Font #1

Just before Christmas I was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Walter Menzies. It was a few of his tweets that first alerted me to the existence of Blipfoto, and got me into posting a photo a day. Almost five years on I am still doing it.

Walter was the founding executive director of the country's second Groundwork Trust, led Sustainability North West, and was Chief Executive of the Mersey Basin Campaign. The latter arose out of the Toxteth riots in 1985 when Michael Heseltine (then Secretary of State for the Environment) visited Liverpool and was appalled by what he found, describing the Mersey Basin (which included much of Greater Manchester too) as "an affront to a civilised society".  Local economic collapse, large scale dereliction, heavily polluted environments, and long term population decline at the heart of the big cities.

Heseltine can take a lot of credit for having the drive to direct big government spending to help regeneration in Liverpool, Manchester and Salford, much of it early on around the waterways (Albert Dock, Castlefield, Salford Quays).  We've come a long way since then (with a lot still to do of course, and a whole set of different problems to deal with now). 

Walter was a real character, described in a piece I read after his death as“energetic, cheeky, quick, clever, cutting at times but never ever dull.” One of the good guys, who made a real difference to the North West of England. 


His blips were just photos with a title, and he seemed to love interesting fonts. So this image, taken today in Manchester City Centre, is a little blip tribute to him - I might try a series myself :)