Manchester

Manchester City Centre Wander – 11/12/24

Distance: 8 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Weather: Dry

Walkers: Neil Millington, Andy Blease, Chris Owens, Mike Cassini, Keith Welsh, Mike Barrett, Clive Rothel, Steve Brearley, Alastair Cairns.

Apologies: Alan Hart (hospital appointment), Julian Ross (house guests) George Dearsley (Turkey),

Mark Enright (marking papers) Dean Taylor (speed awareness course)

Non walking drinker: Cliff Worthington

Leader: Cairns Diarist: Cairns

Starting point: Manchester Piccadilly Station

Starting time: 10:00. Finishing time: 18:30.

The planned murder mystery walk was unfortunately postponed due to Mr. Ross's prior commitments.

However, adhering to the wanderer’s motto “firm of purpose flexible in approach”, we proceeded with an alternative tour of Cottonopolis, exploring its lesser-known canals, green spaces, university buildings, and six pubs, two of which were formerly managed by the late, great landlord known as “Mad George” .

George also ran the Moonraker Club in Hanging Ditch and was the landlord of The Circus Tavern on Portland Street, The Sir Ralph Abercromby in Bootle Street, and The Town Hall Tavern in TiB Lane, where pictures of the famous and infamous who frequented his establishment adorn the walls.

After gathering at the "Victory over Blindness" memorial near Piccadilly Station, we followed a route down Lena Street, Dale Street, and the canal towpath near lock 85. During a previous walk, Julian highlighted a security camera and loudspeaker system used to deter homosexual activity. We observed the removal of this equipment, maybe a positive indication of evolving attitudes within Greater Manchester Police.

Continuing our journey, we proceeded along Minshull Street, Portland Street, New York Street, and Faulkner Street, where we stopped to admire the Paifang Arch which was unveiled in 1987 by Manchester City Council to thank the Chinese population for their huge contribution to the city. The arch was built in China before being dismantled and shipped over in three containers. The Chinese Imperial arch in Liverpool is the biggest in Europe, however, in this case size does not matter!

Manchester had their Chinese arch thirteen years before Liverpool unveiled theirs. Manchester has the  second largest Chinatown in the UK behind London and the third largest in Europe.

Leaving the Paifang Arch, we continued to Nicholas Street, Portland Street, and Sackville Street, where we were greeted by a pub called the Thompson’s Arms, the rainbow coloured exterior letting us know we had entered Manchester’s Gay Village. Turning left into Richmond Street, we viewed a mural featuring notable Manchester figures, including Emmeline Pankhurst, Quentin Crisp, Anna Phylactic, Foo-Foo Lammar, and Alan Turing.

Buttocks clenched the wanderers proceeded down Canal Street to Sackville Gardens, where we observed the Alan Turing statue. Turing was an English mathematician and computer scientist widely acclaimed as being a founder of modern day computer science. Working at Bletchley Park Turing greatly helped end WW2 in the allies’ favour by the use of his Enigma decryption machine. 

Engraved in a bench on which the statue sits is the text ‘IEKYF RQMSI ADXUO KVKZC GUBJ’. This is the enigma machine encoding of the phrase “Founder of Computer Science”. It is fitting that Alan Turing sits here because on his left is the University of Manchester, his alma mater, while he looks out toward Canal Street and the Gay Village.

From Sackville Gardens we crossed Aytoun Street before turning down Cobourg Street to Granby Row and the Vimto Monument. In 1908 The UK Government passed a law restricting the number of bars and pubs and while most of the country were is dispair a Mancunian named John Noel Nichols spotted a gap in the market for a soft drink. Nichols wanted to invent a cordial that was so good that people wouldn’t want to drink alcohol again, very strange. Vimto is so popular it is reported to sell six bottles a second and is on sale in 50 countries worldwide.

Heading back to the Rochdale Canal we followed the towpath passing the former Hacienda nightclub before reaching Catalan Square. Walking past Barca, a bar and restaurant formerly owned by Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, we explored the area known as Castlefield, named after the Roman fort, that once stood here. Railway viaducts now chop up the Roman site, but the Victorian engineers and architects acknowledged the existence of the Roman heritage by embellishing their viaducts with castles.

Leaving Castlefield our route took us past the Manchester Science and Industry Museum, crossing Deansgate, St. Peter's Square, and the Midland Hotel, where the first Rolls-Royce collaboration occurred. Following our departure from the Midland Hotel, we proceeded to the John Rylands Library, located on Deansgate.

Frequently described as Manchester's Taj Mahal, the John Rylands Library is a Neo-Gothic structure possessingthe architectural character and ambiance of a church. Its captivating features, including sculptures, stained glass,and arches, establish it as a uniquely charming building, unparalleled in Manchester.

John Rylands, born in 1801, was a prominent cotton merchant in Manchester, achieving the distinction of becoming the city's first multi-millionaire. Upon his death, he bequeathed the largest estate ever inherited by a non-aristocrat to his wife, and it was she who commissioned the construction of the library as a memorial to her husband, it opened in 1900, two years after his passing.

Our route then took us from the Rylands Library toward the Northern Quarter via St Ann Street, by Chapel Walks and Market Street for lunch at the world famous Kabana curry shop. On our arrival at Castle Walks, we made a pit stop stop at Sam's Chop House, where our new wandering companion (and fellow Silverdale resident) Neil Millington, a retired dentist from Middlesbrough, generously purchased pints of J.W. Lees bitter for all of the assembled wanderers. Upon reaching the Kabana, we enjoyed an excellent selection of vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries, all of which received positive feedback.

Post-lunch, we refreshed ourselves at the Millstone before continuing to the Sir Ralph Abercromby (where we were joined by Cliff Worthington), the City Arms, the Broad Oak, and the Circus Tavern,

before returning to Piccadilly Station for our respective train departures and I think it fair to say a jolly good day was had by all.

Next weeks “Christmas Lunch” walk will start from the Sportsman on Kinder Road in Hayfield, at 9.40am.