a crane viewed from Hanson Street, London

back home at last

The London Eye. Manchester also has a Big Wheel in its city centre. The difference in the two wheels exemplifies the difference in the two cities for me.



I've unintentionally managed to make it look like the London Eye moves fast but it really doesn't.

the journey home from Manchester to London

The train in Piccadilly station:



A power station along the way:

Manchester, a fair bit to answer for

There's a new building called 1 Deansgate that dominates the Manchester skyline. I like it a lot, apart from the hotel logo on the side.



The old G-Mex Centre, now called Manchester Central, and 1 Deansgate in the distance.



The Bridgewater Hall



Albert Square and the Town Hall




Once The Great Northern Railway Company's Goods Warehouse, now a car park and some restaurants. It's a shame they don't write the function of buildings in brick anymore when they're building them.


Redevelopment in Piccadilly:



and here's what office blocks looked like before redevelopment came to town:



Discoteque Royale - not as salubrious inside as out:



Oxford Road:


Oxford Road at night:



New flats on Oxford Road. The centre of Manchester has undergone an incredible amount of revelopment in the past 15 years:


a canal viewed from Oxford Road. The industrial revolution started on a canal in Salford, right?



Three shots of the Central Library:



Two of the Midland Hotel:

a typical street in Old Trafford, Manchester

I assume the white line is there so your wheelie bin doesn't overstep the mark. Someone has flagrantly ignored it.

Gorton & District House Clearance Centre, Gorton, Manchester

When I was young, I spent a lot of time staring out of the car window fascinated (well, interested anyway) by the rows of shops on this road into Manchester. This photo was taken out of the car window. The newspaper that's been used to cover the top window is the Daily Sport.

The Roundhouse, Camden, London

The Torrs, New Mills, Derbyshire

New Mills is, on the face of it, a standard North Derbyshire town most notable for being the home of Swizzels Matlow the sweetmakers and the Plain English society. It's called New Mills because many years ago there were cotton mills there. You could drive through it for years without knowing about The Torrs, an amazing set of crevices, rivers and bridges where the mills were built.





There are various houses placed precariously on top of the cliffs



The Torrs are now graced by a Millennium Walkway, linking up two previous inaccessible paths, which seems like a good use of public money




Here's one of the disused mills




and the view from above

Freemasons Hall, Great Queen Street, London

I am concerned about the effect on the English economy and national psyche if England fail to quality for football's European Championships

so here's a grainy picture of Wembley Stadium:

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Everything in Dubrovnik was looking a bit too pretty for my camera phone and this blog, until I saw the building above.


The above two buildings look like they might have been shelled during the war with Serbia. You can't really tell from this photo though.



The shots below are all Dubrovnik Old Town