Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
I had always wanted to explore Manchester's canals and warehouses so looked up a circular walk around the Ashton and Rochdale canals. Arriving at Piccadilly station for a change, we made our way behind the station to Ducie Street which led to our access point. But even before we got there, we were taken by the very idiosyncratic mix of old and new buildings (which is modern Manchester in a nutshell). The canal walk was an eye-opener, with lovely flats and some houses giving modern city-centre living. It appealed to us. This lock-keeper's cottage was particularly appealing...... and the old mills and warehouses themselves are magnificent buildings deserving of their (usually superb) restoration.... At the marina we headed straight for Pollen, a cafe cum bakery where according to the Manchester Evening News people can/will queue for an hour. We now know why it is worth it. It is out of this world. and what is great is that all the products are being made before your very eyes in the on-site and on-view bakery. Our sandwiches were terrific. Wow. On finishing the walk we found a huge designer furniture shop and saw the old Avro Engineering buildings where Lancasters and Vulcan bombers were made (currently being converted into flats). We took a quick diversion to look at another bit of the Rochdale canal....not quite as looked-after as the canal on our walk where we saw a workman busy pulling bits of litter from the canal and tidying the edges. But still, full of character. We had been lucky with the weather and it now started raining, so we dived into Piccadilly which these days is a remarkably fine station with loads of excellent shops and restaurants. The rain carrying on meant that we made a quick decision to take one of the free buses which tours around Manchester city centre......we did the whole route.....and then made our way past the restored Courts (where my Dad had sat on the Jury)..... to Canal Street which again I had always wanted to see. It's the main thoroughfare in the so-called Gay Village, and very atmospheric it is too, with bars and restaurants lining the canal-side position. We saw one gay model who was being filmed who looked a million dollars. I didn't like to take a pic. Next stop Manchester Art Gallery. I must admit I had been somewhat disappointed on our first visit, where my conclusion was that it was as nothing compared to the glories of Liverpool. However we soon found out our mistake - going to the first Floor and crossing a glass bridge we found a whole new world of exhibits which we had missed last time. Here there was a fascinating exhibition called 'Out of The Crate'. Here is the blurb from their site........ "Come and look behind the scenes of Manchester’s publicly owned sculpture collection. Part exhibition, part research space, Out of the Crate delves into the un-tapped history of the collection. This is an opportunity to investigate sculpture through access to stored collections and archival material. Find out what’s in store and how we look after it, help unlock hidden stories about works we know very little about and explore how artworks might encourage conversation. We have about 400 sculptures from antiquity to the present day and, until recently, less than 5% were on display. As well as modern and contemporary works, there are 19th-century sculptures and works from earlier periods that have rarely been seen this century and are under-researched. On display are a large range of materials including marble, bronze, wood, glass, ceramic and paper, a variety of sizes and shapes and different techniques of making. From bronze medals decorated with reliefs to large-scale free-standing 3D works, you can now see around 30% of the sculpture collection here. In terms of representation, we should also consider who has and hasn’t been included in the collection. Room 1: What’s in Store? Here around 60 sculptures are presented as if in a gallery store room, giving an insight into what it’s like behind the scenes. Objects are displayed on racks, in cupboards, on pallets and in open crates and grouped as they would be in a store, according to size and/or material and weight, rather than guided by themes or chronology as in a conventional gallery display. This room reveals the challenges of storing and looking after sculpture and gives an overview of the scope and condition of the collection. Room 2: Cold CasesThis room showcases a changing selection of sculptures under investigation. These are artworks about which we have little information, are in poor condition or have been off display for a long time and would benefit from new research. The aim is to open up this research process more publicly and consider how a public gallery and its users can care for and use collections together. " It did exactly what it said, and you could easily spend a half day or more here. Well I could anyhow. I loved 'The Manchester Alphabet' where not only were original artworks and drawings displayed but also the voluminous correspondence between the artist's son (who had found them in the attic), and various Directors of the Gallery. A Manchester Alphabet - M for Motor Car Roger Oldham 1871 - 1916 Summary Black and white illustration, hand tinted in colour. Exterior, street scene. In the foreground, an open-topped car, billowing clouds of smoke or dust, one wheel appearing to fly off, careens toward the viewer. The driver and two passengers wear goggles, and the idea of speed is conveyed by the scarves of the passengers flying in the breeze. In the background, to the right, the tiny figure of a policeman appears to be waving to the oblivious occupants in the car; to the left, in the back ground, a horse kicks the carriage he is pulling, while his partner rears up on his hind legs. In the background, are a row of buildings; the central one is timbered, suggesting a pub. The accompanying poem reads 'M for Motor Car. The face and pace of Manchester/Have many changes seen,/From the grass of Angel Meadow/And the blades of Ardwick Green;/From the Pack Horse and the Pillion/And the "ancient Seven Stars,"/To the modern mammoth Midland/And the monstrous Motor Cars.' Display Label This is a laminated sheet or similar in side pockets of benches in G15 A Manchester Alphabet Roger Oldham’s book A Manchester Alphabet was published in 1906 by John Heywood. Oldham (1871-1916) spent most of his life in Manchester, and his Alphabet is an affectionate and humorous record of his home city at the beginning of the twentieth century. The works displayed here are a complete set of hand-tinted printer’s proofs for the book, coloured by the artist himself. Oldham attended Manchester Grammar School, leaving in 1887, age 16, to work in the architectural firm of Charles Heathcote. (The school is commemorated in ‘O is for Owl’, with the owl being the symbol of the school.) illustration of owl here: photography taking place June 1 2016 A Manchester Alphabet contains locations still recognisable today – the Town Hall, King Street and Manchester Art Gallery (depicted in the illustration ‘P is for Picture Gallery’) ¬¬ – as well as many areas now lost to history (Bellevue Zoo and Greenheys) or transformed beyond recognition (Ancoats and Shudehill). Oldham’s book is a celebration of Manchester, focussing on the city’s vitality (‘E for Exchange’; ‘X for Exodus’), its position at the forefront of technology (‘M for Motorcar’; ‘T for Tram’) and its illustrious past (‘D’ and ‘J’ refer to pioneering scientists John Dalton and James Prescott Joule, while painter Ford Madox Brown appears in ‘F for Fresco’). Yet it does not shy away from the city’s social ills, referencing, for example, poverty (‘A for Ancoats’), pollution (‘I for Irwell’) and the reality of many children’s lives in an industrial environment (alluded to in ‘H is for Heaton Park’). However, it is done with such a light touch that the social commentary slips by almost unnoticed. The artist’s close observation of dress documents many different social ‘types’ in the city. The clogs and shawl of the young girl, and the small boy accompanying her, in too-large boots and hat, in ‘A is for Ancoats’, are in stark contrast to the well- and warmly dressed folk in ‘C for Chorlton’; the market women in ‘S for Shudehill’ a world away from the fashionable family in ‘K for King Street’. Oldham’s satirical gaze can be found in smaller details still: the figure with his back to us in the bottom left of ‘P for Picture Gallery’ would have been recognised in his day as an example of an ‘aesthetic’ type, whose wide hat and knee britches mimicked the dress of the leading aesthete of the previous generation, Oscar Wilde. illustrate here with detail of the two figure groups from A and K Some details from the alphabet may need further explanation: B for Bowdon: The names of the different railway companies are abbreviated. In full they are the Cheshire Lines Committee, the Manchester South Junction and the Altrincham Railway. G for Guardian: Standing in front of the latest edition of the Guardian newspaper are the political rivals of the day, David Lloyd George and Joseph Chamberlain. J for Joule: The ‘old man in his dressing gown’ is scientist James Prescott Joule. His many achievements include work on the relationship between heat and energy, which led to the first law of thermodynamics. He was taught by John Dalton, known for his pioneering work in atomic theory and research into colour blindness, and whose statue stands opposite Joule’s in Manchester Town Hall. N: The vehicle registration plate does not conform to size regulations and so the policeman is making a note of it. Q for De Quincey: In his autobiographical novel, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Thomas de Quincey describes his childhood in Greenheys, Manchester. Further reading: Manchester Memories, George Mould (Terence Dalton Limited, Lavenham, Suffolk, 1972). I particularly like C for Chorlton as I spent most of my childhood there. The verses are very McGonagall......... The 'Cold Cases' were absolutely fascinating. What do we know about a piece? Can anyone elucidate any more? Very 'Art Detectives', and to me exciting. What a marvellous and imaginative exhibition. We finished a very good day by seeing a new release at the Manchester Film Festival. £5 tickets, great and huge cinema...what's not to like? We were amazed by the poor attendance at this and our next day's performance. Maybe 20 or 30 people, some of whom were festival organisers. It reminded us of our difficulties in getting people along to great events at our bookshops. They deserve better!
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August 2023
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