Category Archives: Urban scene

Jul 16 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Sport, Urban scene

Catering facilities, Salford City FC

Saturday 15th July 2017, 1.50pm (day 2,151)

Silcocks cafe, 15/7/17

My 2017-18 football season opened at Salford City FC and a pre-season warm-up game against local rivals FC United of Manchester. The hosts won 2-1. You can read what I thought about the game, and see photographs of the day taken by someone much better at that kind of thing than me, if you purchase the next issue of When Saturday Comes (advt.). Salford City have big plans but their stadium, for all its recent renovations, is still pleasingly non-league in many ways. I like this catering van, its garish and gratuitously sexist decoration, and the worshipful posture of the customer.

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Jul 12 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Building site #4

Wednesday 12th July 2017, 9.30am (day 2,148)

Building site no. 4, 12/7/17

I did a survey today and established there are presently ten building sites somehow or other getting in the way of my walk from Manchester Victoria to my office, as follows:

1) right outside the station; 2) the northern corner of the Arndale Centre is being redone; 3) on the corner of Chapel Walks and Cheapside 4) the corner of Mosley Street and Nicholas Street (the one pictured); 5) the building opposite the Chinese Arch that burned down last year; 6) big development blocking Abingdon Street at Major Street 7) the old BBC site, which has spread out to block the cycle path under the Mancunian Way at Brook Street; 8) the Engineering Campus Development at university; 9) the Brunswick Street ‘landscaping’ at same; 10) the Students’ Union redevelopment at same.

Manchester!! give this creative destruction a rest please!

 

Tagged , , , , , ,
Jul 10 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Anonymous critique of British politics

Monday 10th July 2017, 8.05am (day 2,146)

Poiitical statement, 10/7/17

Sums it up for me, in at least two different ways.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
Jul 08 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Friday morning, Exchange Square

Friday 7th July 2017, 9.10am (day 2,143)

Exchange Square, 7/7/17

It is approaching 12 years since I started work in Manchester. In that time I have only rarely been in the city every day of a five day working week (indicated by the fact that there has only been one five-day run of Manchester pictures on here, which happened to be in March 2014). I have managed four this week, however. Anyway — the city might not be photographed as often as it could be, but this shot marks a nice round number — the 400th Manchester picture to appear on here.

Incidentally the blue plaque to the top left marks the founding of the Northern Rugby Football Union, later the Rugby League, in a hotel that once stood at this spot.

Tagged , , , , ,
Jul 05 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Underpass

Wednesday 5th July 2017, 3.50pm (day 2,141)

Underpass, 5/7/17

So scabbed has my walk to work become by various building sites of one form or another that each day I go into Manchester I find myself driven down further obscure corners of the urban architecture. And who is Gurn? Who knows what claims are made here?

Tagged , , , , , ,
Jun 30 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Granite City steps

Thursday 29th June 2017, 6.05pm (day 2,135)

Bridge Street steps, 29/6/17

Aberdeen is known as the Granite City and for good reason, as almost every building in the centre seems to be made of this mid-grey stone. It’s not unattractive, but on a day of foul weather like today was the effect can be to swamp you in grey. This picture was a matter of being in the right place at the right time, but yes, I could perhaps have been six inches to the right for perfect symmetry.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jun 22 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

The bolt of stone

Thursday 22nd June 2017, 3.55pm (day 2,128)

Bolt of stone, 22/6/17

Now that’s a big…. large concrete thing. Actually I have no idea what function this could serve. It just continues the trend for Manchester city centre to be devoured by increasingly voracious machines. It’s like The Terminator meets War of the Worlds sometimes — which is where I came in with this shot.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jun 19 2017
1 Comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Tromsøya, east side

Monday 19th June 2017, 4.50pm (day 2,125)

Tromsøya, east side, 19/6/17

Tromsø is not on the mainland but on the island of Tromsøya: this is its eastern shore. Proof that the Arctic is not all glamorous and dramatic landscapes. This is kind of how I imagine places like Murmansk to look. And I swear I haven’t fiddled with the colours on this one — life really was this monochrome at 4.50pm today, under the pissing rain.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jun 14 2017
1 Comment
Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

In the dry dock

Wednesday 14th June 2017, 2.15pm (day 2,120)

Dry dock, 14/6/17

Often good for a photo, as the canal dry dock is about the last bastion of proper industry (you know, with sparks and grime) in the very centre of Hebden Bridge. It looks old, but was actually put in fairly recently, as I’ve seen photos from the 1980s that show it wasn’t there then.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jun 14 2017
1 Comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Alley wall (health and safety issue?)

Tuesday 13th June 2017, 7.50am (day 2,119)

Overflow, 13/6/17

Second photo in a row of a wall, in effect, though this one made of bricks and mortar rather than rusting corrugated iron. Should the overflow pipe be pouring out near what appear to be a bunch of electrical cables? Probably not, but hey, it ain’t my house.

Tagged , , , , , ,
← Older posts
Newer posts →