Untidy Manchester …….

I like untidy.

Despite years of trying to have a place for everything all “ship shape and Bristol fashion” I run against “an ordered mind in an ordered body”.

And for me the disordered street scene draws me in and acts as challenge to that Classical training I received at school where everything is balance, with clean sharp lines which please the eye.

All of which is an introduction to these two pictures taken yesterday, with their messy mix of old and new build, heaps of cranes and unfinished developments.

I can’t say the very tall buildings do much for me, but I like the juxtaposition of the different shapes and sizes, the reuse of old landmarks, and the return of the tram.

Added to which they tell a story which historians future historians will use to illustrate the transformation of the city in the early 21st century.

I make no value judgement other than that the architecture of the high rise makes human beings look insignificant and that can’t be good.

But historically the present developments mirror the older transformation of Manchester first with those textile mills, foundries and dye works and later still those monumental offices and warehouses which still dominant parts of the city.

Location; looking down towards Knott Mill

Pictures; untidy Manchester, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson