Think Saturday night in winter, dark, raining, maybe snow in the air. Cold. Uncomfortable. Not much warmth in a Morris Traveller. Travelling from Wrexham to Leeds to visit relatives, travelling along the Northwich bypass with the big bridge over the river, and eventually into Manchester and along Great Ancoats Street towards Oldham Street. There it was, all black and white and lit up like Blackpool Tower. The stunningly elegant and modern-looking Daily Express Building, presses running, all to be seen and heard through those walls-of-windows, It was the highlight of the drive, a vision of the future compared to the drab night-scenes of most of the journey. And it was a half way mark. Just got to get across the Pennines, now… my personal photograph taken on 4th Sept 2019, with some cropping and editing to remove traffic and advertising.
My photograph of the Corn and Produce Exchange, founded in Manchester in 1837, altered in 1897 and rebuilt in 1903. I worked here in the early 1980s when it was a slightly more hidden gem, hidden behind a triangular office block (Royal Insurance?) and opposite the white-tiled Manchester Arndale Centre. It is greatly changed now and looks across a public space to a new Metrolink stop; the interior is also greatly changed, it was very dark and tired when I worked there, a preponderance of brown wood and green tiles, now it is home to many restaurants and cafe bars. All of which made it difficult to choose my best picture from the last few years; this picture needed quite a lot of editing to remove tables and chairs, unsightly electricity cables and boxes and the legal signage for wheelchair users, etc., (so it’s good to know that these things are in place), and to make it more as I remembered it, but I also liked the way the sun caught the writing around the door and highlights the cleaned-up ‘heraldry’ above. I think it shows the entrance to the building in a good light. (Edited with Affinity Photo)
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