Oh my word Dani, I wish you’d been around to document the Emos as they made Cathedral Gardens their gathering ground in the noughties. I firmly believe that disaffection & dissent, transgression & inquisitiveness will always seek a home in the city core. I know that Piccadilly Gardens is a dangerous & inhospitable place, but every city has them. As it happens, the layout & construction of the latest iteration, post-bomb, by EDAW advised by Jim Chapman, was much praised for its design quality in no less an international forum than MOMA in New York City. I’m not convinced layout and configuration have ever been so much of a problem, as maintenance & perception. The people you write about so evenly Dani, are now, & have been, through a generation, perceived as miscreants. For me, cities will always need playgrounds for the badly behaved, or more accurately put, those who the world perceived as badly behaved. Just put your camera under your coat & wear stout shoes.
I agree, an excellent piece Dani . I can't comment on the 'gardens ' these days as I haven't been there in years but I do see the continuous messages on fb history sites about how they looked in the past. It depends on whose past we mean though, there are many throughout the 20th Century and in more recent years. During WW2 the area was full of air raid shelters, very little formal garden but I believe there was also a 'dig for victory 'area growing veg for the war effort. My time hanging around the gardens was in the 60s walking through to the bus station and sometimes sitting in the sunken area with a boyfriend . There was the occasional lost soul but this present undercurrent of violence perceived or present does not encourage families /couples to use the area for recreation. I wonder what the new incarnation will look like, it has to be better than it is now surely.
Thanks, Dani. It’s enlightening (and entertaining) to hear the voices of those so often vilified in non-Mill Manchester news stories. I enjoyed your atmospheric descriptions, and it was great to read how protective of you your trio became.
Oh my word Dani, I wish you’d been around to document the Emos as they made Cathedral Gardens their gathering ground in the noughties. I firmly believe that disaffection & dissent, transgression & inquisitiveness will always seek a home in the city core. I know that Piccadilly Gardens is a dangerous & inhospitable place, but every city has them. As it happens, the layout & construction of the latest iteration, post-bomb, by EDAW advised by Jim Chapman, was much praised for its design quality in no less an international forum than MOMA in New York City. I’m not convinced layout and configuration have ever been so much of a problem, as maintenance & perception. The people you write about so evenly Dani, are now, & have been, through a generation, perceived as miscreants. For me, cities will always need playgrounds for the badly behaved, or more accurately put, those who the world perceived as badly behaved. Just put your camera under your coat & wear stout shoes.
I agree, an excellent piece Dani . I can't comment on the 'gardens ' these days as I haven't been there in years but I do see the continuous messages on fb history sites about how they looked in the past. It depends on whose past we mean though, there are many throughout the 20th Century and in more recent years. During WW2 the area was full of air raid shelters, very little formal garden but I believe there was also a 'dig for victory 'area growing veg for the war effort. My time hanging around the gardens was in the 60s walking through to the bus station and sometimes sitting in the sunken area with a boyfriend . There was the occasional lost soul but this present undercurrent of violence perceived or present does not encourage families /couples to use the area for recreation. I wonder what the new incarnation will look like, it has to be better than it is now surely.
Another excellent piece, Dani.
Thanks, Dani. It’s enlightening (and entertaining) to hear the voices of those so often vilified in non-Mill Manchester news stories. I enjoyed your atmospheric descriptions, and it was great to read how protective of you your trio became.