Manchester

29 October 14    After what seemed like weeks of grey skies and rain I woke up to sunshine
this morning so I grabbed my camera bag and jumped on a passing tram, as you do.

Gateway House, Piccadilly station approach (Richard Seifert & Partners, 1969).
It used to be the headquarters of the Blood Transfusion Service but is now vacant,
except for the ground floor retail shops.  Planning consent was given to convert
it into a hotel but the development seems to have stalled, possibly because under
one of the proposals for the High Speed 2 station it would be demolished.

Munroe's Hotel and the new Motel One development.

Motel One - finishing touches.

A tram passes Piccadilly Place.

Piccadilly Place and the footbridge over London Road.

Construction work has started on a new Holiday Inn on Aytoun Street.
This was the site of the former Employment Exchange, which had been
derelict for years.  It's right next to the Rochdale Canal and a temporary
dam has been built while the foundations are prepared.

Police & Crown Court building, Minshull Street (Thomas Worthington 1867-73).
Grade II* listed.  Originally known as The City Police and Sessions Courts.

Around the magistrates' entrance are sculptures of fierce beasts, by Earp and Hobbs.

Canal street.  The controversial glass and stainless steel barrier which was
installed after a number of drowning incidents.  The canal and its wall are
listed structures so the barrier was designed so as not to impact them.

Canal Street.

Sign on a post, Canal street.

Wall mural, off Canal Street.

Above the entrance of No.2 Harter Street, a former paper warehouse.
There are some photographs (not mine) of the interior here.

Harter Street was recently transformed into 1900s New York for the filming of Genius, which tells
the story of literary editor Max Perkins who, as editor at publisher Scribner, helped produce some
of the 20th century's most famous novels by history's greats, including Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway
and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  The film, directed by Michael Grandage, stars Nicole Kidman, Dominic West,
Jude Law, Colin Firth and Guy Pearce among others, and is due for release in 2015.

The Melia Innside Hotel, First Street.

The Beetham Tower from the First Street development.

The First Street development.  Innside Hotel on the right and retail space on the left.

Manchester Metropolitan University Birley building, now completed.
Houses the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care.

It also houses a nice little cafe -
I can recommend the tomato soup..!

The Great Northern Tower and the Radisson Edwardian Hotel.

Outside the Manchester Central convention and exhibition centre.

London Scottish House (Essex, Goodman & Suggitt 1973).
Soon to be demolished to make way for this (warning - large pdf doc, 114 pages).

Barbirolli Square from the steps of Manchester Central.

The Midland Hotel (Charles Trubshaw 1903, for the Midland Railway).