Manchester

no karaoke at castle, it's really not that kind of place! my mate's hosting a spoken word event there tonight, free entry and always great.

Found a really nice comics and bookshop - will note its name down for my next update, should I live.

Paramount books near shudehill bus station/back of the arndale? if not you should definitely visit.

forgot to update this, but other notable eateries - habesha on sackville street, the spiral staircase in the corner of a kebab shop is an inauspicious entrance but this is a pretty great and very reasonable ethiopian&eritrean restaurant.

there are a few good curry houses in the city centre, I'd probably go for rajdoot, which is on the opposite side of albert square to the armenian taverna, but if you can make it to rusholme it's worth a stroll (I like sanam, the palestinian falafel place is also fantastic) and the great kathmandu on burton road in didsbury is probably my overall favourite.

not sure what your plans are but if you're up for a pint ilxmail me!

Yeah Paramount - paid a quick visit, looks great.

Saw this quickly last night and went to Habesha and that's great - really good local knowledge there, never spot that in a million years.

Been wondering re: curry house. Will try.

Will ilxmail - up for a drink sometime.

Any restaurants in Manchester that you (or rather my sister) would be pleased to get a birthday voucher for? (Meals? Afternoon tea?)

Dough pizza

I would be extremely pleased to visit one of the Simon Rogan places at The Midland, but that may be further up the £££ scale than you had in mind.

yeah for a treat the midland would be good

I hear wonderful things about the lime tree in didsbury as well which would be considerably more reasonable

Going to Rajdoot now and its outstansding.

Also go to Samsi as I stay nearby there - bdesides serving a terrific Katsu cuury it has good ice cream for dessert.

glad you like rajdoot! love a samsi bento box and the sushi must be the best in manchester by quite a way

DEVO MANC

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/call-referendum-over-greater-manchester-10261642#ICID=sharebar_twitter

El Rincon is brilliant tapas place, went last night and it is tough to get a table (and you can only book in advance if its for three ppl at least)

Extra offline recommends from ogmor that I've also checked out:

- Yuzu is an excellent, humble Japanese place in the less busier corner in Faulkner street

- Salvi is a v good Italian on John Dalton Street

For breakfast I settled on Fig + Sparrow on Oldham street - which doubles as a design shop.

Ppl at fig are v friendly although they weren't open at 8am (xmas parties season then?)

Went for some pancakes + berries + yoghurt (er @ that mix) and the jukebox was '97: Manics, Verve, Radiohead, Ash, MANSUN. LOL Indie. What corruption and filth.

I haven't been to Manchester in 24 years, but I'm glad to see some things haven't changed.

http://ak-hdl.buzzfed.com/static/2016-01/1/11/enhanced/webdr15/enhanced-buzz-wide-14156-1451666024-7.jpg

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=hogarth%20methinks&src=typd

Michael Cawley ‏@cawleym1 Jan 1
Hogarthian in all respects, the pissed bloke getting his beer has poignant poetic majesty.

There is a Buddhist centre and a v gd veg cafe round the corner from there.

just down the road from Paramount Books as well

full sequence of events:

http://i4.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article10673595.ece/ALTERNATES/s1227b/JS79535758.jpg

http://i4.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article10673600.ece/ALTERNATES/s1227b/JS79535764.jpg

http://i1.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article10673597.ece/ALTERNATES/s1227b/JS79535762.jpg

http://i4.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article10673611.ece/ALTERNATES/s1227b/JS79535829.jpg

http://i3.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article10673613.ece/ALTERNATES/s1227b/JS79535831.jpg

Get a giggle everytime I walk by Well Street.

Are there any good vegetarian resturants in Manchester?

1847, right in the centre of town, is really good, I went there a few months ago. Excellent organic wine list too.

I'll check it out tx.

what's the deal with Paramount books? that is now only open on Sat and Sun - before xmas its opening hours only included Friday.

Is that the main indepedent bookseller in the city centre?

also: soref, neil s - both myself and ogmor were talking about a Manchester fap sometime (no it won't end like those pics above :-))

Let us know whether you might be around in Feb sometime.

manchester/nw ilx needs to rally together or at least congeal in the NQ somewhere

and one more - otherwise me and ogmor will hopefully get to paint the town do something

Is there a good place for breakfast that might do some nice things? (French toast or pancakes or just nice porridge) and that opens at 7am.

sorry never responded to yr kind invite, I'm actually London-based but am in Mcr to see my brother & my GF's family fairly often, if that coincides with an Mcr FAP then I will give you a shout!

No worries I'll hopefully get to firm up a day and revive this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRCcGUvmZDE

Get a giggle everytime I walk by Well Street.

there's also helmet street

http://i.imgur.com/2NvsK30.jpg

I'd really like to just go and lie in that, go to sleep, and then they can bring the water back.

rip, sweet prince

Somewhere I have loads of ace ruin porn pics taken by my partner in the late 90's from a Sunday walk down the Rochdale canal. I'd imagine it is all horrible apartments owned by Robbie Fowler these days.

sad!

there's definitely a bit of that but a lot of manchester esp north and east is still v much underdeveloped overgrown brownfield junkie dens etc.

:-(

It's a shame they've built all over Pomona

have they? last time I was there it all still looked like this

http://i3.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article9724876.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/JS33878848.jpg

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/555c907ce4b0c12ff4f6f6bd/563f6231e4b039e01d2ee90a/563f6231e4b0519912c323d5/1446994510661/Pomona+Island_2_%C2%A9Matthew+Nichol+Photography.jpg?format=1000w

that was about a year ago, though

There's some open wilderness left but that bit has been cut off by the developments I think, you can't get on there to wander about.

(Pomona a possible Real England candidate if not done already)

So, well. Useful link:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/westandtogethermanchester

Probably worth posting on the other thread too. If you've not seen it, it's here: Explosion at Ariana Grande concert in Manchester May 2017

Haven't been for years, and the immediate context made me wonder whether i should cancel my trip but Manchester is looking absolutely resplendent and thriving in the early evening sun.

you've picked a nice day for it!

Manchester slowly getting back to some sort of "normal" pic.twitter.com/ypEWwvZS24

— Hunter (@Hunterandrewss) May 25, 2017

really beautiful. just having a glass in the northern quarter, which i don't think properly existed the last time i was here. also this thread is a goldmine, ogmor, thank you. was in gulliver's and am just wondering where to go next but am happy to see where whim takes me.

v much xpost thanks xyzzzz__

the weather has me thinking about a post-work drink, let me know if you're up for some company

absolutely. come down!

yes that's otm. the mayor's role is v vague and weak atm hence him getting ppl to sign his campaign for 18 new powers and this is currently outside of his purview. owen hatherley reckons we need a haringey style coup, idk how that worked in practical terms and ppl in haringey still seem pissed off about corporate regeneration schemes and social cleansing. the council are inexplicably feeble at enforcing social housing quotas on developers, I think they have the worst record in the country, and I doubt the entirety of the property boom can be put down to this slackness, but without reversing the cuts I'm not sure how much could be improved

It mentions one of the projects couldn't get planning permission previously because of its height and now an even taller version has been green-lighted, it all comes down to reduced central gov funding, be nice if they'd admit this rather than barely credible speak of "robust assessment"

I'm looking forward to a really measured and thoughtful counter piece in the Graun by Giggsy on this.

the bbc is ofc in salford, which from the little I know seems like a better council despite being poorer and having had I think the worst cuts in percentage terms of any council

The BBC's in Salford but I guess a lot of the people who work there live in Manchester and these developments are there to service that demand?

the ppl I know who work round media city live in trafford or salford, which is more suburban. I'm sure there are plenty in the city centre but part of the problem with the new developments is they're not v family friendly (neither is the city centre) and I'd imagine it's only a fraction of the overall demand and a lot of the developments are happening over the other side of town, are aimed at rich foreign students etc.

some very small scale local property developer fuckery that pissed me off in recent years is a row of beautiful cottages that were built in the 1650's and would have only required minor refurbs to make them good, that were bulldozed down, and the space they inhabited has sat empty/become part of some developers land collection ever since. An early 1800's derelict building with a handsome (but broken and stopped for years) clock-tower recently demolished and the ugly ass wooden/breeze block flats construction they are putting in its place would have caused Nairn to have a stroke.

Free ticket to see Earth at Gorilla tonight if anyone wants it - won it in a competition and one of my pals has dropped out

Ten years on, @owenhatherley considers again Manchesters 'New Ruins' and asks, what is the legacy of the Leese leadership?https://t.co/VQBhxqaDDX

— Greater Manchester Housing Action (@gmhousingaction) June 4, 2020

some juicy stuff in there. I think development has been increasing, there's so much still going up, & I wonder how much it'll be impacted by the current shitshow and whether it will all get finished. there have been a few aborted projects that were left barely started for years before getting demolished, you'd think shit like the big circle square development on the site of the old bbc on oxford road is too far along to meet the same fate but who knows

Thinking of making a rolling list of (good) places that are closing down, it's depressing af. So far I've heard about: Lunya, Nexus, Deaf Institute, Gorilla

Sad about Nexus.

Know it's London but just saw a tweet by Cafe To who are hiring out their venue as rehearsal space to stay afloat :-(

Apparently ~90% of music venues are looking like the might close

That's really sickening.

(That should be *Oto, above)

Coincidentally, 90% of live music I've seen in the last 5 years has been at Cafe Oto.

Mariam Rezaei + Odie Ji Ghast at the Peer House - 28th April 2022

Some pals have formed a DIY collective to get more experimental/Avant-garde music gigs to Manchester. Should be a fun first event.

Looking for good venues for a lunch, evening meal and breakfast? City centre-ish.

In the evening, we'll be heading to a gig at New Century, so that might narrow things down.

Gah! Takk has closed, apparently.

This guy is my new favorite Mancunian. Does he have much local profile? He cracks me up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eN31cyeTww