A Manchester thread for all things Manc

[Patteran]

Good shout that, bit of a bike ride to Altrincham though.

Heard quite a few people calling Altrincham and Levenshulme, "Alty" and "Levy." Sounds wanky as fuck.

Alty & Levy are standard Mcr school slang. Sounds a bit daft when you're a grown up, but it's authentic enough. Abbreviation suited old-fashioned graffiti that had to be carved into desks & train doors with a compass. 'Manny' sounds odd to me, but the youngsters are all over it currently.

 

[Threshers_Flail]

Alty & Levy are standard Mcr school slang. Sounds a bit daft when you're a grown up, but it's authentic enough. Abbreviation suited old-fashioned graffiti that had to be carved into desks & train doors with a compass. 'Manny' sounds odd to me, but the youngsters are all over it currently.

Yeah not wise knocking the local slang when I've just moved here.

 

[Threshers_Flail]

Got a free ticket for Virginia Wing this Saturday at Yes in Manchester if anyone fancies it, pm me and I'll forward you the ticket.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Odd random query today, while walking down Tib Street. A short-ish chap asks me if I know where 'Brass Hat' is. I said no, because I'd never heard of. He then elaborated and said it was 'the shagging place' while doing that fist pump thing with both arms by his side, presumably to simulate thrusting.

I was quite perturbed that he thought I would know where the local knocking shop was.

 

[handy1]

Odd random query today, while walking down Tib Street. A short-ish chap asks me if I know where 'Brass Hat' is. I said no, because I'd never heard of. He then elaborated and said it was 'the shagging place' while doing that fist pump thing with both arms by his side, presumably to simulate thrusting.

I was quite perturbed that he thought I would know where the local knocking shop was.

Why do you mention his height? At 5'6" i find this offensive. OK it was me

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Why do you mention his height? At 5'6" i find this offensive. OK it was me

Hope you found 'the shagging place'

 

[killer b]

anyone else going to this Red October conference on Saturday?

 

[editor]

Some Manc pics

The street art, posters and stickers of Manchester – in photos, Dec 2018

 

[mauvais]

Richard Goodall Gallery is closing, NQ rents have pushed them out

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Richard Goodall Gallery is closing, NQ rents have pushed them out

Walked past that tons of times but never ventured in. Always assumed it was more a shop so you'd get the hard sell if you just went to have a look at stuff.

 

[mauvais]

Walked past that tons of times but never ventured in. Always assumed it was more a shop so you'd get the hard sell if you just went to have a look at stuff.

Nope, you were free to browse unimpeded, no pressure. We bought a few things.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Nope, you were free to browse unimpeded, no pressure. We bought a few things.

Nah, places like that put me on edge. Give me impersonal institutions any day of the week.

 

[mauvais]

Nah, places like that put me on edge. Give me impersonal institutions any day of the week.

It was just people sat at a sales desk and either posters in racks or art on the wall. Framer downstairs. No hassle at all. Hopefully they set up somewhere else.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

The gasometers in Salford have been demolished - that's a shame, I remember looking out of an old flat and seeing them at dawn many a time.

Salford gasworks vanish from skyline after 100 years

 

[UnicornElf]

The fire service was called out to 48 floods - and one Manchester river peaked at its highest level on record

The fire service was called out to 48 floods - and one Manchester river peaked at its highest level on record

 

[farmerbarleymow]

The fire service was called out to 48 floods - and one Manchester river peaked at its highest level on record

The fire service was called out to 48 floods - and one Manchester river peaked at its highest level on record

Passed over the Irk today and it was quite frisky.

 

[Part 2]

With the Frank Sidebottom film screening from this Friday there's a great exhibition of Frank stuff at Manchester Central library. It's not huge but I spent a few hours there this morning and there's many hours of video to see so I'll definitely be going back. It's on til end of April.

 

[ruffneck23]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Another day in Manchester...

Walked past this area all taped off by the police on Wednesday, and wondered what was going on. Assumed someone had been killed, but it turns out some bloke was attacking a car with an axe.

Man with an AXE starts attacking another man's car in Manchester city centre

 

[mauvais]

I often feel like doing that, but it wasn't me.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I often feel like doing that, but it wasn't me.

You need to account for your whereabouts.

But who carries an axe in their car? It seems a bit odd.

 

[Patteran]

'An assemblage of queer contrivances'.

People may or may not know that the Grand National started out in Heaton Park, ran there for the the first 12 years before moving to Aintree. There's a short piece here about the origins that contains a great contemporary quote. The organisers & landowners wanted to keep the working classes away from the event after a rowdy first year, so declared that for the second year admission would only be for those arriving on horseback or in carriages. Which led to the masses turning up “in such an assemblage of queer contrivances in the form of vehicles that the officials endeavoured to solve the problem as to what constituted a carriage.”

 

[farmerbarleymow]

'An assemblage of queer contrivances'.

People may or may not know that the Grand National started out in Heaton Park, ran there for the the first 12 years before moving to Aintree. There's a short piece here about the origins that contains a great contemporary quote. The organisers & landowners wanted to keep the working classes away from the event after a rowdy first year, so declared that for the second year admission would only be for those arriving on horseback or in carriages. Which led to the masses turning up “in such an assemblage of queer contrivances in the form of vehicles that the officials endeavoured to solve the problem as to what constituted a carriage.”

I didn't know that - that's interesting. Not been to Heaton Park for years - nice place to wander around.

 

[Patteran]

I didn't know that - that's interesting. Not been to Heaton Park for years - nice place to wander around.

Yeah, there's a history of racecourses in Salford (& Prestwich/Heaton was originally Salford). Big one at Kersal Moor, another at New Barnes that became Salford docks then Media City, & most recently Castle Irwell, which only closed in the early 60s. I only knew them by their associated pubs - the Paddock on Cross Lane & the Racecourse Hotel on Littleton Road. Pattern of shrinking public & leisure spaces - commons to racecourses to football & rugby grounds, all now getting replaced with housing. Moor Lane & Gigg Lane will be next. Giddy up.

ETA - contemporary painting of the 1835 pre-Grand National races at Heaton Park.

 

[mauvais]

The Racecourse Hotel has had about three extensive refurbishment jobs while I've been up there. Had a pint in there once on a TfGM walk, was pretty interesting inside, a bar in the centre you can go all the way around.

 

[Patteran]

The Racecourse Hotel has had about three extensive refurbishment jobs while I've been up there. Had a pint in there once on a TfGM walk, was pretty interesting inside, a bar in the centre you can go all the way around.

Think it's finally succumbed & shut its doors, last time I went past it was boarded up. The FA pitches up the road are a good facility - I was involved with a solidarity-based football tournament there a couple of times - & the social club has been central to the Salford music festival organised by Mark Smith's pal Ed Blaney, but it was never our part of Salford. There was a perceived historic anti-Irish hostility at that end of Littleton Rd that I got from my dad - never cross Cromwell Bridge. All changed now, I'm sure. Inherited geographies that used to stop us getting into mither & now just stop us dying of boredom.

 

[mwgdrwg]

Another day in Manchester...

Walked past this area all taped off by the police on Wednesday, and wondered what was going on. Assumed someone had been killed, but it turns out some bloke was attacking a car with an axe.

Man with an AXE starts attacking another man's car in Manchester city centre

This is what happens whe you fuck a stranger in the ass!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

This is what happens whe you fuck a stranger in the ass!

That would have been quite an achievement given I thought both were sat in their cars.

 

[mauvais]

Think it's finally succumbed & shut its doors, last time I went past it was boarded up. The FA pitches up the road are a good facility - I was involved with a solidarity-based football tournament there a couple of times - & the social club has been central to the Salford music festival organised by Mark Smith's pal Ed Blaney, but it was never our part of Salford. There was a perceived historic anti-Irish hostility at that end of Littleton Rd that I got from my dad - never cross Cromwell Bridge. All changed now, I'm sure. Inherited geographies that used to stop us getting into mither & now just stop us dying of boredom.

IIRC it's Sam Smiths which makes it immune from normal business logic or economics or modern life. Last I saw, not so long ago, it had restoration specialists (it's listed) working on it, definitely closed, but this isn't the first time this has happened in recent years. I've no idea if it's going to open again this time though.

See e.g. The Racecourse Hotel, Salford, pub, restoration, exterior, replacement of all oak, commercial building renovation project but again I don't know which of the many closures that refers to.

 

[mwgdrwg]

That would have been quite an achievement given I thought both were sat in their cars.