Walking the Rochdale ...... from the Grimy Series

Now I know the quality of the pictures are poor.

They lack a certain sharpness, and could do with a bit of “electronic touching up” but in my defence the negatives have sat in the cellar for nearly forty years.

We are on the Rochdale Canal back in the late 1970s and the pictures come from my Grimy Series.

Back then Derek the Developer had yet to discover those bits of the Twin Cities which the post Industrial Revolution had left behind.

All of which meant that this stretch of the canal, along with what is now the Northern Quarter were left to me, a few others who wandered through and the small band of people who worked the areas.

Since then Castlefield and the Northern Quarter and lots of Greengate have been given the eye of builders, entrepreneurs,and of course a host of people who want to live in the city centre.

Back in the mid ‘70s I was one of them, but at the time there was little in the way of accommodation save the homes above the Arndale and the plans for those properties by Tonman Street.

Nor back then would there have been many people to keep me company.

But enough of such thoughts, instead I shall leave you with this, City Centre living is good for the Twin Cities, discuss.

Location; Manchester

Picture; The Rochdale Canal, 1979 from the collection of Andrew Simpson