Tag: Oasis

Manchester Venues 184 to 185 – Piccadilly Gardens

Christmas markets are essentially street bazaars which are linked to the celebration of Yuletide and traditionally take place within the four-week Advent window. The initial concept of them evolved in the last knockings of the Middle Ages and mainly in the German speaking areas of Europe. Early mentions of December markets roll all the way back to Vienna in 1296 but the first recognised reference to a Christmas market was the Striezelmarkt which took place in Dresden in 1434.

They are large open-air gatherings with food, drink (traditionally mulled wine) and seasonal goods for sale. The food offerings can range from Nussknacker (candy toasted almonds) and Christstollen (stollen). The markets undertook a significant modern day revival in the 1990’s and spread their wings to a considerable number of European cities. The first occurrence in England was in Lincoln in 1982 before the larger cities caught the bug with the commencement in 1997 of the Manchester (Frankfurt) Christmas Markets,with the German city initially providing support.   

Manchester Albert Square Christmas market. Image Credit whatsonmcr.co.uk

I have attended a couple of actual markets in Germany including an excellent one in Stuttgart where the facilities now include additional elements such as ice rinks, funfair rides and my own favourite model railways which I am eternally fascinated by. The Manchester shindigs have always personally felt like a paler imitation of the originals. However, despite my reservations they have grown exponentially from the inaugural version which was based solely in St Anns Square into the hugely popular event it is nowadays with three hundred stalls now dotted across many parts of the city with a large footfall attending.

It used to create a considerable nuisance when attending December gigs and then encountering a plethora of inebriated punters on astoundingly busy trains back to Preston. Also, my commute back home after work requires me to devise a different route than normal to reach my destination of Piccadilly station.   

The central hub of the markets was always Albert Square but that has been closed for restoration for the last few years, but it is planned to be reopened for this year’s event. In the interim one of the main areas centralised around Manchester Christmas Market Piccadilly Gardens.

In the 18th century this particular location was donated to the city by Sir Oswald Mosley, Lord of the Manor of Manchester on one fundamental condition that the space be retained in public use in perpetuity.   

L S Lowry ‘Piccadilly Gardens’ picture. Image Credit King and McGaw.

The Gardens were initially designed as an ornamental sunken garden after World War I on the former location of Manchester Royal Infirmary, the Infirmary then moving to its current location down Oxford Road. Prior to building the gardens other schemes including building an Opera House or a new location for the Cathedral were proposed but then discounted. The local painter L S Lowry also utilised the backdrop for his 1954 painting titled ‘Piccadilly Gardens’.

It was subsequently flattened out in 2002 with a central water feature and a concrete pavilion designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando with a curved concrete wall to obscure the metrolink line, this all resulted in an overall cost of £20.7m. It is an extremely rare green space in the city centre and contains a transport hub with buses and trams running directly through and adjacent to it. For many years prior to its move to Oldham Street, the famous Piccadilly Records was also located nearby.

Within the village created, room was made for a stage for the purposes of providing musical entertainment. Within the auspices of the 2023 event, I saw an act called General Drummer play there.

Earlier this year another innovative shindig was initiated via the generation of the Manchester Piccadilly Gardens MCR Live Hub with a stage located in another corner of the Gardens. It was designed as a city centre gathering point taking place between early July until the end of September and was part of the wider MCR Live 25 event which deliberately coincided with the Burnage Boys comeback tour.

Manchester MCR Live Hub Stage area. Image Credit ihmanchester.com

Other attractions were the Music for the Senses trail containing murals, mosaics and Guitar Street (located in reality on King Street), where you could find 50 donated guitars, some from musicians including Doves, PINS and Pixies. Commendably at the curtailment of the trail the instruments were auctioned to raise funds for grassroots venues and music projects across Greater Manchester.

Manchester artist Lazerian also created a Cathedral of Sound, a sound installation built from hundreds of reclaimed acoustic guitars. The Live Hub area was staged fully outdoors to embrace the weather in the summer months and contained a bar, street food and a plethora of beer garden picnic tables. They had DJ sets and live musicians, and I saw a couple of local artists called Sabrina and Gordy performing there.

Manchester Venues 157 to 160

The central thoroughfare in West Didsbury is Burton Road which contains a profusion of independent shops, bars and restaurants. As you turn into the street from Barlow Moor Road you initially encounter Didsbury Mosque followed by a 200-yard stretch of houses before Withington Hospital appears on the left. I first visited there in 1993 when Gill’s mum was gravely ill but remarkably 32 years later, she still remains with us.

Around that time, there was a famous photo taken in the lounge of the one properties on a side street that then adorned the cover of Oasis’s debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’, the house belonging to the guitarist Bonehead. They still have sightseeing tours that visit the house in question but that is always a logistical challenge for them as it is a very thin road with cars parked on either side.

Definitely Maybe album cover. Image Credit musicbrainz.org

Returning back across the road takes you to Manchester Withington Hospital Car Park, which is the location of a large monthly maker’s market. Thus, one Sunday morning in April 2024 Gill and I alongside Tris made our debut visit and were met with the sight of a proliferation of market stalls of every hue. Down at the bottom end of the market was a tiny stage where the local Cancer Research band were playing a set.

On the corner of Nell Lane, you will find one of my favourite bars, the George Charles where they serve Thai food by night. Across the road is in my view the best stocked Co-op in the city which then invokes the old advertising adage ‘if Carlsberg did Co-op’s’!  

Just beyond there after you pass the Folk and Volta bars, you reach the Old Bakery. When I first visited, I discovered to my astonishment and pleasure that they served the Preston delicacy, Butter Pies. However, it obviously couldn’t be as simple as picking up a stash of those healthy snacks there and then, they had in fact to be ordered two days in advance, so naturally that’s what I did!

A butter pie ready to be devoured! Image Credit qualitypies.co.uk

The pie reference then brings to mind the animated heroes of Wallace and Gromit who were created around 40 years ago by the proud Prestonian Nick Park who went to the same secondary school as me, though attended about 10 years prior to myself. There is a bench commemorating his achievements which now sits proudly alongside Preston Market.

Contained within the movies over the years, he has always thrown in sly local references and the odd patently obvious one like the character of Preston the Dog. His piece de resistance though was on his latest film shown on Christmas Day 2024 when Feathers McGraw was escaping on a canal barge and a crate was pictured behind him containing Madam Butter Pies, priceless television!   

Selfie with Wallace and Gromit. Image Credit John Dewhurst

Further on you arrive at Manchester Rustik, which is an independent family run Irish bar. It is a homely establishment with additional tables and when surveying the menu, it appears they serve what look like wholesome belly busting food portions!  

They have live music on from Thursday to Sunday each week and I enrolled Marcus to accompany me on 02/05/24 as I was deeply ensconced in my Project 200 (to visit 200 different Manchester venues) at that stage. On the night of our visit there was an Irish trad band playing.

There is then a trio of Indian restaurants, namely Namaste Nepal, Great Kathmandu and Indique, the latter on the far side of the Burton Road metro stop. These establishments have been visited by Gill and me, quite often with Jo and Paul in tow and alongside sampling their cuisine, we have also naturally compared their Onion Bhaji quality, but still in our combined view nowhere surpasses the Royal Tondoori in Burnage in this regard!

As you arrive at the corner with Lapwing Lane, there is the large Elizabethan pub and across the road is the Manchester Railway. This hostelry for many years was a John Smiths brewery house before being taken over by Joseph Holt in 1999. Apparently prior to a transformation in 2004, it was recognised as the smallest pub in England. The refurbishment and increase in square yards was a result of taking over the cobblers next door and the removal of the archaic outside lavatories!  

The Railway pub. Image Credit zomato.com

It is a cosy old-fashioned venue, and they have regular live music and on the same night as visiting Rustik we saw a singer called Jeff Smith perform there. On one side of there was Simon Rimmer’s Greens vegetarian eatery which recently closed after around 30 years, however that site has recently been reopened by the Porta tapas restaurant. On the other wing is Manchester Zaranda, a soulless cocktail bar where I once witnessed a local singer called Sophie play.