I recently had to go to Manchester to meet my granddaughter and I decided to go a bit early and take some photos whilst I was there. I loaded a roll of Ilford FP4+ into my Nikon F801s and had a wander around outside the railway station to see what I could find as I waited for her train to arrive. I don't need much of an excuse to take photos, but I was going to be there for sunset and hoped to see the tall buildings in Manchester city centre light up on this fine sunny evening. I wasn't disappointed.
It was just before sunset when I got to Manchester and I had an hour to wait so off I toddled. It didn't take me long to see my first composition as there is an onate building right next to the station with a beautiful clock tower that was basking in the sun. The Photography Gods must have been smiling on me on this outing. I nailed a couple of shots and then went to see what else I could find.
Most of the buildings are apartment blocks that have risen in the last decade or two and are quite brutal in their design. It's quite a contrast from the ornate older buildings in the city. This part of Manchester on the south side of the city centre borders the University Campus that specialises in science and technology. Some of the apartments are rented by students hoping to become the next generation of scientists that make another breakthrough in science and technology that Manchester is famous for. The majority are rented by people working in the city centre and they are not cheap! I saw a few prices on display in an estate agents window and it took me a moment to pick my jaw up off the floor.
There is also the sad sight of once busy industrial buildings that stand derelict, waiting for their turn to be pulled down and replaced by another apartment block. The local Grafitti artists do their best to make the place look colourful, but it's only a temporary thing until the inevitable redevelopment comes along. The signs of that redevelopment are the cranes that help to build the city ever higher. There's a finite amount of room in the city, when you can't spread out you have to go up.
Grey concrete sentinels are rising all around the city centre and the area I was in was no different. To most city dwellers around the world 30 floors might not seem very high, but when all around there are older buildings no greater than 5 to 10 floors, it makes quite a difference. The current boom in apartment buildings began with the Beetham Tower at 150m/490feet tall. By our way of measuring it was the first official skyscraper in the UK outside London, but it wouldn't hold the record as the Tallest Building in Manchester for long.
There are buildings rising higher in Deansgate and Castlefields, the Deansgate Square South Tower stands at 200m/660feet and there are plans for buildings to go higher still. The Lighthouse development will see that building rise to 213m/700 feet and put Manchester firmly on the Skyscraper map of the world.
I hadn't quite finished my roll of film by the time my granddaughter arrived and a few days went by before I could pop into town to see the progress being made on a redevelopment closer to home. The Galleries in Wigan is finally being demolished a shade over 30 years after it opened to much fanfare and awards.
Seeing a once vibrant shopping mall coming down is bittersweet to many of the folk in Wigan. It has also isolated Wigan Market Hall and stall holders there have seen a dramatic fall in customers visiting the Market since the works began. One stall that has been a mainstay of the Market for almost one hundred years is having to close due to lack of customers. Sometimes change has terrible consequences...
I developed my roll of Ilford FP4+ 125 in HC-110 dilution E 1+47 for 12 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I scanned it with my trusty Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and processed the images with Affinity Photo 2.
Here's a few of my favourites and as always I have put them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. If you like my photos I still have my e-zine "In The Zone" available in my Ko-Fi shop or you can buy me a coffee via the links on this page. I enjoyed taking these photos, it makes me keen to visit Manchester again soon to further explore the city. I hope you enjoy them.
Ilford FP4+ - Nikon F801s
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