The Grey Irwell

I am standing on Woden Street footbridge (extra). It is a bridge .... and a legal boundary.

North of here, towards the City Centre, I am looking at the River Irwell. I was amazed at the progress on the apartment development here. What a fantastic location. The developer has branded it "Downtown". I am of an age where that brings to mind Petula Clark. Worrying.

South of the bridge (extra, a chap feeding an assortment of gulls, geese and ducks) it is legally the Manchester Ship Canal. A private waterway  all the way to Liverpool Bay, owned by Peel Ports, a company with two shareholders - Peel Holdings, and the infrastructure arm of Deutche Bank. 

The bankside is heavily graffitied, sometimes startlingly so (extra). But the vista up the river on a day like today is wonderful (extra). Known as the Grey Irwell, this whole stretch was not looking grey at all.

I was not here for very long. But took a lot of photographs, for obvious reasons. Whilst it was wonderfully springlike, the mildness in mid February is also disconcerting. The school kids who walked out of school today to protest at the inaction on climate change have a very good point to make. Today is weather, not climate, but the way the seasons are flipping around is disconcerting, and I cannot help but think we will pay for it all eventually. Or rather, they will.