At its peak, the Lancashire cotton industry had over 250,000 powered looms. ibid.
The mill workers lived a grim life. ibid.
They built one of the wonders of the modern world … the Manchester Ship Canal. ibid.
In the last five years the number of rough sleepers in Britain has doubled. Now I’m joining them. I’m Ed Stafford: former Army captain and seasoned explorer. For sixty days over winter I’m going to live out on the streets of Britain to learn what’s it’s really like to be homeless. I’m entering a dangerous world in the grip of booze and drugs, where crafty beggars make extraordinary sums. And not everyone is what they seem. 60 Days on the Streets I, Channel 4 2019
In England alone there are nearly 5,000 people living on the streets. ibid.
I have no money so if I’m going to survive for sixty day out here I’ll have to work out how to feed myself. ibid.
I need a filter on my nostrils ’cause it smells of piss. ibid. Ed finds doorway
There’s such active drug selling and buying in this area [Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester]. ibid.
Grafting: walking around and asking people for money. ibid.
Hanging out on the streets you start to see the same old faces. ibid.
Manchester: one of Britain’s fastest developing cities. The skyline is being transformed in front of our eyes as thousands of new high-rise homes appear every month. With the population set to double in the next five years there will be property winners and losers. When billions are being invested in the two square miles of the city centre how will this change the lives of everyone who lives and works in this city? Manctopia: Billion Pound Property Boom I, BBC 2020
Less than 20% of new homes built are affordable. ibid.
There are around 250 living rough on the streets of Greater Manchester. ibid.
Tim is six months into his plan to redevelop Manchester’s red light district into a residential area he has rebranded Piccadilly East. Manctopia: Billion Pound Property Boom II
More than 5,000 homeless across the Manchester area. ibid.
‘They do not want communities … They don’t want you to be together.’ ibid. Jackie Marston, resident
Miles Platting: here, ’60s council estates are being replaced for young professionals. In Miles Platting a 4-bedroom house costs just under £300,000. ibid.
In 2018, 19 people died sleeping rough on the streets of Manchester. ibid.
Local property developer Tim Healey is building on five sites across the city of Manchester ranging from mill conversions to hotels and new apartments. One of Tim’s largest projects is the creation of a whole new neighbourhood; called Campus, it’s on the site of the old university and includes five hundred apartments. Manctopia: Billion Pound Property Boom III
Manchester’s newest apartment block – the West Tower – has opened to its first residents today. 44 floors of the West Tower are owned by pension giant Legal & General, and all 350 of its apartments are available to rent. Manctopia: Billion Pound Property Boom IV
The last great vision for high-rise living in Manchester was after the slum clearances of the 1960s when the council wanted to create new communities and streets in the sky. But just 21 years after they were built they were demolished. ibid.
‘The corporation decided for them and it decided wrong.’ ibid. old documentary commentary
Manchester: They opted for a fashionable Gothic design by local architect Alfred Waterhouse … designed to suit a committee and Waterhouse made some compromises which Ruskin may not entirely have agreed with. Jonathan Foyle, People’s Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture II: The Gothic Revival, BBC 2020
Manchester Arena May 2017 and a young man called Salman Abedi was in the foyer and he detonated his bomb just before the end of the concert as people were dashing out. Faking It: Tears of a Crime: Chris Parker s3e2, Parker & Wallner to TV crew, Discovery 2018
All of that carnage and for what? ibid. Kerry Daynes
I’ve seen people running that way and I’ve gone back in to try and help people … ibid. Chris Parker to TV crew
Amid the horror, for the media there was a hero: Chris Parker, the homeless man who had gone back into the arena to help the injured and dying. ibid.
The CCTV showed Chris Parker stealing a credit card from a badly wounded woman and a mobile phone from a 14-year-old girl. He ignored incoming calls from her relatives desperate to find out if she was alive. ibid.
A story about the soul of the city. The warmth of the city. And its community. Its people. My tribe. Manchester is an intriguing city. The United Way, Sky Documentaries, Cantona’s commentary, Sky Documentaries 2021
Busby’s babes: a band of brothers with the world at their feet. ibid.
Charlton, Best, Law: the Trinity. This was football that made cynics fall in love. ibid.
‘We were all in awe of Eric from the first moment he arrived at the club.’ ibid. Beckham
George was a footballer. He never wanted to be a role model. ibid.
I needed to be loved. To belong. To be part of a family. ibid.
I was accepted. I was born to play for Manchester United. ibid.
May 22nd 2017: A British-born terrorist is about to detonate a suicide bomb at a pop concert killing 22 people and injuring more than 1,000 others. It was an attack that shocked our nation. Worlds Collide: The Manchester Bombing, ITV 2022
2012: Salman Abedi remains in Libya a year before returning to Manchester. ibid.
Inside the city room a homemade suicide bomb has been detonated packed with thousands of nuts and bolts. Worlds Collide: The Manchester Bombing II
This is the story of a radical nightclub. Bankrolled by an iconic band. The Hacienda: The Club that Shook Britain, BBC 2022
House Music: ‘And then all fucking hell broke loose.’ ibid. Noel Gallagher
The club transformed an entire generation. ibid. caption
How the Hacienda happened: the success of Joy Division 1976-80. ibid.
‘I heard during the day that Ian Curtis of Joy Division has died … ibid. John Peel
‘He said it was necessary to build a cathedral to popular culture in Manchester.’ ibid. dude
The culture of Manchester had that electronic music background, from New Order. House Music is just a baseline, a drumbeat, you know, that is so radical. Bang. Something is happening here. ibid.
‘And then around 88/89, the ecstasy pill was then married to our house music and the rave scene was born.’ ibid.
‘Nobody would settle for going home at two o’clock in the morning any more.’ ibid. Shaun Ryder