Our City

Katie and Jonathan Platt

Our City

Manchester is really becoming my city. That's why I want you all to visit me so you can appreciate it too! Don't panic. This doesn't mean I'm not coming back...it just means that if I've got to be young and hip somewhere, I could do worse than this!

I really miss those tropical Iowa summers and Siberian winters. And stormy spring...hmmmm. Perhaps Manchester's unrelenting sullen rain is looking good!

This is Urbis, the ultramodern museum just finished in Manchester a few years ago. This picture is not a patch on the one Luka took when he came to visit. I'm not sure that anyone could really capture it on film though. This is the tall side. It's tall and narrow and slopes steeply down to only a story or two on the other side. When you look at that slope from behind, it's all neat across the top. I'd hate a city of all buildings like this, but I love it up against this mixed background of medieval, victorian and modern.

This is the back end of Urbis, with fountains in front. It shows the neat stuff on the back of the building which is impossible to describe except that it makes it look like a giant aircraft half buried in the ground!

This first one is of Cathedral gardens in the city centre. I love this place because it's got a super modern museum on one side, a building built during the victorian economic boom, and a tiny little 600 year old music library! Just round the corner is the medieval church the whole city grew up on. And to top it all off, they've put in this really nice garden with all kinds of really creative water features. On a sunny day, there's no place better. Providing you make it to the grass without being run over by a skateboarder!

Cathedral Gardens

Jonny wanted me to include this one-- It's a picture standing from the centre spot at Bolton Wanderer's Reebok Stadium. We have watched some truly harrowing moments here!

Reebok Stadium, home of the Wanderers!

This is St. Anne's square. It's a nice little square, and at christmas time, there is a german market here. It's where I bought Grandma Straw's Puss in Boots, and Grandma Mac's Monkey Playing the Banjo! Also, the shop called MOSS is where we got the tuxedos for our wedding.

St Anne's Square

A representation of Manchester Town Hall at Night

Town Hall Painting

I don' t know who painted this

This pretty painting shows manchester's town hall...It's a bit over-prettied, but at Christmas time, this isn't far off the mark. They really go all out at Christmas. There are these German markets selling all kinds of stuff. Mostly alcohol, beer, cheese and pastry. Then of course there's the chocolate...it's really lovely!

One of the oldest pubs in Manchester

Old Pub

The Shakespeare

This is one of the not very many timber-framed houses left in the centre of Manchester that are legit. There are a lot of fakes...but this is the real deal.

John Rylands Library

Original University Library

John Rylands Library Main Staircase

Above, we've got the John Ryland's Library. One of my favourites in Manchester. I sort of stumbled across it one day, and it was closed. I really wanted to go back and see the inside, but it sort of slips off the agenda. Then when I did my textiles course last year, I was researching gothic revival architecture. I really fell in love with it-- it took the style of gothic architecture, with all it's reaching heights and fantastic scrollwork, and put it into the modern context. By modern, I mean victorian...