Underground Manchester.
Here are a few photos of underground canal and chambers under the Great Northern Goods Warehouse, situated off Deansgate in Manchester city centre.
The Warehouse was completed in August 1899 but operations started in July 1898 when only the ground and first floors were complete such was the demand for the goods station. Inside was a spaghetti junction of rail lines with five platforms and twenty five cranes. To facilitate the movement of goods, wagon turntables were incorporated at the end of the lines to allow wagons to be turned round. The Manchester and Salford Junction canal, constructed in 1939, ran under the Warehouse, passing through a specially-built dock.
Two 40-cwt lifts shafts were used to transport goods to each of the building’s six levels, ready for dispatch to their next destination whether by canal or horse and cart.
During the Second World War, the canal, which had been operational until 1922, served a very different purpose. The canal was drained in order to provide an air raid shelter for the public. The walls built across the canals to stop any blast going right through the tunnels are still there.
The canal was less than a mile long, with 4 locks and a tunnel below the Deansgate area. It was built to let boats get between the Irwell and the Rochdale Canal without having to pass through the Bridgewater Canal’s Hulme link, the tolls for which were high.
here is where you can book online…
Lux it up …A Satur day / Night Secrets Manchester
Word kids words….
right so first on the day of fun john and I headed for the free illegal picnic organized by G*** , i cannot give their name as it is illegal > for their events you have to phone a premium number an hour before the event starts to find out the location ,, underground baby . the location is the Mancunian way, which is the inner ring road fly over around the city centre near to Hulme. a pretty cool venue gated all around, (which helps stop police vehicles from getting in) and under the fly over which I’m sure helped resonate the sounds far and wide.
we stayed at the illegal picnic til we felt woozy enough to go and get some green stuff off a friend and came across some urban development on the way, 1st is a building abandoned by the recession- I thought it was kinda kool a bit like a multi story car park impossible to drive around- a large concrete sculpture.
next stop roadhouse, a basement venue in Piccadilly, there where some pretty random bands playing there tonight. first up was this hardcore punk band from Manchester called Obsessive Compulsive which i thought were the best band of the night pretty live with energy which is all good in the hood .
The headliners were william control a crazy gay electro outfit which I wasn’t entirely convinced with but the kids seem to go wild for them, a bit like circus meets band.
Inbetween bands we burritoed it up in piccadilly gardens.
Next on the tour da la Saturday is the castle pub on Oldham street on the way there we found hidden nature taking over behind a wall of posters and a lil bit o street art.
From here there was a photo opportunity outside the world famous Matt and Phreds jazz club, a place you usually end up not for the music but because it open for late drinks the music tends to be the bonus…. the picture is taken with this random guy we met at the castle,, he was a pretty cool cat, being all macho with top off for the photo, make what you will of that one.
From here its a quick trip down oldham st and round the corner to the heart of manchester ‘s trendy northern quarter to a bar called the marble, we stop here for a street beer and a posh ham selection from Spain Poland and Italy … yeah we don’t mess about. this place is really cool, an amazing selection of beers some of which are brewed, by them from their flagship pub just up the road called the marble arch. in my opinion the best pub in the north west, tiled from floor to ceiling and dating back a good many years. the food here is fucking good especially the burgers, which we tend to call space burgers as you feel pretty zonked after one.
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