Tag Archives: canal street

 

Why Manchester’s gay village must be consigned to history

We still need safe LGBT spaces. But the future lies in decentralising the LGBT community in Manchester. We must reduce the power of a controlling elite that has us by the throat. There may have been some good intentions behind the setting up of a “gay village” area more than 20 years ago, but now […]

 

Canal Street in the 1880s: Ginger Liz, Cockney Jim and Dirty Alf

In the 1880s the Manchester Evening News published a series of articles which were then gathered together in a book called “Criminal Manchester.” One chapter is “Canal Street: Ginger Liz and Cockney Alf.” You can download a PDF of the whole book here, courtesy of Chetham’s Library. And here’s Chapter X about Canal Street: CRIMINAL […]

A public discussion with Julia Grant (video)

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 […]

Interview with Julia Grant (video)

A 70-minute interview with legendary Manchester gay village business woman Julia Grant. A decade ago, Julia Grant was one of the best-known business owners in Manchester’s gay village and an outspoken voice in both the LGBT and mainstream media. After Mardi Gras 1999 raised nothing at all for good causes, she ran the successful and […]

Manchester’s gay village topped the city centre league for violent crime again in January

The crime level street map for January shows that the gay village was again the worst spot in the whole city centre for violent crime (orange). The village was the top spot for anti-social behaviour too (blue). I’ll let the map showing all crimes (grey) speak for itself… You can see December’s stats in my […]