Friday, 16 June 2017

In the Northern Quarter ....... 4 years after I first walked into the Manchester Craft and Design Centre

Now not the most zippy of titles I know but 49 years ago I stumbled across the place and yesterday I was back there.


Of course 49 years ago it was the retail fish market which had opened in 1873 and closed just a century later.

Just nine years later it reopened as the craft centre and we have been going there ever since.

And yesterday I was there with a purpose, firming up an order for two rings from one of the shops.*

In time I will return to the story of those two rings and to the excellent service we received, but for now I shall reflect on that old fish market, for here was where I saw my first cod.

Not the boil in the bag or even the battered fish variety but the real thing, from head to tail, and looking very big.

We had got there quite late in the day and things were quiet, but that pungent smell of fish on ice, and the banter of the traders reminded me of Billingsgate Fish Market by the Thames but that also is another story for another time.

Location; Manchester Craft and Design Centre, Oak Street, http://www.craftanddesign.com/our-history/

Picture; looking in, June 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson


*R A Designer Jewellery, Manchester, http://www.manchesterjewellers.co.uk/

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