Cottagers Cove: how the Rochdale Canal tunnel became a content-mine for online vigilantes

Warning: this article contains homophobic language.

It’s mid-afternoon in Manchester, and a camera snakes through a dark tunnel. Murky lights bathe the graffiti-daubed pillars as the water roars from a canal lock. Suddenly, three men appear on screen. As a voice from behind the camera begins to bark questions, one tries to hide his face under his hoodie. “Funny place to hang out gentlemen,” taunts the voice. “What are you guys hanging out here for? Is there some issue going on that you have to hang out somewhere that’s known for lewd acts and smells of piss? Is there something going on?”

These are the words of Charlie Veitch, the controversial YouTuber and former conspiracy theorist best known for patrolling Piccadilly Gardens, filming scenes of violence and disorder. For the last two years, he has been patrolling the longstanding cruising spot by the Rochdale canal tunnel, a place that he’s luridly dubbed “Cottagers Cove”.  

With titles such as “To Catch a Cottager (Two Actually!)”, each clip follows a similar script, beginning with a shot of a police sign on the wall that reads: “It is an offence for a person to engage in public acts of lewd, obscene or sexual behaviour” — a notice erected in 2007 during one of GMP’s numerous high-profile crackdowns on public sex — before Veitch goes on to confront and film the men he finds there.