Category: Manchester

Neighborhood #1: You are now IN Salford

Sam Bail

Basically a part of Manchester (uh oh, I really shouldn’t say that), Salford is still the big unknown to me. Even after living here for 2 years, I only ever managed to cross the bridge once*, have a wander around the Adelphi campus, and then escape back to Manchester straight away. I was quite looking forward to spending a day in “the other city” last Sunday, when several Mancunian promoters were hosting the “Sounds from the other city” festival (which was pretty awesome by the way – I’ve written a more detailed review on bunmagazine.tumblr.com)

As soon as I had crossed the bridge and left the hot pink sign screaming “Welcome – you are now IN Salford” behind me, I was greated by one of the members of society who regard tracksuit bottoms as suitable for wearing outside a gym (Please note: They’re not.), smiling at me with his teethless mouth, then shouting at his son who was wearing matching trackies. Welcome indeed.

Walking down Chapel Street was a rather sad experience: Almost every other building, presumably former pubs, on this road is empty, boarded up and crumbling. What a shame, given it is so close to the city centre and could act as an extension to Market Street, with the Northern Quarter on the upper end of the street. It almost feels like Chapel Street was intentionally left deserted to avoid any kind of confusion with Manchester – a clear cut between the centre and Salford, constituted by a no-man’s-land devoid of function (okay, it’s not that bad, but there really isn’t much on that road).

There seems to be an ambitious regeneration (let’s hope it is more ambitious than the website…) project going on (Spinningfields 2 anyone?), and with events like the Sounds from the other city festival the usual Mancunian crowd takes notice of the existence of their neighbour at last – but there is still a lot of work to be done to make this area of Salford not only a place you could easily go to, but also one you would want to.

Looking down Chapel Street towards Manchester (Jenga-like Courts of justice on the right)

Islington Mill. Former cotton mill, fantastic gig venue and artist space. There’s always something happening and it’s usually quite loud.

* Not incuding the trips to the Lowry and the Imperial War Museum North, but that doesn’t necessarily count as seeing anything of Salford itself.

Pretty Green: A trip to Fletcher Moss

Sam Bail

Last week was absolutely shocking. For the first time in almost a year the weather actually made me want to spend time outside. Park time! Since we all know that Platt Field’s park is an utterly useless waste of green spaces (ok, so that’s not true, since I consider all green spaces valuable. But don’t you think they could have come up with something slightly more appealing than a bit of grass, a half arsed rose garden and a concrete pond that constantly suffers from bizarre algae?), my task on Saturday was to find a nice park in south Manchester. Fog Lane park isn’t too exciting either, so there were Didsbury park and Fletcher Moss left to choose from (I know there’s quite a few more, but I didn’t feel that adventurous). I went for the one with the fancier name and ended up at Fletcher Moss, situated right behind the “Didsbury” pub (which was absolutely heaving – after all, it was derby day). How convenient.

And ooooh I love love loved it. I managed to secure the best spot by a little pond in some very pretty Japanese / botanical garden style bit after wandering round the vast fields and a wooden bridge like path. I even felt too warm in the sun to wear a cardigan. Happy times.

Which is your favourite park in Manchester?

(Angry Kids of the World) Unite: I write letters.

Sam Bail

Yes, I write letters. Not just any letters though. I write angry letters. In, what I presume is, the great British tradition of passive aggressiveness, I write politely phrased letters to whoever I believe might be responsible for whatever it is that makes me furious, kindly asking them to ‘SORT IT ASAP YOU HEAR ME?‘. Most of the time, I get angry about the cleanliness of places, or sexism in the media; Metro is one of my favourite targets regarding the former, and public areas in Manchester for the latter. Or vice versa. You know what I mean.

As I am currently drafting a letter to my MP, Mr John Leech (yes, it’s THAT serious. I will use the word ‘eyesore’ and send an actual letter in the mail), I thought I might as well share my passion with you. Please find attached an email I sent to the Heaton Park management team in June 2010 after a visit to the ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ performance regarding the toilet facilities.

Dear* Heaton Park team,

while I appreciate* Heaton Park as great* and rather tidy* park, I was shocked to find the toilet facilities near the farm centre in a terrible condition last weekend. The general cleanliness of the facilities was poor, hardly any of the doors could be locked, the washing basins were dirty and there was absolutely no tissue available – other visitors commented that it was almost as bad as “portaloos at a festival”. I visited the park on Sunday 20th June to watch the Shakespeare play and I expected the facilities to be looked after, especially for such an event.

Please take this as a kind* suggestion to improve the bathrooms to make Heaton Park more pleasant* for all visitors.

Thank you very much*,

Angry Letter Lady.

I’m such a twat.

Nevertheless, here’s the reply I received from Mr Peter Davenport, only a few days later:

Dear* Samantha

May I first thank you for your email regarding the condition of the toilet block.*

At Heaton we make every effort to ensure that all our visitors leave the facility with every intention to return after a satisfying experience, it is always disappointing to have reports that our facilities are being maintained under standard, our contracted clean team are responsible for the maintenance of all the toilet facilities within the Park and have to monitor them at least every hour and clean where necessary, as you can appreciate with visitor numbers so high this sometimes has downsides to the service when monitoring other buildings within the Park. […]

We will ensure that your supportive* comments and constructive* criticism are relayed to the clean team so that any further operations maybe implemented however as detailed above we will occasionally due to heavy use fall below standards expected from the management of Heaton Park.  Once again on behalf of Heaton Park I would like to apologise* for any inconvenience caused and hope this will not reflect on any future decision to visit.

Regards

Peter G. Davenport

Well, thank you Peter, thumbs up for the quick reply and the friendly reply. Much appreciated. Angry Letter Lady is happy again.

* Clear sign of passive aggressive behaviour.