IF Mr. Robert Rose, who calls himself “the bard of colour,” would have taken repeated hints, we should not now have had occasion to request him plainly, as we now do, to cease writing to us, or to any member of our establishment. We have no intention of noticing his book, and do not desire any communication with him.

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Following my recent interview with Julia Grant, she suggested that perhaps I could organise a public discussion about the future of the August Bank Holiday event (which has been known as Manchester Pride since 2004) and the gay village.

This was arranged with the help of other members of the Facebook group Facts About Manchester Pride and was called: “Pull Your Fingers Out and Claim It Back” — a reference to something that Julia said in the interview.

The discussion took place on Thursday 25 August 2011 at the Hotel International on London Road, opposite Piccadilly Station.

The first half was about past and present. A chance for people to ask follow-up questions about the interview, or anything they’d ever wanted to ask Julia Grant. The second was about the future. What changes we would like to see and how to achieve those.

You can watch the whole thing here. It’s in four parts, with a total running time of 128 minutes.

In 1988 “Canal Street in Manchester city centre was still a red-light district,” writes the author. Going on to describe how police officers patrolled its “dank alleys”.

“This kind of surveillance was nothing new in the area,” she continues.
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The newly-added archive covers The Guardian from 1821-2003 and The Observer from 1791-2003. The years from 2003 to date can be seen via the existing NewsBank service.

So, in a nutshell you can see any page from any issue and it’s free.

This is an amazing resource to have at our fingertips. Particularly as the newspaper was known as The Manchester Guardian until the late 1960′s and was based in offices on Cross Street where Boots is now. So there is a wealth of historical information about the city.

The Times is also available from 1785 to the current date and The Newsbank service provides issues of many newspapers from Britain and around the world, from the last 10-25 years. Including the Manchester Evening News, The Independent, Daily Telegraph, the Mirror…

There are many other free resources in the 24 Hour Library including reference services and the Naxos Music Library which provides 18,000 CDs to listen to.

Manchester Evening News

The embedded video isn't working so please click through to see it.

My favourite part of this is what he has to say about New Labour. So true...

Those that date from 1980 onwards are played in my Tascam Porta05 Ministudio — a multitrack cassette recorder that I bought in 1988.

Tapes from the 1970′s are more tricky.
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Quite a number are complete programmes that are more than 25 minutes long.

What a great resource.

Built for Edward Garcia, and designed by a Mr Weldon, it opened as a circus on 29 September 1883 and then became a theatre. From 1916 until 1924 the building operated as a cinema, known firstly as the Palladium and then the Futurist. After which it became home to the Christian Science Church and by the 1980′s was a quite stylish car showroom. Currently it’s closed, having been a bar.

The Manchester Libraries Local Image Collection has a photograph from 1956 which shows the building and another from 1960. It seems there were shops at the front at ground level.

At some point after that the upper part of the theatre frontage was taken down and replaced by the unexciting red brick wall that we see today.

The caption on this photograph, from 1973, suggests at that time the site (and probably the Albert Hall next door) faced a compulsory purchase order and was destined to be a new police headquarters. But it never happened and the police are still based just a few yards away at the old HQ in Bootle Street, which runs along the back of the building.

The rear is a bit of a mystery. The building seems quite small and has a low roof. How would a theatre fit into this building? Let alone a circus (don’t send any giraffes!). The site is approximately 30m x 22m. I suppose it was just a very small music hall?

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Here’s an archive view that gives a glimpse of the back in 1908 — two years before the Albert Hall was built. It looks rather run-down and a sign on the roof advertises shows ‘twice nightly’. This is how it looked in 1973.

This website has more information about the history of this building and many other theatres in Manchester and around the UK, past and present.