Dispatches from Ardwick

12.12.2014

A dark convertible parked on a wet Ardwick street beside a church, pale terraced houses behind, in black and white

Ardwick isn’t just a word on the tongue of some green trainers, it’s a real place where real people live and work. Often overlooked in favour of snootier zones like Chorlton, Didsbury and the like, it’s nonetheless an integral cog in the Manchester machine. It was once the hub of the industrial revolution, it was the site of ‘the Manchester outrages’ and it’s the birthplace of Bill Tarmey AKA Jack Duckworth.

I wandered around Ardwick for a while and here are the photos to prove it.

A tall cross on open grass beside bare trees, with low-rise flats and a pitched-roof building behind

Looking up at someone leaning on the railing of a raised hut, a TV aerial and floodlights on a pole above

The boarded-up Kings Head Hotel pub, posters on its windows and a small tree sprouting from the wall, on an empty road

The Eccles cake factory is in Ardwick. Does this mean the Ardwick cake factory is in Eccles? We can only hope. This building is NOT the Eccles cake factory though.

Railway tracks running under overhead line gantries towards the city skyline, seen from above on a grey day

Ardwick train station is a bit of a gem — it only gets five trains a week and has no wheelchair access. It’s probably not that great for actually getting anywhere, but if you like iron bridges and steep stairs, then it’s a real hoot.

A white-painted corner pub standing alone by a quiet road, with lamp posts and a parked lorry

Inside a shed turned shrine to United players, walls papered with footballer posters, team photos and drinks cans

This photograph was taken a year or two ago as builders were in the process of ripping down a lot of the older houses in Ardwick. People use their garden sheds for all sorts — this one was used as a shrine to glory-era United players.

Someone in a dark knitted hat and jacket on a paved walkway in front of low brick flats, some boarded up

A tall, narrow brick building with arched upper windows at the end of a back alley between sheds and walls

That delightful young scamp Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol was apparently based on the son of a mill owner in Ardwick.

Looking up at a Gothic stone church gable wrapped in scaffolding, a pinnacle to one side

A battered Volvo coupe with flaking paint and its door open, on rough ground in a brick-walled yard beside a black saloon

Not a lot of people know that Simon Templar of The Saint fame now resides in Ardwick. Nice to see he’s kept the Volvo in good condition.

Someone in a grey Reebok hoodie stood in front of a part-raised roller shutter door at 14 Hyde Road

This man has been working in Ardwick for 8 years. Did he have any interesting stories about the area? “No — I just work here.” Fair enough.

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