i-want-more

So much to answer for

Last stop on our stop-start 2009 tour of England's North, Manchester.

As we drew into town on the train, I managed to completely miss The B of the Bang, despite JJ pointing it out to me for about five minutes ("there it is. where? there it is. where? there it is." etc). The break got off to an inauspicious start, with a stomach bug/food poisoning flooring me on the Friday night/Saturday morning. From there, it got better, luckily.

Manchester is a lot like London in many ways. For example, it is full of some gorgeous old grand buildings, and some of the worst architecture I've ever seen. Ugly mid-1980s high-rises jostle for space next to vast Victorian palaces of wealth. Like many towns of note these days, it has introduced a German Christmas market. Why the vogue for these things? It's just an excuse to eat bad meat products, as far as I can tell. There are many ways in which Manchester differs to London, of course. The people are friendlier, for starters.

One observation that I made quite quickly was, when men are good-looking in Manchester, they really are. I don't usually look twice at men when I'm at home, but on at least three occasions I was dumbfounded by some high-cheekboned, tousle-haired Manc lad. Of course, for every cutie there's ten crew-cutted monkeys in hooded tops. [Just like London, then.]

We checked out the rather good city art gallery, going straight to the ubiquitous Lowrys. Also a rather good exhibition of Holman Hunt's work (including no less than three versions of The Light of the World).

The main reason we went North was to go to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, outside Wakefield. The train journey from Manchester to Leeds across the Penines was just, well, breathtaking at points. I was pleased that we woke up early and could take this in. The landscape reminded me a lot of Devon. At Leeds station, we saw the ex-Deputy Prime Minister wandering about on the platform, no Jag in sight. On arrival in Wakefield, our cab driver, Kez, was bemoaning the fact that just as Wakefield has gotten around to agreeing to a major facelift to the town centre, that the country is staring into an economic abyss. A fair point.

The park was fantastic. The weather was crisp, clear and cold, not a cloud in the sky. Sculpture is a funny thing, it's not as immediate as paintings on a wall - it leaves you feeling quizzical. We went to check out the Isamu Noguchi stuff, which was pretty cool, but the pieces I enjoyed most were a series of Hepworth sculptures on a hillside.

Following a good trapise about, one of the best Sunday lunches ever, and the first time I've ever eaten a Yorkshire pudding while in Yorkshire. Hoorah!

On Monday we headed off to the Imperial War Museum North. Here's a piece of trivia for you. All public buildings now have to display energy certificates to show how much they use in the way of resources. This new building has a worse energy rating than the "old" war museum in South London. I have to say, it was a truly ungainly space, badly designed, sitting on the fringe of an industrial estate, with the most shocking transport links (we ended up at the Trafford Centre by accident because we thought it would be obvious when we arrived at the museum: it wasn't). The exhibits were thought-provoking, but it was essentially disappointing.

Sadly, no pilgrimage to Salford Lad's Club for me. Next time...

Labels: manchester

posted by deafdisco @ 8:54 pm