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Here. Then. & Now, Manchester (2026)

09/10/2026

Manchester has always had some huge figures… and right now, a few of them are literally larger than life!

Have you spotted these amazing inflatables in Manchester Arndale yet?!

This is Emmeline Pankhurst, the Manchester-born suffragette leader who helped lead the fight for women’s right to vote, and one of 13 giant portraits based on the work of my good friend Stan Chow (Stanley Chow Illustration). Stan’s a brilliant illustrator with an instantly recognisable style, and seeing his portraits brought into three dimensions on this scale is fab.

He’s illustrated so many people over the years. With Manchester’s extraordinary cast of characters to choose from, narrowing the selection down to just 13 must have been quite a challenge!

The full line-up: 1) Emmeline Pankhurst 2) Ellen Wilkinson 3) Alan Turing 4) L.S. Lowry 5) Lemn Sissay 6) Caroline Aherne 7) Maxine Peake 8) Wunmi Mosaku 9) Liam Gallagher 10) Noel Gallagher 11) Marcus Rashford 12) Phil Foden 13) Aitch.

Over the centuries, people connected with this city have helped change the world through campaigning, science, music, art and much more. And Manchester continues to produce remarkable people today.

Some of the figures celebrated here feature in my walking tours too. Following their stories through the streets, buildings and places they knew is one of my favourite ways to reveal the city. There’s so much behind a familiar name or face.

The free MCR Made exhibition is on until Saturday 24th October, so there’s still time to pop in and have a look up. I absolutely love these.

Who would you like to see given the giant inflatable treatment next… or is there anyone in the current line-up you’d have left out?!

08/10/2026

Cotton helped make Manchester. What should its story ask of us today?

Yesterday, for World Cotton Day, I spent time at the Science and Industry Museum, watching historic textile machinery in action and listening to conversations about the industry that shaped this city.

I sometimes forget just how great the museum’s exhibits are…. seeing those machines actually working - the noise - the smell - adds another dimension to the mills, warehouses, canals and railways I talk about on my walking tours.

Behind Manchester’s extraordinary growth were the people whose labour made it possible, including enslaved Africans forced to grow and harvest cotton in the Americas.

The evening panel discussion, part of the Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement programme, explored remembrance, reparations and even a “cotton fast”: stepping away from cotton to notice how much it touches our lives.

I came away with questions about what responsibility and meaningful repair look like today. Where institutions benefited from enslavement, what should they do now? Who should help decide… and what form should that action take?

I think The Guardian and Scott Trust deserve credit for examining the newspaper’s origins, acknowledging its founders’ connections to enslavement and committing funding to a response. How many other organisations could take similar steps?

Art, education and public remembrance could all play a part, shaped with the communities affected. I’d like to see more of this history made clearly visible and understandable in Manchester’s streets. Building on the plaques, murals and books, and making those connections much easier to discover.

October also feels like a good moment for this conversation, with new students settling in and people arriving to make Manchester their home. And it’s a chance for those of us who grew up here to learn more, too. As a born-and-bred Mancunian, I knew the Royal Exchange as a theatre long before I understood its history as a cotton trading hall. Growing up, I don’t remember being taught just how deeply cotton - and enslavement - shaped the city around me.

That’s part of what I try to offer through my walking tours: an enjoyable, engaging way to discover Manchester, with stories, questions and details you might otherwise walk straight past. I’d have loved that introduction to my own city growing up. For me, understanding how we got here also gives us a chance to reflect on the kind of city, and world, we want to create today.

And I want that awareness to help challenge exploitation happening now. Forced labour still exists in cotton and clothing supply chains. Remembering the past should strengthen our determination to protect the people making what we wear today.

Plenty to think about… and thanks to everyone who contributed to the day.

How could Manchester connect greater understanding of its cotton history with meaningful action today?

07/10/2026

A third of a tonne… in a single bale of cotton!!

Today is World Cotton Day, and this photograph from 1920 gives some idea of the sheer weight of the industry that helped shape Manchester.

These Egyptian and American cotton bales were photographed at the Port of Manchester Warehouses in Trafford Park. Look closely at the weights: one is marked 741lb - that’s approximately 336kg. Even the bale marked 532lb weighs around 241kg!

Now imagine moving thousands of them. Ships, barges, docks, canals, railways, warehouses, cranes and hoists, all working together to bring raw cotton to the region’s mills and carry finished goods out to the world.

So much of that infrastructure is still visible around Manchester. The canals, railway structures and former warehouses help us understand how the city worked, and why it looks the way it does today.

Cotton comes up on pretty much all of my walking tours. We look at those surviving clues and talk about the people, places and global connections behind them. Once you start noticing them, you see the city a little differently.

That history also carries a human cost. Manchester’s earlier cotton boom depended heavily on cotton grown by enslaved people in the Americas, an essential part of understanding the wealth the industry generated.

World Cotton Day draws attention to the people and communities whose livelihoods depend on cotton today. Here in Manchester, the Science and Industry Museum is marking it with free activities this afternoon, including a talk at 2.30pm, historic textile machinery in action at 3pm, and drop-in workshops and activities from 3-5pm. I’ll be there!

Which reminders of Manchester’s cotton industry have you spotted around the city…??

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Photo: Manchester Libraries Archives

06/10/2026

Tomorrow is World Cotton Day… and Castlefield has quite a story to tell.

Its canals, warehouses and railway station made this corner of Manchester a major gateway for raw cotton arriving from Liverpool, supplying the mills that helped turn Manchester into Cottonopolis.

Join me tomorrow morning to explore the streets and waterways behind that story. From Roman beginnings to canals and railways, we’ll discover how Castlefield helped shape Manchester, with old photographs and maps bringing the changing city to life along the way.

And why not make a day of it? The nearby Science and Industry Museum is marking World Cotton Day with a free afternoon programme from 2.30pm, including a talk, a live textile machinery demonstration, and hands-on workshops and activities from 3–5pm.

Wednesday 7th October
Walking tour: 10.30am–12.30pm · £20 per person
Meet inside Department Coffee + Supplies at Campfield, Liverpool Road.

Book your place:
https://www.here-then-now.tours/castlefield

Museum programme:
https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/world-cotton-day

Come along… and please share with anyone who might enjoy discovering this part of Manchester.

06/10/2026

What the hell is behind this door…?!!

I took the photograph on the left exactly a year ago today. It was one of my first posts on here. Then I walked past the other day and… whoa! That characterful, rusty old door had been replaced by something that looks like it belongs on a safe!

I wanted these posts, and my walking tours, to capture how Manchester keeps evolving, alongside the history from decades and centuries ago. Sometimes it’s the little changes that really catch your eye.

I understand that things need replacing, and that making places safer and more secure matters. But sometimes, along the way, we lose a little of the city’s personality.

That old door had bags of character. The arched shape, the rust, the layers of paint… and in this instance, I loved the graffiti too.

I can’t help thinking this could have been done in a slightly more subtle, characterful way. And if the new door ends up covered in graffiti - which I suspect it will before too long - I don’t think it’ll have quite the same appeal.

Maybe I’ll take another photograph in exactly a year’s time and see how it’s looking…!

What do you think? And seriously, what’s behind that door…?!

04/10/2026

A new Lidl is due to open here this December…!!

But this is the corner of Wilmslow Road and Platt Lane in Rusholme, back in 1973.

On the left is the self-service Fina petrol station, advertising itself as “a PUNCH station!” It later became just a car wash, before being cleared to provide extra parking for the neighbouring Finglands bus depot.

Finglands’ story began in 1907 when Charles Fingland, a former Rolls-Royce test driver, started a luxury car-hire business, later expanding into coaches. The depot was redeveloped in 1973, the same year as this photograph, and remained in use until 2019. Years of dereliction followed before it was eventually demolished.

Behind the forecourt are Platt Court and Worsley Court. And here’s an interesting connection: in 1956, the BBC bought the land where those flats stand, intending to build its northern headquarters. Manchester Council wanted housing here, and the BBC eventually built its studios closer to town, on Oxford Road instead.

Further down the road, just visible through the haze, is Owens Park tower. That’s recently been demolished too, with new student accommodation currently being built.

And roughly where the petrol station stood, there’ll be EV chargers serving the new Lidl. Still somewhere to fill up… just with electricity this time!

Do you remember the petrol station or Finglands? What are your memories of this corner…??

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Photo: Manchester Libraries Archive

02/10/2026

A little time travel on my Medieval Quarter walking tour…!!

Here’s one of my tour groups transported back to 1900, standing at the junction of Fennel Street and Long Millgate. Behind them is the long-lost Cathedral Hotel, but this rather grand building wasn’t originally a hotel at all.

It was built as the home of Manchester Grammar School’s High Master, or headmaster. The new school and house opened on 30th January 1837, at a combined cost of £7,500.

Later converted into the Cathedral Hotel, it also became a meeting place for the Manchester Literary Club. Quite a change of scene, from the headmaster’s household to gatherings of writers and poets.

The hotel was destroyed in the Manchester Blitz of December 1940. Its cleared site was subsequently used as a car park, before being built on again. Today, this corner forms part of Chetham’s School of Music.

It’s one of those places where you can walk past and have little idea what once stood in front of you. Bringing these lost buildings back into view is one of my favourite parts of researching the tours.

And with Halloween approaching, there are some stranger stories to explore nearby… including the legend of John Dee summoning the Devil at Chetham’s, where a mark on a table is said to be the visitor’s hoofprint.

Fancy exploring this part of Manchester as daylight fades?

My Medieval Quarter Halloween Specials take place on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st October, 4-6.30pm - mixing the history of Manchester’s oldest neighbourhood with its ghost stories, legends and superstitions.

Details and booking on my website - link in the bio.

01/10/2026

Rochdale Road, near the Shudehill junction, sometime between 1880 and 1900. But what’s happening with this horse…?!

The shop signs and a Slater’s 1895 street directory listing helped pin down the location: James Booth, a clog sole manufacturer, at No. 13, and Thomas Lawrence & Co., leather merchants, next door at No. 15.

Then the Goad map revealed what was tucked away behind this stretch of street: a clog iron factory, a smithy, stables with leather-dressing premises above, and a hay-and-straw warehouse. Clog irons were the metal pieces fitted beneath wooden soles to protect them from wear.

There was even a saddler, Timothy Marshall, at No. 11. So could the horse be having its harness fitted or adjusted? The hanging chain looks more like cart harness than riding equipment, and there are no visible stirrups… but the photograph doesn’t quite reveal what the aproned man is doing.

Today, the site is occupied by the Angel Gardens apartment development, including its 35-storey tower. A very different use of the same patch of Manchester.

Any horse or harness experts who can shed some light on the photograph…??

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Present-day aerial view: Google Maps
Photo: Manchester Libraries Archive

29/09/2026

You’ve heard of Knott Mill…?

I’ve always known this small neighbourhood of Manchester by that name, but a conversation yesterday reminded me that it isn’t familiar to everyone.

But why is it called Knott Mill?

Well, this is the corner of Commercial Street and Deansgate - yes, this little stretch is still called Deansgate - in 1899 and today. The old building was Brazil Mill… but look at the earlier map and you’ll find it labelled “formerly Knott Mill”.

So here’s a link to the neighbourhood’s name: a mill that’s long gone, but whose former name is still very much around.

Its history reaches further back, too. A John Knott, associated with the mill and traditionally credited with its name, was buried in 1597. His address was recorded as “Knot Mylne”. Whether that earlier mill occupied this exact site is less certain, but the name has stayed with this corner of Manchester for centuries.

And this little stretch of road is still Deansgate. It follows the old approach to the ford across the Medlock, associated with the Roman road through Manchester. Before Bridgewater Viaduct opened in 1841, this was the route down to the river, rather than the broad continuation towards Chester Road we use today.

The nearby station also carried the Knott Mill name. So why change it to Deansgate?

Back in 1880, a correspondent to the Manchester Courier was already suggesting Deansgate. Apparently, few “lady passengers” used Knott Mill station when shopping on Deansgate. Did they know how close it was? Or were they waiting for the station and its approaches to improve?

Today, Deansgate has won out on the station signs. But I’ve always known the surrounding area as Knott Mill.

It’s a shame the old lettering hasn’t been treated with more care. Between the sign covering it and the lamppost directly in front, we’ve made a surviving piece of the story unnecessarily clumsy and difficult to see.

Have you heard of Knott Mill, and if so, do you still call the area Knott Mill…?

—
1899 photograph: Manchester Libraries Archives

Here. Then. & Now

09/10/2026

08/10/2026

07/10/2026

06/10/2026

06/10/2026

04/10/2026

02/10/2026

01/10/2026

29/09/2026

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