Manchester to London

Manchester – Saturday 25^th June

Kay had stocked Terry’s fridge, so after a decent sleep-in we have eggs, bacon, black pudding and baked beans, washed down with a ‘brew’ (cup of tea). It is mighty good.

Terry drives us to the train station and Paul, Kay, Eleanor, Bruce & I explore Manchester. Terry is very weary after his holiday (and probably aged a bit).

We visit Urbis – Manchester’s centre for urban culture. It is an amazing glass building next to Victoria station. The exhibition is about urban life – I find it very interesting. Eleanor and I have a lot of fun with the surveillance display.

There are a large number of kids ‘hanging out’ in the Cathedral Gardens – they are friendly and chatty. Just heaps of them. For those where dress is important, the style is goth or street – black, chains, etc; but some of them are too young to be stylish.

After wine and coffee at a local bar we hit the lolly shop in Selfridges and treat Eleanor to more of her staple diet. It is amazing, marshmallow shoes, bags, ice creams and sandwiches.

We also buy pork pies and scotch eggs from Marks & Spencers and eat and walk – they are yum!

Next we go to the Northern Quarter via the Farmer’s Market and a kid-friendly water garden. The day is grey and cool but there are children having fun running through the water. One dad tells me that his boys promised not to get wet, but he didn’t seem concerned that they were totally wet. I suppose it is his fault for bringing them here, after all water is water.

We decide that Manchester has changed, or more correctly – is changing. Lots seem to be happening, as the older parts of the city are being restored and rejuvenated.

The old market buildings lend themselves to craft shops and apartments; the narrow streets are either one-way traffic or pedestrian only.

We take the train back to Terry’s – he picks us up from Ashton station. Kay and Paul have booked a nice restaurant for dinner and we have 1½ hours to spare, so Bruce suggests we drive over to our old stomping ground, Stockport.

What a maze Stockport is! We find the shopping mall, it looks so ‘little’, and we hardly recognise anything. It is more a matter of good luck than design that we stumble upon Edgeley shops in Castle Street. They are in the process of being transformed into a shopping mall. That narrow high street should look quite nice as a pedestrian thoroughfare.

We find our house and the street opposite is blocked off. ‘It’s been like that for 25 years’ shouts a local. Now I feel old, true it is more than 25 years since we last saw it.

The house hasn’t changed at all – still flats, probably still 3 flats and 3 bed-sits. The trees are bigger and the garden isn’t so meticulously kept, but then the Hull’s were our landlords.

After much effort driving in circles, we find our way back to Oldham and Terry’s.

Dinner is delightful – lovely food. I have pork on a risotto with mushroom and black pudding base and finish with an Irish Coffee.

Urbis – Manchester’s Centre for Urban Culture

Corporation Street, Cathedral Gardens,
Manchester City Centre M4 3BG.
Tel: 0161-605 8200. Fax: 0161-605 8201.
Advance Booking: 0161-907 9099.
Website: www.urbis.org.uk
Email: info@urbis.org.uk

Urbis and Cathedral Gardens, Manchester
Aerial Photograph Courtesy of www.webaviation.co.uk © 2005
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Ultra modern all glass structure set in the recently named Cathedral Gardens. Billed as Manchester’s Centre for Urban Culture, a museum of modern Manchester, the world’s very first industrial city, but exhibits also show life in other cities, including Los Angeles, Paris, São Paulo, Singapore and Tokyo. There are many interactive displays and more are planned.
The building was designed by the Ian Simpson Company of Architects and was awarded as a result of an international competition. Lead academic advisor and originator of the concept for the museum was Dr Justin O’Connor, who is Director of the Manchester Institute for Popular Culture at the Manchester Metropolitan University. It cost £30 million of which £20 million was a grant from the Millennium Commission. It’s unusual ramp-like shape, (described as “a glass ski slope”), dominates the approach to Manchester city centre from Cheetham Hill and Bury in the North.
There are 6 floors at Urbis, 4 of which contain exhibition space, with the Le Mont Restaurant on levels 5 & 6 (see below). Exhibits are of an historic and futuristic nature. Many might find the building itself far more interesting than the exhibits. There is the Conservatory Café at ground level and the entrance foyer has touch screen displays and video presentations; a top floor restaurant offering panoramic views across the city skyline is to be opened later in the summer of 2002.
All 4 exhibition levels of the building are accessed via a sort of funicular glass lift. This “Glass Elevator”, offers a one-minute sky glide that transports visitors directly to the fourth floor – the Le Mont Restaurant has its own separate elevator. With the City as backdrop, visitors then explore at their own pace four cascading, themed floors of permanent interactive displays and exhibits, created for Urbis by leading UK exhibition designers, At Large, Land Design Studio and Event Communications.
The Urbis project was overseen by the City Council’s Special Projects Team, as part of the wider Millennium Quarter redevelopment – the last stage of regeneration after the IRA bombing of the area in 1996. Some £42 million had been allocated for the Millennium Quarter – from the Millennium Commission, the European Regional Development Fund, Manchester City Council (who will underwrite the museum to the tune of £1 million a year for the time being), and the Department of Local Government Transport & Regions.
On its western side is the newly created plaza, part of the Cathedral Gardens complex and will offer recreational and performance areas for the Cathedral and Chetham’s School of Music which border it.
The building is currently sponsored by the Manchester Evening News. It was aiming for a target of 200,000 visitors a year

Manchester – Sunday 26^th June

After a light breakfast of tea-and-toast and a brew, Paul, Kay and Eleanor pick us up and we go to the moors. Once again Terry elects to stay home and ‘get sorted’.

We drive through some delightful villages – seems like north and east. We reach a lovely church and ‘The Church Inn’. Once again, I’m overwhelmed by the green and the flowers.

We walk up the hill to see the moors and the reservoir on the other side. It is quite a climb. Eleanor bounds ahead and enjoys her greater energy level. Where does she get it from, she was dining with us until midnight last night?

Kay has brought strawberries and melon to refresh us – very refreshing.

The view is spectacular. We can see a power station ‘half way to Liverpool’. Two old airplanes fly the length of the reservoir, followed it seems, by a helicopter. It must be a film shoot?

We return to the pub for lunch – Paul has arranged for his sister Sarah to order sandwiches for us. It is pleasant sitting in the sun, but this is yet another goodbye. Too sad.

We return to Terry’s for final farewells – pick up our bags and go.

We have a long drive back to London, approximately 4 hours. We have called Jill and Peter Strachan and arranged to call in and see them at Colwich near Birmingham. We get a little lost twice. First we head north instead of south on the M6, then we head west instead of east on the A51, but minimal time is lost and we find the Strachan’s.

Both Tank and Iain are at uni, although Tank has officially finished and is now in the job market. Jill and Peter make us very welcome. We sit in their delightful back garden and have coffee, scones-and-jam-and-cream and, strawberries-and-cream. It is so good to catch up and hear about the boys’ news. Perhaps Iain and Evan can do some travelling at Christmas?

Peter has a real live train set just behind his garden. He looks after the train tracks between London and Manchester, and part of it rolls past his back fence.

Then it is another farewell.

We make London just before 9pm. Elisse has already messaged us that we are cooking. Turns out that they want Bruce’s secret for Spaghetti Cabonare. Well, I taught him all he knows, but he happily passes it on to Hayden and Elisse.

It is lovely to see them again and share a bottle of wine. The student house is grot as ever, but it is not for us to tell them how to live – they are having a fantastic time learning how to make their own lives and I am proud.