Day 4 Manchester wanders part 2
Another day of wandering the central city. J spent about 10 minutes this morning looking
for a book he bought yesterday, couldn’t find it anywhere. Eventually he checked the receipt and
discovered he hadn’t actually bought it after all, it must have been one of the
ones he had picked up and put down again.
So we started the day at Waterstones, again, and the book was located
and purchased. I had also forgotten to
go back for a book on shoe making, so I couldn’t really give him too much stick
for having early on-set Alzheimer’s.
Instead I’m blaming jet lag for our forgetfulness 😉
A brief stop at the well-known M & S, which imho has
changed quite a bit since we were here back in 2001 and now mostly caters to
the older demographic. No, we don’t
consider ourselves old. Not yet.
Selfridges had more of interest to me, mostly for looking not buying,
designer stuff with designer price tags but I love to mooch thru the racks. I don’t have to own this stuff, I get pleasure
from seeing the designs and touching the fabrics.
We then wandered
our way to the “northern quarter” which Heather had told us was similar to London’s
Soho, and she was right. An eclectic
collection of shops, plus a whole bunch of arts/craft related goodies. Lunch was at a place called Yard and Coop, a
southern fried chicken joint, that was pretty good. And right next door to that was the Manchester
Craft and Design Centre, and was a real gem, a collection of local artists that
are really talented and we came away with a couple of treasures.
Manchester Craft and Design Centre
Bees are
the thing here in Manchester.
Courtesy
of Google
“The worker bee has long been a symbol of Manchester and
of the city’s hard-working past.
And
while every other city in the north of England has a heritage built upon
industry - there is a reason that the bee symbol is a part of Manchester’s coat
of arms which was given to the city in 1842.
In the 1800s Manchester was awash with textile mills that were commonly
described as ‘hives of activity’ and the workers inside them compared to bees.
‘Busy
bee’ is still a term associated with industriousness and hard work. “
So there are many touristy things with bees on them, tee towels,
t-shirts, pictures, you name it. So it was
impossible really to leave without something bee related. We bought a wee dish that has bees/honeycomb
stamped on it before being molded and fired.
There was
another amazing shop that had creations made from paper, which were also hard
to resist.
We carried
on our wandering and popped in and out of shops that took our interest. Also worthy of mention is Fred Aldous, this
is a massive art an craft shop that covers three levels, and you can buy anything
and EVERYTHING craft related. They even
sell kits. Yes it’s a gift, J can sniff
out a kit from 100 paces it seems.
sigh.
Fred Aldous
By now we
were weary and it was raining. We
scuttled our way back to the last stop of the day, the very impressive Manchester
Central Library. It’s an impressive
building, a round stone structure with a very quiet reading room on the 2nd
floor. Around the walls of the room are
books, some of which were army lists from all wars. Lists of soldiers names and ranks, including Dominions
like New Zealand, Australia, India etc. Arranged
in order of battle for the British Army.
We were able to pick them up and flick through. Fascinating stuff.
The reading room, Manchester Central Library
Army lists
After that
we caught the very efficient tram service home again, and chilled out for a few
hours before dinner. Tonight, Tom cooked
a beef casserole with mash and it was delicious. We are being thoroughly spoiled.
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