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A Manchester thread for all things Manc

Only just learnt of the Church of All Souls in Ancoats. Tempted to take a cycle ride over to check it out. Anyone know if the building is in use?

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Do you follow Skyliner or something? I saw that this morning too.

Provided I actually have this right, there's a church by Williams BMW on Upper Brook Street that was absolutely fucked for years, no roof and in a similar state to this Ancoats one. Just had a search for it on Street View and it looks in perfect condition now.

Edit: Upper Brook Street Chapel, Manchester | Historic England - doesn't really show how bad it was
 
Do you follow Skyliner or something? I saw that this morning too.

Provided I actually have this right, there's a church by Williams BMW on Upper Brook Street that was absolutely fucked for years, no roof and in a similar state to this Ancoats one. Just had a search for it on Street View and it looks in perfect condition now.

Edit: Upper Brook Street Chapel, Manchester | Historic England - doesn't really show how bad it was
It's now flats. It was actually owned by Manchester City Council, which was arguably criminal in its neglect of the place. It's a Pugin, a fucking Pugin, of Houses of Parliament fame, and the cunts in Manchester town hall let it become derelict with the roof missing. Utter bastards.

It's listed, of course, and was on the 'at risk' register for many years.

I reckon it was allowed to decline because of corruption, let it become so bad that the only way to 'save' the ruins that were left were to flog it off cheap to council's property developer buddies. Trebles all round.
 
Anyone know any good wild swimming spots near Manchester? Not got a car but a bike and don't mind cycling 20 odd miles to find a decent spot.
A friend of mine does a lot of open water swimming, mostly Sale Water Park and also Pickmere Lake (plus swimming in Wales and the Lake District).

According to Google maps, Pickmere is 20 miles from my place and would take around 1hr 45mins to cycle.
 
There is a new 'zine out of writing about Manchester - available for free from various locations in the city, or you can paypal them 2 quid and they'll send you a copy - I've got the first issue now and there's some good stuff in it: some interesting bits on gentrification and public artworks. Probably a bit heavy on writing from cultural studies academics, but I reckon there's potential.

Details on their twitter here: https://twitter.com/ShockCityManc
 
That made me think "I bet this thread probably discussed when they excavated that one club" but then after a quick look I couldn't find anything, so here's something about when they excavated the Reno: the forgotten history of the reno: manchester’s original nightclub for mixed race youth
Went to the Whitworth exhibition for this - interesting, but ultimately quite depressing - I spent a little time listening to the interviews of former atttendees and they were full of references to this person or that who was in prison for dealing smack, or who had died of a heroin overdose, or had been stabbed to death in a robbery etc - things seem to have taken a really dark turn for the community who went there after it closed.

Odd the article didn't pick up on this Guy Called Gerald track named after it though...

 
I spent a lot of time around Tony Wilson in the late 80s/early 90s, and watched him grow from Granada Reports to The Hacienda. I watched him take bands to stardom, and I watched him die a pauper, as he couldn't afford the drugs he needed to keep him alive.

What sort of fucked up world are we living in, where one of the most influential people of all time is allowed to die, because he couldn't afford the medication he needed to keep him alive?

Edit: I just found this quote from him:

This [Sutent] is my only real option. It is not a cure but can hold the cancer back, so I will probably be on it until I die. When they said I would have to pay £3,500 for the drugs each month, I thought where am I going to find the money? I'm the one person in this industry who famously has never made any money. I used to say 'some people make money and some make history', which is very funny until you find you can't afford to keep yourself alive. I've never paid for private healthcare because I'm a socialist. Now I find you can get tummy tucks and cosmetic surgery on the NHS but not the drugs I need to stay alive. It is a scandal
 
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I spent a lot of time around Tony Wilson in the late 80s/early 90s, and watched him grow from Granada Reports to The Hacienda. I watched him take bands to stardom, and I watched him die a pauper, as he couldn't afford the drugs he needed to keep him alive.

What sort of fucked up world are we living in, where one of the most influential people of all time is allowed to die, because he couldn't afford the medication he needed to keep him alive?

Edit: I just found this quote from him:
He influenced them to fix the postcode lottery, but too late for his own care. BBC - Manchester - Features - Tony Wilson and Sutent
 
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