True it is a listed building but I fear without lots of tender care and
attention it will soon be too late to save it.
Brought down by neglect and just possibly the attraction of a prime
location in the heart of the city.
Now I have written about the place in the past* and watched
it slowly empty of purpose and people.
Even the bank on the corner of London Road finally shut up shop and
moved on.
And despite calls for something to be done it sits there
waiting “to see better days and do better things.” But I have a sense that time and the fabric
of the building will seal its fate. Then
again I am an optimist and always travel in the sure knowledge that the bottle
is always half full, there is something pleasant around the corner and old
places can be saved.
Not so the building just a few minute’s walk away on
Whitworth Street. I passed it countless
times and think it once held the offices of the Manchester Conservative
Party. I certainly remember it always
struck me as a forlorn and forbidding place which wouldn’t have lifted my heart
had I worked inside. But then Whitworth
Street always reminds me of one of those canyons in a western film, all narrow
valley and tall steep sides. I know well
the books which describe how impressive these buildings are but they just
overpower me and even on a sunny day it’s a dismal place.
And so having been empty for what seemed decades this one
came down, served as a car park and at present is a stalled building project. But it is an exception, even in this period
of retrenchment and stagnation chunks of 19th and 20th
century Manchester are being torn down and replaced which is a nice lead into
St Peter’s Square, Central Ref, a tram station and a 1950s office block which
is no more. But that is for another
time.
Pictures from the collection of Andrew Simpson
No comments:
Post a Comment