A fantastic instalation on this rather drab and boring building, there should be more stuff like this everywhere. It could well have cost a packet but I don't care, if we are going to have boring buildings in the town then lets make them a little bit interesting.
The fantastic reflection of Portland Tower in one of the many CIS buildings in central Manchester. Both of these buildings are infact very bloody ugly, but the ability to turn them into objects of art sort of makes up for their existence but not by much.
today's recommended piece of obscure Krautrock is Can's - Future Days [Remastered]
I am badly hungover as once again I was celebrating the joys of our multicultural society.
My fetish for the cranes that are springing up all over Manchester is still going strong as this picture clearly demonstrates. 
I have a feeling that this property just off Cross Street has been acquired for re-development for some time. I think it is an undiscovered gem of a place, if this was turned into a proper pub it would be fantastic.
.
You just know that the building on the left is going to be a complete and utter monstrosity, something really good could have been put in it's place, like a little garden of some sort. Our City Centre is far too overcrowded with shite buildings do they really need to add more to it? and while we are at it we don't need any more fucking shops either...........
Sachas Hotel just off market street is a fine establishment. The kind that definitley does not have reputation of being the kind of establishment where ladies of generous virtue spend time with the gentlemen of their choice. Absolutley not, no way not a chance, never in a million years could this be described as a knocking shop as some good freinds of mine from London who stayed there will testify, that it is indeed a fine hotel and one where they would happily stay again.
An apology of sorts I am in no mood to get soaked today bringing fine cityscapes of the wonderful city of Manchester, as our pre-spring monsoon has arrived. The pre-spring monsoon will be replaced with the spring monsoon, and the summer monsoon and soon it will be back to the autumn and winter monsoon. As a friend of mine from India once observed "at least when you get a Monsoon in India you know it is going to fucking stop, it is just constant here". Not being native to this city the rain occasionally gets to me, the natives seem to thrive on it and actually enjoy it for some strange reason. It is quite common for a native here to say "yeah but the rain will soon be on its way" when you innocently remark on what a nice day it has been and how clear and blue the skies are.
At the bottom of the Curry Mile you come across Hardy's Well, a fine pub staffed by some of the most wonderful and awesome barmen in the area. The pub originally started life as the Birch Villa Hotel, then changed to the notorious Birch Villa Inn. The current landlord has made a few changes inside, which has dramatically improved it. He has alos has recently doubled the number of real ales they sell to two......
The unnamed barman (who is incidentally the most wonderful and awesome barman in the pub) above is showing his contempt for John Smiths Extra Smooth by not giving each pint the attention it deserves, but it is John Smiths......... 
Reyner Street is a little back alleyway just off Chinatown, I love exploring back alleys as you sometimes find a hidden gem. This is not one of them and considering that someone who typed "cycling lycra fetish" into yahoo came across my site posting this may encourage a lot more of that kind of thing.
For some strange reason the metrolink station at Shudehill has this very nice roof on top of it, I am not sure why this is and don't really care. The two photos I posted today were taken within an hour of each other and both show dramatically different skies, just with till the summer when we get 5 different types of weather in one day.
From the Portland Street side this building is a monstrous carbuncle, a blight on the city centre, a disgusting monstrosity that should be destroyed. From the Sackville Street side it is fantastic, they should redo the whole thing in yellow!!!!!!!.
I am much much happier with the second shot taken somewhere in Hulme. It has the word Aquarius on it which is supposed to be the age we live in. I am also getting increasingly frustrated with using an old camera which is held together with tape and rubber bands, roll on pay day.
The space between the back of the Charles Street Carpark and the railway bridge as it heads towards Piccadilly Station from Oxford Road station offered itself up this morning. I often walk this route between work and Oxford Road. 
Today I walked up the stairs to the top floor of my work which is situated in the basement of the UMIST main Building (Sorry University of Manchester Sackville Street Building), it is part of my general health kick that I am doing this once a day and it is not fun at all. Right at the top of the building as you look out at the Whitworth Street side there are a few grotty little windows which this picture was taken from. It is an experiment to see what would happen, as a result it almost looks like you are viewing through a rater grotty Television. I also like the feeling of claustrophobia that you get here as you look out between the northern quarter and the town centre. I also like the change in perspective you get from this vantage point, but not the feeling of vertigo I got from up there.
Island Monkey had an interesting piece on a new film about Lord Longford that was being shot in the Northen Quarter of Manchester this morning. I therefore decided to take a quick look at lunch time to see what was going on. On the way there I spotted some dramatic clouds over the building site that will be Piccadilly Place, and since this fits in well with my current fetish about all things to do with new buildings and cranes it was too good a photo opportunity to miss.
Alas when I got to Tibb Street in the Northen Quarter there was nothing interesting there. Nothing other than this row of shops. Hussain's Barber Shop has always intrigued me. I have only seen it whilst rolling round this part of town late at night, this was my first visit to it during the day. I was amazed to find that it is not in fact a barber shop but a trendy shoe shop, this makes it better as they have decided to keep this wonderful shop front, and long may they continue to do so.
I normally stop off at Castlefeild Basin for a quick drink on the way to work as it is about half way there. Last night I was enraged by Richard and Judy's piece on cycling on their not very entertaining evening magazine show.
Possibly my Favorite building in Manchester is the URBIS building, I think it is awesome, and a great example of modern architecture. Once inside it shows folk what a museum / Art Gallery really should be. They are also totally wonderful and put up a picture by my totally wonderful girlfriend as their picture of the week on the 6 to 12th February 2006 and she is a far better photographer than me.
The site of the Old Post Office on Spring Gardens and glad to see the back of that monstrosity we were. The sense of overcrowding in this part of the city is quite acute, and I think it will only get worse when the new building is complete in the meantime this is a view that we will definitely not see in a few years time. On the minus side though I miss my camera that died on the weekend and my old 1.3 mega pixel camera just does not cut the mustard.
A view from Manchester's famous so called Curry Mile which is actually more like half a mile long. Still this section of Wilmslow Road apparently generates almost as much revenue as the centre of Manchester does on a Saturday night. I Highly recommend visiting the Punjab Tandori as it is fantastic, I do not recommend visiting the worlds worst Kwick Save which is also there unless you have special massocistic needs. 
My camera has died on me boo hoo, so there will be a brief intermission whilst I go back to my old 1.3MP Fuji camera. I am saving hard for a new Digital Camera which will is highly likley to be a refurbished job from some dodgy shop near Piccadilly. So in the meantime here is a Donkey in Heaton Park looking really pissed off, and to be honest I don't blame it either. 
I love this scuplture representing combustion, it lives outside the Reynold and Faraday Under Graduate Buildings on the UMIST campus (sorry University of Manchester North Campus). To me it captures the essence of combustion and fits in well with the surroundings. Unlike the stuff I saw at British Art Show 6 at the Manchester Art Gallery which was a pile of steaming horse poo.
What a fantastic building and I only noticed it today after a friend of mine pointed it out to me. This was the old headquarters for the Fire Brigade in Manchester as the badge on the building proudly states..........
I love this type of attention to detail in old buildings because it says that the architects and town planners saw these things as being important and were making a statement about it. Looking at the towers above the station you see sculptures of sentinels and eagles which are there to watch over and protect the city, fantastic stuff and pretty dam inspiring.............
Opportunism is the name of the game. As I was waiting for the security guard to open the gate of this secure car park somewhere in Salford this shot presented itself to me. It got me thinking is all this security really necessary, or is it a product of our own paranoid delusion. It is an integral part of city life and human nature, where so many humans are cramped into a tight space together. I love the countryside as it gives me a sense of freedom, but I love the vibrancy of the city as well, and this paranoia seems to be part and parcel of living alongside a couple of million other people in a highly un-natural environment.
The steps leading down to Harrys Bar on the old UMIST campus now the North University of Manchester Campus. This was an experement which was only partially sucesfull the overall affect I was trying to create was of stepps going off into infinity. I could have started from a lower camera angle but am too self-concious to lie on the ground.
Continuing my odyssey of highly amateur photos of Manchester, the above shot was taken from Princess Bridge on the border of Manchester and Salford. Apparently according to my not so trusty A to Z it is over the Manchester Ship Canal. I don't believe it myself, I always assumed that it was the River Irwell. There is cause to celebrate though rather than a dull and drab grey sky more colours are poking through, and today I caught a glimpse of the sun behind the cloud, though this does mean that the inevitable rain is on its way.
Another reason to celebrate is the uncharacteristically empty bike rack at my work, which they are also painting. I hope that my mountain bike appreciates the new colour scheme......
On the other hand walk a few hundered yards up the road and the old Department of Employment Office is there, in all its disgusting glory. The sooner this building is torn down and destroyed the better, I would love to see some greenery here though. There is a plethora of new building going on around Manchester lets have some green spaces too please.......
When I was a lad comics such as 2000AD promised us things like highways in the sky, towerblocks that were miles high, jetpacks and many other things. As you can see from this scene of the Mancunian Way in Manchester that they were totally making this up, this has left me bitter and twisted my childhood dreams have been stolen.
Visitors to Manchester would be well advised to avoid the Inner Ring Road in the city, and if you find yourself there then get off it as quickly as possible. It is like a big circular black hole blockading the city, once on it all you can do is hope to achieve escape velocity. The above photo of what was once "The Manchester Coffee House" on the corner of Whitworth Street and South Pump Street was taken before such an adventure on the inner ring road.......
This was my second attempt to get off the ring road at Sudehill which failed miserably, as I wished that I owned a crane hire company as they must be making a small fortune here right now............. It only took two circuits of the ring road to get off this time and I have been living here for 4 years today, I know from bitter experience what happens to newcomers to this city on the inner ring road, and it is not nice so avoid it at all costs.
Deansgate Locks is full of pretentious trendy bars that should be destroyed, however if you cycle past them on the Rochdale Canal you come across this quaint building. The should really do something about the bloody awful modern windows there though, and the blue railing as well. 
