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What is Manchester? Moving far from the glitzy shopping districts and architectural showpieces, away from cool city-centre living and modish cultural centres, this book shows us the unheralded, under-appreciated and overlooked parts of Greater Manchester in which the majority of Mancunians live, work and play. It tells the story of the city thematically, using concepts such as 'material', 'atmosphere', 'waste', 'movement' and 'underworld' to challenge our understanding of the quintessential post-industrial metropolis.
Bringing together contributions from poets, academics, writers, novelists, historians, architects and artists from across the region alongside a range of captivating photographs, this book explores the history of Manchester through its chimneys, cobblestones, ginnels and graves. This wide-ranging and inclusive approach reveals a host of idiosyncrasies, hidden spaces and stories that have until now been neglected.
List of contents
Introduction - Manchester: seeing like a city
Atmospheres
Spirit - Morag Rose
Feel - Sean R. Mills
Corridor - Sarah Butler
Chimney - Jonathan Silver
Night - Nick Dunn
Moors - Cassie Britland
Monuments
Statue - Natalie Bradbury
Museum - Jonathan Silver
Shopping centre - Martin Dodge
Stained glass - Clare Hartwell
Sculpture - Natalie Bradbury
Movement
Exchange - Steve Hanson
Stone - Tim Edensor
Ring road - Nick Dunn
Loop - Natalie Bradbury
Bus stop - Peter Kalu
Walk - Morag Rose
Work
Cotton - Martin Dodge
Brick - James Thorp
Co-op - Natalie Bradbury
Newspaper - Natalie Bradbury
Car wash - Peter Kalu
Relics
Medieval - Clare Hartwell
Railway - Brian Rosa
Stadium - Tim Edensor
Hair - Jenna C. Ashton
Baths - Matthew Steele
Underworlds
Sewer - Peter Kalu
Arches - Brian Rosa
Grave - Cassie Britland
Violence - Andrew McMillan
Prison - Cassie Britland
Dregs
Dye - James Thorp
Arsenic - Becky Alexis-Martin
Shadows - Nick Dunn
Rhythm - Joanne Hudson
Ruins - Tim Edensor
Redundant - Matthew Steele
Secrets
Facade - Steve Hanson
Cloister - Clare Archibald
Thread - Jenna C. Ashton
Radium - Becky Alexis-Martin
Passage - Paul Dobraszczyk
Cobble - Tim Edensor
Nature
Wildscape - Joanne Hudson
Edges - Nick Dunn
Ginkgo - Becky Alexis-Martin
Canal - Morag Rose
Gardens - Matthew Steele
Destruction
Flower - Sarah Sayeed
Bee - Paul Dobraszczyk
Riot - Sarah Butler
Atom - Steve Hanson
Tudor - Paul Dobraszczyk
Home
Homeless - Steve Hanson
B&B - Sarah Butler
Synagogue - Jonathan Silver
Mosque - Qaisra Shahraz
Immigrant - Qaisra Shahraz
Laundrette - Peter Kalu
Notes on contributors
Photo acknowledgements
Index
About the author
Paul Dobraszczyk is a researcher and writer based in Manchester and a Teaching Fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. He is the author of
Future Cities: Architecture and the Imagination (2019) and
The Dead City: Urban Ruins and the Spectacle of Decay (2017).
Sarah Butler is a novelist and Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Manchester Writing School, Manchester Metropolitan University. She is the author of
Jack & Bet (2020) and
Ten Things I've Learnt About Love: A Novel (2014) and explores the relationship between writing and place through her consultancy UrbanWords.
Summary
Using 60 different words that speak of the city, from bees to sewers, Manchester: something rich and strange offers a new way of thinking about this iconic post-industrial city. Twenty-three writers from diverse backgrounds offer their take on the everyday things that inform how we experience Manchester, recognising that we’re all active in the making and unmaking of the city’s spaces. -- .
