Salford

In the last year or so I've read autobiographies by Morrissey - great writing but a terribly weak, diminishing ending - and Peter Hook - an engaging storyteller - both of which cover their time growing up in Manchester in the 60s and 70s (they were born in 1959 and 1956, respectively). Describing a period that is just a couple of decades* after the end of the second world war, both vividly convey a city that is still largely in ruins. 

I'm a fan of Manchester and I visit quite frequently these days, going to gigs, knocking about with the Minx, and visiting my daughters. Some parts of it are super-smart and modern but, even now, there are still parts that look like wasteland relatively close to the city centre.

Today, I was down in Salford visiting a potential client. It's a riot of red-brick buildings 'round near the museum and this sense of the new rubbing shoulders with the decrepit is like the rest of the city** in microcosm. So, just alongside the smart university buildings is the old Salford Fire Station, which I loved. I assume that once upon a time, the fire engines would have burst out of these doors, bells clanging, turning onto the main road, as the brave firemen got changed inside.


* For a bit of perspective, let's remember it's now 28 years since The Smiths split up!
** I do appreciate that Salford is a city in its own right but I am referring to Manchester as a whole.