A tale of two Mills

Dear readers — Happy Birthday to us. This week The Mill turns five years old, which means it is now legally compulsory for us to be attending school. What began life as one person sitting in a greasy spoon in Chorlton has now risen to far loftier heights: five people sitting in an office near the roof of the Royal Exchange building. Some of you will have been with us since the very start (though not many of you: the first ever Mill newsletter went out to 21 people!) while some will be much more recent members of the family. Whichever you are, thank you so much for your continued support.

Catch up and coming up:

• On Wednesday, Ophira’s writer’s edition covered everything from her inability to throw a dart, the politics of the post-work pint and good smutty murder novels (as well as a bonus interview with much-loved actor — and Mill member! — Julie Hesmondhalgh).
• We revealed Sammy Shonn, the owner of a popular bar in the Northern Quarter, kept a recording of himself having sex with a customer in the bar that was captured via the venue’s CCTV camera.
• The second part of our investigation into Sammy’s Bar will be published this week, based on conversations we’ve had with over a dozen people.
• Plus, we meet the owner of a grand chippy in Bolton with its own orangerie and a grand piano that is played live every evening. Tasos Pattichis, a fish and chip shop entrepreneur and a bit of a charmer with the older ladies, tells us about his life in Bolton.

🌦️ This week’s weather

Tuesday 🌦️ Windy with a mixture of sunny spells and blustery showers. 15°C.

Wednesday 🌦️ Breezy with bright spells and a few showers. 16°C.

Thursday 🌦️ A mix of sunny spells and heavy showers. Less breezy. 16°C.

Friday 🌦️ Feeling a little warmer, although still unsettled with heavy showers. 18°C.

Weekend 🌦️ Breezy with temperatures in the mid to high-teens.

We get our weekly forecast from Manchester Weather.

Your briefing

⚠️ Development company Manner have once again delayed plans to develop the Hotspur Press, formally Medlock Mill — one of Manchester’s oldest mills. Previous delays have been due to attempts by conservationists to have the building listed, but the latest is apparently the result of Manner altering the proposed development. Plans to build a 36-storey student tower clad in red brick to be in keeping with the original mill building were earlier this year changed to a cladding of grey-coloured metal, and are now being altered again: this time to add a bronze finish on the exterior. This comes after Manner launched their ‘Save the Hotspur Press’ campaign last year, claiming that they were rescuing the mill from dereliction. The new proposal is now being submitted to Manchester City Council.

🚊 No trams will run between Piccadilly station and Piccadilly Gardens between Tuesday 3 June and Sunday 10 August, while TfGM starts a £147m programme to upgrade the tram tracks between the two stations. If you regularly take the Altrincham/Bury line, make sure to make alternative plans if you need to make it to the train station, as your tram will now run via Market Street. The route into town from Ashton and the Etihad Campus will now terminate at Piccadilly station, where you’ll be asked to take one of the city’s free buses to connect you to your next stop, and the Eccles and MediaCityUK line will now run to Victoria via Market Street. More here.

🍸 It’s starting to look like Soho House might actually be coming to Manchester after all. Two days ago the company put out a job ad for a Membership Manager. The private members club with a supposed "studied resistance to ostentation" is looking for a long-term Manchester resident with extensive knowledge of local politics, and contacts in the film, food, and music scenes. What else? Applicants must be able to "seize, grasp, turn and hold objects by hand", as well as "occasionally kneel, bend, crouch and climb as required". If a Mill writer disappears off the roster, you’ll know where we’ve gone.

🎨 Manchester Museum has been named European museum of the year. Esme Ward, the museum’s director, received the award in the Polish city of Białystok and told the Guardian she felt "gobsmacked". The judges particularly praised the museum’s work connecting with local communities and addressing its past, which was a theme of our 2023 interview with Ward, who told us: "this is a museum born of empire". In a formal ceremony in September 2023, the museum returned more than 174 objects to the Aboriginal Anindilyakwa community of Australia’s Northern Territory, including beautifully-painted spears and a group of dolls made from shells. The event put Manchester Museum at the forefront of conversations around repatriation and Ward emphasised that the ceremony shouldn’t be seen as an act of taking things away from the museum, but as "an incredible gift to the people of Manchester". Congratulations to Manchester Museum — no doubt the rare toads in the upstairs vivarium will be celebrating tonight.

❓ A jury has found Michael Haynes, a former Trafford School of Gymnastics coach, guilty of historic sex offences against young athletes in his care in the 1980s and early ‘90s. His first victim was 11 years old when she joined the gymnastics club, and described the feeling of carrying "confusion and shame for many years" in her impact statement in court. Greater Manchester Police say they believe there may be additional victims from the same period and are urging people to come forward: "We will listen to you and we can help," said Detective Inspector Rick Lees.

📰 Two Arena bombing survivors were caught up in the incident where a 53-year-old man drove into a crowd of packed fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League win. Frankie, 24, was knocked to the ground by the car’s door, and was left with cuts and bruises, and Robby Potter, one of the most severely injured victims of the arena attack, was "ten seconds" away from the collision.

Quick hits

💦 The Environment Agency has declared a drought in the North West of England following the driest period on record between February and April. Reservoir levels are declining and rivers are at exceptionally low flows across the country, with particularly low levels at the Carlisle reservoir and Hawswater and Thirlemere reservoirs, which serve Manchester.

🍃 Green Island, a series of day parties in Hulme’s leafy garden centre, is back this Saturday. The Zawose Queens, daughter and granddaughter of the great Tanzanian musician Hukwe Zawose, will perform. Last few tickets.

🌸 Ancoats Green recently reopened after a £3.2 million refurbishment programme, with a 63% net increase in trees, and a 30,000 sq ft wildflower meadow.

🍺 Stockport’s Little Underbank has welcomed a new addition: in a vacant former bank, you can now find a food-hall, rooftop margarita bar and soundsystem bar, run by the team behind the very popular Heaton Moor café Nook.

📰 We’re hearing rumours that Manchester Confidential, a food writing website that offers promotional deals at local restaurants, is shrinking its staff team. Know more? Get in touch.

📰 Manchester Finest has deleted its glowing review of Sammy’s Bar, where it described the "powerful welcoming feeling" you get when you enter and where it called the business "something special".

🧘 Yoga and pilates studio Blok has closed permanently after being served an eviction notice by Ducie Street Warehouse for “sustained non-payment of rent by the tenant”. 

Home of the week 

There are those who will tell you that "West Didsbury" is a scam to price up houses in Withington. That being said, this three-bed period terrace on Brooklands Avenue costs £520,000.

Our favourite reads

Alan Yentob showed what arts programming could be — The Financial Times

We enjoyed this warm obituary to Alan Yentob, who grew up on a street in Didsbury and went on to become "one of the most significant forces in British cultural broadcasting of the past 50 years" while working at the BBC. Yentob, who died last week aged 78, "had a gift and a determination" for making the arts accessible and was responsible for greenlighting Absolutely Fabulous, The Office and Wallace and Gromit. He is remembered for his risk-taking, kindness and "Olympic-level name-dropping".

The curse of Kenya’s long-distance runners — 1843 Magazine

On a February evening in 2024, Kelvin Kiptum sat with his friends in his usual Irish pub watching Manchester United, drank two beers and climbed into his Toyota Premio and drove back to his apartment in rural Kenya. Earlier that day, he had run 35km through Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, the kind of training he had done every day that "helped him become the fastest marathon runner on the planet". He had two months to go until his next race, and most people were expecting him to be the first runner to complete a marathon in under two hours. "But Kiptum would never run another race." This story explores how Kiptum’s death was "the latest in a series of high-profile tragedies to afflict Kenyan athletics", where "successful runners are seen as easy prey".

The riddle of Everest — Vanity Fair

In 1924, the mountaineer George Mallory was 900 feet from the summit of Everest when a veil of white clouds dropped over the mountaintop, disappearing him from view. He never came back down the mountain. Decades later, Graham Hoyland, a documentary producer in Manchester, assembled a crew of mountaineers and BBC film crew to make a perilous expedition to search for Mallory’s body, and to try to answer an enduring mystery: Was Mallory the first man to reach the summit of Everest?

Our to do list

Tuesday

🩺 Andy Burnham will be one of three speakers taking part in Speak Out for the NHS tomorrow — the meeting will be held at the Mechanics’ Institute, but participants can join online (as Burnham will be).

🥀 And the Carlton Club are hosting Good Grief, their monthly meet-up for those experiencing bereavement.

Wednesday

🐚 Over at Manchester Museum, writer Nasia Sarwar-Skuse will be putting on a writing workshop If Objects Could Speak.

🎭 And the Together Trust – a charity celebrating the music and performing arts talents of young people with disabilities, autism, and complex health needs – is putting on a showcase at the Lowry. Adult tickets are £5.

Thursday

🔎 As part of their free Books at the Burgess series, the Anthony Burgess Foundation are bringing in writer Nicholas Shakespeare to discuss his award-winning biography on James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

🪈 And ground-breaking folk quartet Flook are celebrating 50 years of banging the bodhran this year, with a concert at The Met in Bury. Tickets are £24.

Got a To-Do that you’d like us to list? Tell us about it here.