Manifestly Manchester

As the more observant and hyper-intelligent among you likely guessed from the title of this post, I’m in Manchester, England. The “manifestly” in the title, “Manifestly Manchester,” however, is more than a little fatuous. Before coming to Manchester, I had read about some of its attractions, but I had no sense of the overall vibe and its architectural styles and vintages. So, what I’ve seen so far couldn’t possibly be manifestly anything for me.

Nevertheless, come on. How could I not go with “Manifestly Manchester,” man? Alliteration, people. Alliteration.

I arrived at the Manchester train station after my journey from Windermere at about three in the afternoon. My hotel was roughly a fifteen-minute walk from the station. After I checked in and settled in, it was definitively past 3:30 before I was ready to head out. So, this will, no doubt, be a relatively short post.

Upon arrival, one thing that struck me after spending four nights in the beautiful, small town of Windermere and its surrounding countryside is that Manchester is very much a city.

I used to be a city boy. Now I’m a city old man. Between the two, I was a city middle-aged man. I’ve spent all but very brief periods of my life, and only during my travels, outside of mostly medium-to-large cities. But after inculcating Windermere in just the four days I was there, the difference felt stark.

Manchester Town Hall

One of the sights that my walking tour app lists as a “must-see” building to view here, at least from the outside, is the Manchester Town Hall. It’s a short walk from my hotel, so I figured that would be a good place to start.

According to the app, “Manchester Town Hall was built in 1877, at the height of the city’s industrial expansion, and is one of the UK’s finest examples of neo-Gothic architecture, designed by architect Alfred Waterhouse.” Sounds well worth the five-minute walk, right?

It might very well be. But not when I’m in town. The Manchester chapter of the Don’t Let Joel See Stuff International Association (DLJSSIA) is aggressive. While I’m here, the town hall is almost entirely enclosed, not just by scaffolding, but scaffolding completely fronted with entirely opaque, white plastic. Only a tiny portion of the pointy peak of a tower poked above the plastic to taunt me.

Other DLJSSIA chapters have put up scaffolding to prevent me from seeing stuff, but it usually doesn’t so thoroughly encase the building. Sure, it may have a gauzy covering in front of it, but I can at least get a sense of what’s behind it. Not here. Well played, Manchester DLJSSIA, well played.

Disheartened, I spotted a Café Nero, a coffee chain I like, right across from the alleged town hall. I decided to go in, have an espresso and a pastry, and plot my next move. I decided that. Cafe Nero had other plans. There was a sign taped to the door saying that it was closing at 2:00 due to a staff shortage. It was then close to 4:00 and indeed closed. Okay, DLJSSIA, that’s going above and beyond the call of duty. Cut it out.

Chinatown

According to my walking tour app, Manchester has the second-largest Chinatown in the United Kingdom and the third-largest in Europe. The app doesn’t list it as a must-see, but it’s generally between the alleged town hall and my hotel. So, not far. I walked over there.

Much to my surprise, they hadn’t torched Chinatown for my arrival. It, as far as I could tell, was completely intact. There is an imposing ceremonial gate over one of the streets of Chinatown and a whole host of Chinese restaurants, as well as at least one Chinese green grocer that I saw, along with some other Chinese shops.

Picture some of the solid, atmospheric, but not particularly spectacular Chinatowns you’ve seen. The Manchester Chinatown is very representative of that.

On reading the above, it sounded like a slight. It’s not intended as such. Manchester’s Chinatown delivers a fine ethnic atmosphere. It’s just not worthy of superlatives. If you attach superlatives to everything, superlatives lose all meaning and purpose.

Rambling in Manchester

I then decided to ramble randomly. I might have preferred to ramble systematically, but that contravenes the regulations regarding rambling.

Early on in my ramble, I stumbled on a Café Nero that was open. I guess it didn’t get the memo. I went in, had my espresso and pastry, and tried to reduce the randomness of my walk.

One must-see (according to the app) sight I found that wasn’t very far away was the Manchester Cathedral. I checked Google Maps. It is open every day, but only until 4:00 p.m. It was later than that. I decided to continue rambling.

In the general area of my hotel, Manchester is composed of a mix of oldish and new, mostly mid-rise buildings. (Disclosure: I don’t know the boundary between mid-rise and high-rise. Some might qualify as high-rise. But if so, only just barely. And, by “oldish,” I mean oldish for someone from newish Toronto, but not oldish for someone with a, say, Medieval or Renaissance frame of reference.)

Beyond the broad area around my hotel, I did see some shiny new high-rises in the near distance. Maybe I’ll get to them on this trip.

Some of the buildings are quite impressive and/or charming. One of the charming buildings that I serendipitously passed was particularly appealing to me, and not just because of the large gold-coloured letters on it that spelled out “Canada House.” But that did, indeed, add to its appeal.

(Aside: To my mind, if you’re not Canadian and you haven’t visited at least three or four regions of Canada, you’re not doing life right. Interestingly, before the start of Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. president, I was nowhere near as staunchly Canadian as I am now. Not even vaguely close. I suppose I should thank Trump for that. Probably the only other thing I thank him for is Operation Warp Speed, which quickly delivered life-saving COVID vaccines to the world. Ironically, that’s likely the only thing that his supporters fault him for. It’s a death cult.)

Canada House is not one of the must-sees in my walking tour app, but it is listed there. However, because it wasn’t a must-see, I didn’t notice it in the app until after I got back to my hotel. (How can anything called “Canada House” not be a must-see? It’s an affront, I tell ya.)

According to the app, “Canada House is a significant historical and architectural landmark in Manchester. Constructed in 1908-09 by W.G. Higginbottom, it was initially built for J.S. Booth and Company, a prominent textile firm, as part of a cluster of buildings known as Princes Buildings.”

So now I know.

Despite the injustice inflicted on me by the DLJSSIA at the alleged town hall, it was a generally enjoyable start to my stay in Manchester.