever direction the first bus I could see would take me, but somewhere on the 330 route to Ashton, I overheard two ladies talk about 'that new city park in Manchester'. I knew they meant Mayfield, and it's on my "to do" list.

So, I hopped off in Hyde and off I toddled to the central station and travelled into town.

Mayfield Park opened in September 2022, the first city centre park in Manchester for 100 years. It’s been developed on the southern part of the former Mayfield Railway station, which was opened in 1910 as a four-platformed relief station to alleviate overcrowding at Piccadilly. The station closed to passengers in 1960, but remained open as a parcels depot until 1986.The Mayfield Depot building has since been host to the Manchester International Festival, and is now known as Depot Mayfield, a modern entertainments venue with a capacity of 10,000.

Mayfield Park is a short 9-minute walk away from Piccadilly Station. It’s not huge. It feels smaller than the 6.5 acres boasted on the website, but it's wheelchair friendly and makes for an interesting mooch! I couldn't stop my phone camera from clicking.

Flora and fauna is plainly abundant, and the eclectic industrial backdrop of urban buildings from a variety of eras adds to the character.

And I love the fact it's been so cleverly and carefully designed. It's a celebration of biodiversity & upcycling. Just look at the thick wooden benches, for instance. No, honestly, please check them out.

It's quite stunning, well, it's actually not really. Not when you're facing the "Depot Mayfield" sign, but that's part of the charm. It's a great place to pop to if you're too early for your train. Actually, it’s a fantastic place to pop to if you just want to explore the city and see first-hand the eclecticism that is Manchester. It makes a very pleasant experience. It's just missing a geocache!

The toilets are clean and smell surprisingly pleasant, too. There's a nice pop-up coffee shop & the obligatory ice cream van parked up near the play area.

Not-so-Mini Manc is 14, but judging from the shrieks of college students using the slides and swings in the play area (and I mean properly playing on them rather than smoking on the see-saw), he might not be not too old to enjoy them when we visit.

And those seven swans swam in Crime Lake, Daisy Nook!

Well done, Ian Greathead

You don't get a prize, just the smug satisfaction of seeing that seven swans were swimming safely in Crime Lake.

By the way, the name is an old local word for "meadow", rather than a anything else. Ian probably knows this.

Here are more pictures from yesterday

Seven Swans a Swimming in Greater Manchester, but where?

Oooh - Hot Chocolate Heaven!

First look: specialist hot chocolate cafe Knoops opens in Manchester Hot chocolate specialist Knoops has opened in Manchester with 22 different types of chocolate that can be made into hot and cold drinks.

We're watching the trams trundle past as Not-so-Mini Mamc and I wait in Victoria station.

It's such a beautiful day, and there's a lot to see in this station.

Attached to the AO Arena, it serves as an interchange for Manchester's famous tram service.

There's a permanent memorial to Georgina Callander, one of the twenty two victims of the atrocious bomb attack in 2017. It used to be a memorial to all 22, so I am not quite sure what happened there.

The station has been modernised, but there are a number of permanent reminders of days gone by.

Ian Greathead - there is indeed a link between Charles Dickens and Manchester, but it's his visit to his sister that is the key. She lived in Ardwick.

Dickens and Manchester Charles Dickens is of course well known for his association with London. However people might be less familiar with his links to Manchester. These are discussed here and accompany a small exhibitio…

Daisy Nook Fair

This was a childhood favourite of mine!

It's of the largest fun fairs in the North West, with over 150 rides, and there's the beautiful Daisy Nook country park to explore, too!

The fair is on until 16th April.

Daisy Nook Easter Fair With more than 150 rides and attractions for all the family to enjoy, this is one of the largest fun fairs in the North West.

A blossom trail. How blooming lovely!😍

Discover All The Best Blossom In Manchester With The Bloomtown Trail The National Trust has published its Bloomtown Trail, taking avid nature lovers to the best sites to see some spring blossom in Manchester.

Gorton Monastery -
Manchester's Heavenly Delight.





Taking a vow of silence on a Thursday - or any day of the week - is a challenge for me, so it's a good job the monastery only has one quiet hour a day between 1pm and 2pm.

Manc Bestee and I visited the architectural masterpiece that is Gorton Monastery a week last Thursday. It's been on my "to do" list for quite some time, but I always felt a little intimidated by the grandeur of the place, and now that I've visited, I feel a little bit silly as the place was so very welcoming.

Parking is free, and you can be forgiven for being a little disappointed when you arrive as the modernised extension greets you from the car park entrance, which is why it's so very important to venture outside and look at it from across the street, then take a walk around it to drink in the splendour. In fact, if you get a blue sky day, stand right in front of it with your back to the railings and look up. If white, fluffy clouds are moving, it's mesmerising.

We started with a very reasonably priced coffee in the cafe. Piped meditation background music adds a mellow vibe to your caffeine shot, which I guess is very useful for those encouraged to choose the Monastery as a warm hub for remote working as some people appeared to have done.

Fully refreshed, we strolled our way through the cafe, drinking in the timeline displayed on the information boards in the area. In fact, a very detailed history can be discovered by reading the many boards available as you make your way round the building.

It was 1861 when the first Franciscan monks came to Gorton. Franciscan monks, unlike most monks, actively minister Catholicism to laypeople, and by that time, Gorton had grown tremendously during the industrial revolution from a small country village to a large town of 10,000 inhabitants, a large number of whom were Irish Catholics. Franciscan values meant that the monks dedicated their lives to work for the poor, and this made Gorton an ideal place to settle.

Building their own church was an expensive feat, but a number of retired friars donated £2000 which was used to pay for the land. After much more fundraising, ten years later, the church was built.

For the next century, the church and friary grew. But, by the 1960s, fewer people attending church meant less money in church collections.

In 1963, Gorton Locomotive Works closed down, leading to mass unemployment, and the subsequent relocation schemes clearing families out of Gorton meant fewer church goers still.

The last Mass was held on the 26 November 1989, and the remaining friars moved out the following year.

The land was sold to a developer for conversion to apartments, but this didn't happen, and the building fell into neglect, and was left vulnerable to many acts of vandalism & theft. Roofs fell in, walls failed, and the future of the monastery was bleak. But in September 1996, Paul and Elaine Griffiths set up a charitable trust to raise money and restore the site.

In 1997, the World Monuments Fund placed it on the World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites which brought Gorton Monastery back into the limelight. The trust was able to buy the site for £1, and tireless campaigning lead to success in securing Heritage Lottery Funding and European Regional Development Funding to restore the building.

In 2007, "The Monastery Manchester" opened for business offering "conferences, wedding receptions, concerts and community celebrations". In 2009, it gained its wedding license, and in 2017, the new Welcome Wing was completed.

Now, the monastery is fully open to the public, and holds various community & wellbeing events throughout the year.

How the monastery became such structural beauty is thanks to its architect, Edward Welby Pugin, son of Augustus Pugin who was well known for the intricate Gothic detail of the Houses of Parliament. The Pugin family were devout Catholics and became the leading firm for building Catholic churches.
Entering the church itself is a breathtaking experience. Light plays its part in creating ethereal visuals as you enter the church itself.

In his design, Pugin very cleverly used the movement of the sun throughout the day, the months and the seasons to naturally illuminate key features in the church on key dates.

He changed the alignment of the church from east/west to north/south, therefore using the rising and setting of the sun to give the 12 Saints twice above the columns of the nave a halo of light twice a day. He used the same technique to light the statue of St Francis on his feast day, October 4th. Likewise, the statue of Mother Mary on the Lady Altar is also bathed in natural sunlight on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption.

By December, the two lights are level with the base of the crucifix, and on Christmas Day the first light shines exactly on the body of Christ on the cross.

It's amazing.

But that's not all Pugin did.

Just under the original spot of the crucifix, a number of tiles look as if they have been put in the wrong way round, but the same thing is also present in the Houses of Parliament. It's a mystery as to what possible reason this could be, but Manc Bestee and I heard from a fellow visitor (before we silently ventured into the church) that Pugin senior had once said "because only God is perfect" when asked the reason for the imperfection in the HoP.

The time of restoration of the Monastery has a special numerical significance. It took 609 days to restore the grade II* listed building, and the late Tony Hurley, curious about how long it had taken Brother Patrick and the Franciscan fathers to complete their original church, looked into this and read that it was it was actually 10 years 9 months and 26 days. It didn’t take him long to establish that from the day the Trust was formed to the day the restoration was complete was also 10 years 9 months and 26 days - the exact same length of the restoration.

The Monastery Manchester is so much more than a global tourist attraction, it offers all its visitors a safe space. And there's a secret garden, too which I imagine is a treat in the summer time. The monastery takes pride in being "Manchester’s modern-day, multi-faith sanctuary." And, in the words of King Charles III, who visited as Prince of Wales in 2010: "I find that just being here lists my spirits and makes me feel that anything is possible".

And it's true.

You can find out more about the Monastery, including what's on at:

https://www.themonastery.co.uk/

Pre-Easter Jaunt Part 4:




Hanging Ditch!

"That ditch is well 'anging, mate!"

I thought I knew where Hanging Ditch was. I thought it was where there's a street sign that says "Hanging Ditch". It isn't.

Hanging Ditch (number 46 in the book, "111 Places in Manchester That You Shouldn't Miss) is confusingly around the corner from "Hanging Ditch", and it doesn't look that great. In fact, the nearby statue of Ghandi looks much more impressive, but it's the history of the ditch and it's renovation that's interesting.

Hanging Ditch is thought to have been created in the Middle Ages as part of a defence system separating the cathedral from the then town of Manchester, affectionately named after a big tit by the Romans (not Hanging Ditch, Manchester itself). The ditch connected two rivers: Irk and Irwell, with a known bridge built over the two as far back as the 1300s.

It is thought to have been named as such because medieval cloth makers hung out their linen there.

Manchester has always had its scroats, and the Middle Ages were no exception with the fly tippers of the day filling the ditch with rubbish. Things got to a head in 1561, and the local court issued an edict protecting the ditch from being filled with "Donge, fylthe or mucke", and houses were built upon the area. In the 1880s, the bridge was discovered after the houses were demolished, before being hidden again by Hanging Bridge Chambers. It was rediscovered in 2002 and restored as part of the Cathedral Visitor Centre. During excavations, many medieval artifacts were found dumped, which gave light to day to day activities of the times, photographs of which were displayed in the Cathedral Visitor Centre.

When I visited the ditch, the centre was closed, but I did get chatting with a man who works for CityCo, the independent, not-for-profit organisation now responsible for Manchester's Flower Festival. He was also having a mooch. He told me his team were responsible for the creation of the garden area during renovation works a while back. Sadly, they are no longer involved, but many daffodils remain.

He encouraged me to visit Castlefield Viaduct, where the National Trust manage gardens that will soon be expanded. I said I would.

You can find details of this year's flower festival here:

https://cityco.com/event/the-manchester-flower-festival/

Pre-Easter Jaunt Part 3:
Sinclair Oyster Bar
Manchester's Portable Pearl

Sinclair's Oyster Bar is allegedly the city's oldest bar. The building can be traced back to 1720 when it occupied The Shambles, next to the Market Square. Yep, it's a building that's been moved, brick by brick, and survived two bombings but remained the same inside.

Originally a chop house, it was known as The Fleece Inn in 1807, then somewhere between 1807 and 1845, it was known as The King's Head, and then Sinclair's before adding Oysters to the menu and becoming Sinclair's Oyster Bar, which it has remained known as ever since.

Being the birthplace of the industrial revolution, Manchester became an essential industrial hub - and therefore a significant target for German bombers in the Second World War.

In 1941, during a heavy Christmas blitz, the Shambles fell victim to a huge fire - the biggest since the great fire of that there London in 1666 - claiming 684 lives and injuring over 2,000 people, yet Sinclair's, and the neighbouring Old Wellington survived, though they had to be placed on stilts in the 1970s when the area was rebuilt.

The two historical Tudor pubs remained intact, and upright despite the heavy blast of the 1996 IRA bombing, too.

However, two close calls were two too many in the eyes of those responsible for the redevelopment of the city following the attack, and a decision was made for Sinclair’s and the Old Wellington to be upped and moved 300 metres, into the protective shade of the cathedral.

It was a painstakingly delicate job. Both pubs were moved piece by piece, stored & put together again, "all of the creaky floorboards, and skewiff windows, doors that didn’t quite fit” had to be very carefully put back together, according to Alison Nimmo, a member of the taskforce charged with overseeing the work.

Today, Sinclair's Oyster bar retains that Tudor feel, and the original wood panelled interior gives it a dark but cosy atmosphere. I decided to pop in for my lunch, given that I have never ventured there before, despite eyeballing it for the past 30 years.

I didn't order oysters. Somehow, Manchester doesn't feel much like an Oyster place, it's a pies, chips & gravy city, so I don't quite understand why I ordered fish & chips with mushy peas. Sitting in a snug little corner and feeling a little smug, I tucked in. It was delicious.

It did feel like a friendly old-man's pub - probably on account of the dozen or so friendly old men that were there on a mid-week lunchtime.

It's definitely worth a visit, and it's very much part of Manchester's historical attractiveness.

Pre-Easter Jaunt Part 2:






My Beloved Corn Exchange & A Very Special Post Box Indeed.

It was Saturday morning, 16th June 1996. I had (yet another) end-of-uni celebration-induced hangover. I'd also had a row with my then boyfriend because I refused to go to Manchester, instead opting to remain in bed until noon, nursing a head pain of mammoth proportions in my Warrington halls, where I'd been studying a Manchester University degree in Media and Business Management. I was due to pack up and leave my uni home the week after, and I couldn't see any rush to leave. Instead, he begrudgingly drove up to me, grumbling incessantly about my selfishness.

At 4pm, there was a frantic knocking on my door. My mother, beside herself with worry, had heard the news that a bomb had gone off in Manchester, and had spent over an hour trying to get through to the communal payphone to check up on me, as other frantic parents had rushed to do the same. That was the first I heard about the bomb.

I did cry a few days later. Despite the bomb being the largest explosion ever to have been set off in Mainland Britain, there were no fatalities. The police, heroically & miraculously, successfully evacuated over 80,000 people from the area before the bomb went of at 11:40am on the busiest day of the week.

Marks & Spencer, the Arndale, and my beloved Corn Exchange - an amazing bazaar of indie-clothing and unusual goods at the time - were all devastated by the explosion. And it was a picture of the damage to the Corn Exchange that broke me, hence the tears.

However, the post box on Corporation Street, outside Marks and Spencer, remained intact, despite the devastation around it. In fact, only few days after the bombing, a postman was granted special permission to enter the area and access the box, finding letters still very much deliverable, their recipients none the wiser that they'd withstood such an incident.

As extensive work began on various buildings, and the rebirth of Manchester itself, the box was removed, repainted, and re-sited to almost the same spot, where it stands as a symbol of this wonderful city's ability to put its big coat on in a storm and carry on regardless.

As for the Corn Exchange, it was refurbished and horrifically renamed The Triangle, becoming a rather over-expensive shopping centre until 2014, when it was renamed The Corn Exchange again, and is now an emporium of eateries, much to my melancholy, but it's a building that's still photo worthy, and I had to smile when I saw that there's now a book exchange vending machine on the ground floor.