Unauthorised item in the bagging area

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Library Walk


This picture shows library walk in central Manchester, a curving space between the Central Reference Library (on the right) and the Town Hall extension (on the left). It is a beautiful space as well as a handy cut through from St Peter's Square to Albert Square. Photographs of it have been printed on postcards and used on websites promoting Manchester city centre and its architecture.

So it beggars belief that the City Council and some fuckwit architects would decide to fill the space in. Currently under construction is a glazed box to link the two buildings and a set of gates at the Albert Square end, as illustrated below.



Various groups are complaining about this piece of vandalism, including the Manchester Modernist Society. Sir Richard Leese, the chair of Manchester City Council and leader of the Labour group, recently commented on Twitter that he couldn't see what the fuss was about, library walk was 'just the space between two buildings'. Philistine and idiot. By this logic Trafalgar Square is just the space between Whitehall and The National Gallery, the Mediterranean is merely the space between southern Europe and north Africa, and the Grand Canyon is just a gap between two cliffs in Arizona. All would be much better off filled in with crappily constructed glass boxes and gated off. 

As a cleanser after all that idiocy and sheer wrongness here is Allen Wayne and two minutes of r 'n' b brilliance, a song which became a Northern Soul favourite.

Chills And Fever

6 comments:

Luca said...

Some people's brains are just that. Space. Or waste of.

george said...

So they have totally blocked off the path? And you have to pass through gates on a pucblic path to continue walking? Shocking.

Swiss Adam said...

It is shocking. Right of way shocking and aesthetically shocking

george said...

Did you know that someone was using Bagging Area at wordpress? And posting some very similar things to you here?

Swiss Adam said...

It's me. Back up in case blogger everpress delete on this one

Charity Chic said...

Or build a glazed box over it!