Manchester Victoria Arches

Victoria Arches, Manchester - or as it is sometimes known Cathedral Steps is a place of legend that lies beneath Manchester City Centre.

Built in 1838 into the embankment of the River Irwell, this former business area for the steam packet boats closed in 1906. Later converted to air raid shelters during World War 2, the shelters held 1,619 people.

Today blink and you will miss it, but underground it is vast.

Tbolt had mentioned he wanted a visit to Lavino and a few days later Lavino had somehow magicked up a visit with a rather nice party from 28DL, now these folk have a reputation and once again I can confirm the reputation was totally unfounded, a group of spiffing fine gentlemen.

Paradox, Stanton, GK_Wax, Acid-Reflux, Vulex, Tom, Lavino, Tbolt and myself gathered with a jolly nice chap from Sheffield to meet our guides for the evening Mr and Mrs Bigjobs. Coolboyslim lingered in the shadows in case any bodies needed to be pulled from the river and identified.

Bottom line, Manchester's Victoria Arches is fascinating but in truth it is all about the company your with, the team work, the effort you have to put in just to get out and the "fuck me I've done it" feeling you get after you finally do get out. 10/10.

A big thank to all and most importantly to Mr and Mrs Bigjob for their time and patience.

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Phlegm dissected, Cities of Hope - May 2016

"Well that's shite" the old chap said with passion "it's just a big bloody crappy bottle".

It was, a bottle and I explained why I was photographing the shite, the old chap paused and looked on again, after a few moments of silence then came a firm response "that is bloody impressive, whoever painted that has far, far too much time on his hands".

So lets take a closer look and break it down and see the detail.

 

In my eyes a masterpiece.

For more Phlegm get a butchers at this.



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Cities of Hope, Street Art, Manchester - May 2016

Street artists gathered in Manchester the last week of May, the aim to highlight social injustice.

Whilst I didn't track them all down, I gave it a good go in my old stomping ground of Ancoats an the Northern Quarter.

First off we have Dale Grimshaw, a local artist, I first saw his work at the the ghost ship known as the Duke of Lancaster and his art is always colourful and stunningly good.

Next up Pichiavo, for the charity Guns to Goods.

German Artist, Case, working for with charity Back on Track

The back of Tib Street, had a few crackers hidden away.



A freehand painting of author Anthony Burgess, by Tankpetrol



with Hyruo, painting for local charity, 43nd Street.




Martin Whatson, painting for Hulme Community Garden Centre




Mateus Bailon

I didn't catch them all, as I said, but one I did however snap was the mural by Phlegm for Ancoats Dispensary Trust - but I'm going dissect that piece a little more in my next post.

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Prince by Akse P19, Manchester - May 2016

Late May 2016 and the Manchester Cities of Hope Festival was in full swing, Akse P19 being pretty much the street artist in resident in Manchester's Northern Quarter did his own thing.

Following on from the fantastic David Bowie artwork we stumbled upon Akse P19 hard at work on his tribute to Prince.

Here was the work in progress, please visit to see the finished art on the corner of Tib Street and Thomas Street.

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David Bowie street art, Manchester

I've rambled on about the sterilisation of Manchester over the last few years, so following the recent death of David Bowie the street artist Akse got a little bit busy on Stevenson Square and produced something a little special.

Other art work currently in the Northern Quarter can be found, just not as stunning.

 

Rather cool, I thought.

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Crown Theatre, Eccles - May 2016

A very early start brought myself, Tbolt and the hobbit like creature know as only Zer081 out for this meet up on a rather rare and warm sunny spring morning.

Eccles, a small town which sits of the edge of the cities of Salford and Manchester and is a shadow of its former self, sadly.

The Crown Theatre opened in 1899 as The Lyceum, a luxury venue for Shakespeare productions, converted in 1932 into a cinema and further converted in 1963 into a Bingo hall.

Since closure in the 1980s this Grade II listed building has fallen into major disrepair, partially demolished with a gaping hole in the rear of the property and little or no roof.

 

This building is hanging on for dear life, with rough sleepers on the upper tiers sheltering under the remaining last parts of the roof structure.

Sadly with the owners pushing for demolition, the future looks grim for this once grand building.

I rather liked this place for some reason, but I'm a sucker for old cinemas and theatres and thus biased  with 5/10 - although I'm sure Tbolt and Zer081 would give it a 2/10 or possibly a 1.

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Northern Quarter Street Art, Manchester - November 2015

In days gone by I used to trawl the back streets of Manchester's city centre looking for street art and graffiti, sadly Manchester is slowly becoming sanitized and so I gave up the hobby a while ago.

But sometimes you go back, so I had a quick wander around the Northern Quarter and Stevenson Square - to walk off a slight hangover from a corporate bash the night before (not my scene, but I was dragged there kicking and screaming - and the wine was flowing).















And then onto the Tib Street junction for a bit of Freddy Krueger








And that was that, hangover walked off.

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