Small people …… tall buildings …….

 This is not a winge or even a rant about the rise and rise of those tall buildings which climb from the ground to touch the sky in ever increasing numbers.

Looking for the person, 2023

After all it would be unhistorical to pitch a story about the development of these buildings which in a short two decades have transformed Manchester and Salford’s skyline without recognising what went before.

Greengate, 2022

The early 19th century saw the construction of large numbers of textile mills along with metal, dye, and engineering works all of which had their own impressive chimneys which belched out smoke.

They were visible from the surrounding countryside, leaving a layer of sooty blackness on buildings and even played their part in the evolution of the black and yellow ladybird.

These “industrial blotches” were accompanied by rows of mean terraced houses, some of which were better built than others but together with the industrial properties advanced across what had been green fields, turning most of our rivers and streams into conduits running with all manner of pollution. 

And this new build contributed to the wiping away of some of the elegant houses built in the 18th century as well as their Tudor and Jacobean neighbours.

So, we should always be careful about calling down piles of criticism on the trend for ever more tall properties which dominate the twin cities.

But and there is always a but, even given the commercial argument about building high, and the what I assume is an economic benefit to the city’s economy I wonder about the pursuit of climbing ever skywards.

Deansgate shapes, 2023

And it is this.  

When the building is so tall that it makes people insignificant in its shadow I wonder if we have got it right.

Old architecture recognised that buildings should not overwhelm the people who lived inside and beside them.  Even the Medieval Cathedrals with their tall spires stretching heavenly and their great glass windows were still on a human dimension.

And here someone will throw in that red herring that in the past technology couldn’t deliver the means to giant buildings, to which the riposte as ever is simply that “just because we can do something doesn’t always mean we have to”.

So once looking across to Knott Mill and beyond, the tallest building at Knott Mill was the old Congregational Chapel which snuggles up to the railway viaduct, a few yards opposite the railway station. It was built in 1858 and its slender tower rose majestically into the sky.

Knott Mill, 2023

By 2019 it was fast being eclipsed by new build and equally slender cranes.

Of course it is an observation as redundant as that which might have been made in 1810 as the character of 18th century Manchester and Salford was fast disappearing in the rush to all things industrial.

Still, it does allow me to show off some recent and a few past pictures of Manchester.

And all but one were taken down at Knott Mill using the advantage of height confered by the Deansgate Castlefield tram stop.

It is a story that won't go away and one which will give the interested and the social historian hours of research as they match what was with what is and speculate on what will be.

For now I will just thank Andy Robertson for his vast collection of images which he tirelessly adds to as he records how the twin cities are changing under the impact of all that new build.

Knott Mill, 2019

Location; Manchester and Salford

Pictures; Deansgate and Knott Mill, 2023, Looking into Greengate, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and in 2019 courtesy of Andy Robertson