Paul Dobraszczyk & Sarah Butler 
Manchester [EPUB ebook] 
Something rich and strange

What is Manchester? Moving far from the glitzy shopping districts and architectural showpieces, away from cool city-centre living and modish cultural centres, this book shows us the unheralded, under-appreciated and overlooked parts of Greater Manchester in which the majority of Mancunians live, work and play. It tells the story of the city thematically, using concepts such a ‘material’, ‘atmosphere’, ‘waste’, ‘movement’ and ‘underworld’ to challenge our understanding of the quintessential post-industrial metropolis.

Bringing together contributions from twenty-five poets, academics, writers, novelists, historians, architects and artists from across the region alongside a range of captivating photographs, this book explores the history of Manchester through its chimneys, cobblestones, ginnels and graves. This wide-ranging and inclusive approach reveals a host of idiosyncrasies, hidden spaces and stories that have until now been neglected.

Table of Content

Introduction – Manchester: seeing like a city

Atmospheres
Spirit – Morag Rose
Feel – Sean R. Mills
Corridor – Sarah Butler
Chimney – Jonathan Silver
Night – Nick Dunn
Moors – Cassie Britland

Monuments
Statue – Natalie Bradbury
Museum – Jonathan Silver
Shopping centre – Martin Dodge
Stained glass – Clare Hartwell
Sculpture – Natalie Bradbury

Movement
Exchange – Steve Hanson
Stone – Tim Edensor
Ring road – Nick Dunn
Loop – Natalie Bradbury
Bus stop – Peter Kalu
Walk – Morag Rose

Work
Cotton – Martin Dodge
Brick – James Thorp
Co–op – Natalie Bradbury
Newspaper – Natalie Bradbury
Car wash – Peter Kalu

Relics
Medieval – Clare Hartwell
Railway – Brian Rosa
Stadium – Tim Edensor
Hair – Jenna C. Ashton
Baths – Matthew Steele

Underworlds
Sewer – Peter Kalu
Arches – Brian Rosa
Grave – Cassie Britland
Violence – Andrew Mc Millan
Prison – Cassie Britland

Dregs
Dye – James Thorp
Arsenic – Becky Alexis-Martin
Shadows – Nick Dunn
Rhythm – Joanne Hudson
Ruins – Tim Edensor
Redundant – Matthew Steele

Secrets
Facade – Steve Hanson
Cloister – Clare Archibald
Thread – Jenna C. Ashton
Radium – Becky Alexis-Martin
Passage – Paul Dobraszczyk
Cobble – Tim Edensor

Nature
Wildscape – Joanne Hudson
Edges – Nick Dunn
Ginkgo – Becky Alexis-Martin
Canal – Morag Rose
Gardens – Matthew Steele

Destruction
Flower – Sarah Sayeed
Bee – Paul Dobraszczyk
Riot – Sarah Butler
Atom – Steve Hanson
Tudor – Paul Dobraszczyk

Home
Homeless – Steve Hanson
B&B – Sarah Butler
Synagogue – Jonathan Silver
Mosque – Qaisra Shahraz
Immigrant – Qaisra Shahraz
Laundrette – Peter Kalu

Notes on contributors
Photo acknowledgements
Index

About the author

Paul Dobraszczyk is a researcher and writer based in Manchester and a Teaching Fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. He is the author of
Future Cities: Architecture and the Imagination (2019) and
The Dead City: Urban Ruins and the Spectacle of Decay (2017). Sarah Butler is a novelist and Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Manchester Writing School, Manchester Metropolitan University. She is the author of
Jack & Bet (2020) and
Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love: A Novel (2014) and explores the relationship between writing and place through her consultancy Urban Words.