The nightmare neighbour of Deansgate Square
A months-long feud between two neighbours in a luxury residential skyscraper, plus, who’s behind the viral yellow poster?
Dear readers — we hope you had a great weekend. Welcome back to The Mill, the publication that does things differently (here). A massive thanks to those of you who signed up as paying subscribers after reading Ophira’s piece exploring the debate over erecting an Eruv — consisting of tall poles and designed to allow Orthodox Jews to move freely on the Sabbath — in Hale.
It got loads of great comments (do join in the debate) including from Helen Wood, who declared the article “why I love the Mill” and highlighted one stand-out line: “Most of the major religions have been practising divine-loopholing since the fundamentalist Christians discovered premarital anal sex.” Thanks Helen!
Anyway, on with today’s edition, which is packed with essential news and insights, including all of the following and much, much more:
Stirring and provocative or reductive and trite? The debate over the viral yellow poster which appeared in the city centre over the weekend, declaring that Manchester had sold “its soul to the highest bidder”. Ian Brown agrees, but do you?
The Mill catches up with Manchester’s unluckiest neighbor, the woman living next door to a party flat so unbearable the council has shut it down (read on if you enjoy tales of industrial-sized canisters of nitrous oxide and Ring doorbell shenanigans).
And we’ll also be asking Trafford Council’s Conservative Group leader Nathan Evans why he claimed that asylum seekers living in Cresta Court were receiving private healthcare when they weren’t…
Editor’s note: Want more deep-dives, stories that go beyond surface level and beautifully-written cultural long reads? All our stories are funded by the generous support of The Mill’s paying subscribers — join them today for £8.90 a month and get access to all our journalism. Plus: you’ll be helping us provide plenty of free journalism to those who can’t afford to take out a paying subscription. Just hit the button below.
From today’s sponsor: Get your festive season off to a cracking start with an evening of musical magic in the company of Manchester Baroque and the Manchester Cathedral Choir performing Handel's timeless masterpiece, Messiah with its crowning glory of the Hallelujah chorus!
This will be taking place on the 30th November at Manchester Cathedral. There’s a special two-for-one deal on tickets for Mill readers — just click here to buy yours.
🌨️ This week’s weather
Expect a cold week with icy and frosty nights, says our local weatherman Martin Miles, though there’ll be some lovely sunshine in the next two days.
Tuesday ☀️ Icy to start with sleet and snow which will soon clear south to leave cold and mostly sunny conditions. Very cold for the time of year. 3°C.
Wednesday ☀️ Another icy start along with a hard frost ahead of another mostly sunny day. 3°C.
Thursday 🌨️ Continuing cold with lots of sunshine but also isolated snow showers. 4°C.
Friday 🌦️ A touch milder with bright spells and wintry showers. 5°C.
Weekend 🌧️ Turning milder but also wet and windy. Snow will become confined to the hills.
You can find the latest forecast at Manchester Weather on Facebook — daily forecasts are published at 6.15am.
Your briefing
🏙️ Have you seen it yet? The bright yellow background… the block capital letters… the withering takedown of everything modern Manchester stands for. We refer of course to the poster that popped up around the city over the weekend declaring Manchester a “city that has sold its soul to the highest bidder”. The posters, with their spin on the “This is Manchester we do things differently here” tagline (“This is Manchester, we do things exactly the same”) were the talk of social media over the weekend. The DJ and ‘Manchester model’ critic Dave Haslam shared a picture of the poster, prompting many to praise its writer’s wisdom (”spot on” said the famously wise Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown) or chafe at its naivety (“It might give those nostalgic for the golden age of urban wastelands, squats in Hulme, deindustrialisation and unemployment a warm feeling but is simplistic and wrong,” tweeted one critic). The posters lit up Reddit too, where nothing fuels debate like someone misquoting Tony Wilson. But who was actually behind them? The Mill understands that the posters were made by MikeSian Studios, an art and design company founded by Mike Emerson and Sian Ford, who designed the tote bag with the slogan “Neoliberal Urbanism Will Tear Us Apart” and the “24 Hour Poverty People” poster for the homeless charity Lifeshare. Millers: give us your spiciest yellow poster takes in the comments.
🎉 Speaking of “plastic rental towers”, did you see the story last month about the Deansgate Square flat that got shut down for three months after throwing too many parties? We wanted to hear more about the scale of the unneighbourly conduct that preceded the closure order being issued; only six of these orders have been issued in the city since 2019, the council tells us. So, we met with Binz, the Malaysian doctor who lived next door. It turns out the flat, like others in the complex, was being let as an Airbnb for weekenders wanting a simulacrum of penthouse living, or just kids wanting to suck on nitrous oxide canisters and throw a party. “It was a different group of people partying there every night,” Binz says. Her experience since buying her flat hasn’t exactly reflected the promise of “aspirational new neighbourhoods for the long term” made by developer Renaker, at times it has felt more like she’s taken a mortgage out on a university dorm. Earlier this year, Sam Chaudhry, who was hosting the Airbnb, looked down Binz’s ring doorbell camera and just said: “bitch”. That’s luxury high-rise living, folks! Are you a regular partier in Deansgate Square? Are you a resident with a different perspective of the development? We want to hear from you.
🏨 A public meeting descended into acrimony last week after Trafford Council’s Conservative Group leader Nathan Evans claimed that asylum seekers living in Cresta Court were receiving private healthcare to avoid “putting weight on our public services”, sparking furious reactions from the meeting attendees. There was also a protest outside the asylum seeker hotel on Saturday. But were Evans’ claims true? The short answer is no. As The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday: “Health cover for the migrants staying at the Cresta Court will be provided by not-for-profit provider GTD Healthcare, which stressed it did not provide private care and was being commissioned by the NHS.” In a phone conversation with The Mill this morning, Evans defended his claims, saying: “They are getting priority. There is no doubt about that”, but admitted the story is “nuanced”. When further questioned over whether he was sure that migrants were getting fast-tracked to a private service, he added: “I don’t know that for certain”.
Quick hits
🎁 Complaints of “overpriced tat”, £12 pints, and a general feeling that things just aren’t as good as they used to be in The Guardian this morning. It must be Christmas. The paper spoke to the residents and businesses who are sick of the city centre’s festive markets but also heard a spirited defence from city centre spokesman Pat Karney, who said the “intoxicating Christmas atmosphere” is “free for everyone to enjoy”.We’ve got a story about Manchester’s Christmas Markets in the works — if you’re a neighbouring business and want to chat, email Jack.
🧑⚖️ David Storry Walton, a former partner at DWF Law in Spinningfields, was ordered to pay £3,000 in costs and struck off the Solicitors Regulation Authority after a hearing found he sent sexually explicit photos to a child. Walton was caught by a paedophile hunter group.
👮 GMP claims it has made “significant progress” since the Baird Review, a public report into how the police force treats women and girls which prompted GMP to end its use of strip search and ensure female suspects are allocated a female welfare officer when held in custody. Know more about this story? Get in touch with Mollie.
🚊 British DJ Fritz Von Runte has composed a soundtrack for commuters who take the green and yellow Metrolink lines, “easing in the journey to the vibrant city of Manchester from the leafy suburb of Bury, and calming down the journey back.” The music is synched to the stations along the journey and changes itself on every play. Listen here.
Home of the week
We don’t normally put this many pics in Home of the Week, but for this property it was hard to narrow it down. This beautiful, three-bed, detached home in Burnage is going for £475,000.
Our favourite reads
Molly-Mae On Motherhood And Her “Princess Diana And Charles” Level Break-Up — British Vogue
“Influencer-in-chief” Molly-Mae Hague, whose split from boxer Tommy Fury had a fall-of-the-Roman-Empire vibe (at least in certain corners of the internet), invited British Vogue into her Hale mansion. Hague is from Hertfordshire but moved after meeting the Mancunian Fury on Love Island. She’s a pretty reliable spot at, say, Altrincham Market or, less glamorously, the Pret a Manger on Cross Street. There is little in the way of juicy revelations about the break-up in this profile, which instead focuses on Hague’s business nous; how she managed to rise above the usual scrum of influencerdom — nightclub appearances, fast-food partnerships and skincare plugs — to become something more refined: “a bona-fide A-lister”.
I tested the UK’s first private terminal – in the country’s ‘worst’ airport — The Telegraph
Travel hacks continue to descend upon Aether, the private terminal that opened at Manchester airport earlier this month. Aether allows travellers to skip the long wait times and disappointing WHSmith sandwiches and instead sit in a Scandi oasis of quiet luxury, with free drinks, tasting menus, and kindly waitstaff who tap you on your shoulder when it's time to take your chauffeur-driven BMW to the gate. Given that Manchester Airport has just been voted the worst in the country, it seems an unlikely candidate for this add-on. But as Sophie Dickinson points out, that might actually be the point.
A London start-up tried to solve Sheffield's housing crisis. So far, they've made it worse — The Tribune
Our title in Sheffield, The Tribune, took a critical look at Roost Rent, a start-up that looked to streamline the pernickety and exhausting work of co-operative living. Run by a pair of self-described “tech-nerds”, Roost arrived in Sheffield with the modest ambition of solving the city's housing crisis. In reality, its tenants have been left to live in horrendous conditions while the minds behind Roost brainstorm a new tenant app, painted murals and an outdoor terrace. All the while, the roof is leaking and the boiler has gone bust. “I didn’t need murals or a terrace on the roof,” one tenant says. “I needed a working lift.”
Our to do list
Tuesday
🪔 Tomorrow you can attend a taster session for wheel throwing at New Dawn Pottery in Ancoats. For £50, you get a two-hour go on the wheels, and the chance to glaze and fire your finest pot. Tickets are available on their website.
🪐 Then in the evening, the RNCM Concert Hall will be hosting Gustav Holsts’s The Planets, performed by Kathryn Stott alongside student pianists from the college. The piece is performed with two pianos side-by-side, taking the listener on a journey through the Solar System. Tickets are £18 and can be purchased here.
Wednesday
📕 Jonathan Coe will be in conversation at Waterstones, Deansgate, on Wednesday. The bestselling author of The Rotter’s Club, What A Carve Up, and Bournville, will be discussing his latest, “genre-hopping” novel The Proof of My Innocence. Tickets cost £5, or £22 with a copy of the book.
🍷 Oats & Honey in Monton is hosting a wine and cheese pairing from 7.30pm. The event promises the opportunity to “relax, have fun and learn a little along the way.” Tickets cost £33.22 and typically sell out fast.
Thursday
📖 The Portico Library is hosting Bookbinding and Beyond, the last of a series of four talks celebrating the founding of the Society of Bookbinders in Manchester back in 1974. Cheshire-based artist Louisa Boyd will be discussing the different ideas behind her work, sharing her early artist books, and recent artwork that utilises various bookbinding techniques. Tickets are £6 or pay what you can via donation.
🍴 And Pollen Bakery is hosting a one-night-only supperclub in partnership with Konjo restaurant. The four-course east Asian-inspired feast will include Gochujang focaccia, Korean fried cauliflower, and whipped chocolate tofu. Tickets cost £27.80 and all proceeds go to Wild Salt CIC, a free food education charity based in Cheshire and Greater Manchester.
Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Manchester Baroque.
What is this ‘soul’ that has been sold? The Hacienda? The majority of people living in Manchester weren’t born or were too young to get in when it closed, and it closed because of Manchester gangs not some neoliberal anything, not because of questionable foreign investment. Perhaps Manchester’s real soul was killed by slum clearances in the 60s, perhaps by the depopulation of the 70s and 80s that followed the collapse of the industrial base. Perhaps it changed when some jobs started appearing in the 90s and people started going to work instead of making the most of their unemployed time making music? Times change and this has never been a place to stand still. If you want to stand still then nothing new will come along.
So perhaps these posters are oversimplified and a bit trite and perhaps they look a bit like someone trying to make a name for themselves.
The viral yellow poster is speaking truth, I mean the Hacienda is dead and over it sits an estate agent that had to be protested to stop it discriminating against social security claimants who have been socially cleansed from the city centre as the council repeatedly green lights developments with little or no social housing. While Osborne laments Bernstein but none of the thousand of people his austerity killed and is still killing now it is Starmer & Reeves austerity. Ultimately the metrics of a successful city continue to be dictated by what can be measured by economists and data scientists while the messy reality that culture conveys is discounted until it can be commodified into something inoffensive. Maybe the real icon of Manchester is the loathsome centrism of Mick Hucknall sadly.