Manchester’s industrial legacy often suggests that the most definitive architectural era in this city is the Victorian period of elaborate red brick company buildings and warehouses.
In fact, look a little closer at Manchester, and at neighbouring Salford, and the efforts of both cities to reposition themselves as modern hubs of enterprise and education are visible all over the landscape. Showing that architecture off is one of the reasons that The Modernist group – and its Modernist Society – exists.
In the coming weeks, they’re taking two of their Modernist Mooches around the area with tour guide Stephen Marland. Salford is up first, with a lunchtime exploration that starts at the elegant Old Fire Station on The Crescent (opposite the main University of Salford campus) and takes in lost pubs, missing murals, the 1960s Grade II-listed Mayan totems, and the city’s iconic shopping centre on its two hour trek.
Manchester’s tour is much more localised, focusing on the Strangeways (the prison is pictured here) area of the city “in search of lost industry, new industry, ice palaces and Joe Sunlight” and “passing through the Cooperative Empire” over a couple of very enlightening hours.
Both tours are fully outdoors, so come prepared for anything.
THE MODERNIST MOOCHES | Next walks – Salford: Sat Aug 28, 1pm, £10 (£8 Modernist Society members); Strangeways: Sat Sep 4, 1pm, £10 (£8 members)
- Words:
- Sarah Walters
- Published on:
- Thu 19 Aug 2021
