The changing city - a photo on Flickriver

The changing city

You think you know Manchester - it's unchanging, our town, the capital of the north - right? In truth Manchester has always evolved and changed with the times and there are two phrases tat have passed into folklore that encapsulate the city's vibrant, forward-looking restlessness. The first is "hat Manchester does today, the world does tomorrow" and - from the late Tony Wilson - "this is Manchester, we do things differently here."

Part of that restlessness has manifested itself through the changing fabric of the city's buildings. Victoria station, the town hall and the Royal Exchange are unchanging; but much of the city has reinvented itself, only partly with help from the 1996 IRA bombing.

Every single building in this photo no longer stands, with the exception of the Debenhams store building in the far distance: older Mancunians will know exactly where this is, in St Mary's Gate close to the junction with Corporation and Market Street; but the whole background today is dominated by the Arndale Centre.

And behind that building transformation is the construction worker, nowadays arriving on site in their own car but formerly more likely to be taken to site in an old life-expired bus like this former Yorkshire (Woollen District) Leyland Tiger. Hundreds of old buses ended up as contractor transport with Wimpey, Laing, Taylor Woodrow or companies like them. For most, the arduous dutoes trundling to site then driving across a muddy, bumpy building site was their last job before the last journey to the scrapyard. Very, very few survived this use for preservation which is a shame because there were some gems that ended up this way.

Meanwhile, Manchester City Transport 4472 - doing a pretty poor impression of 'Flying Scotsman' with that number - plies its trade alongside Marks & Spencer on a trip to Woodhouse Park.

If you'd like to know more about the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester and its collection of vintage buses, go to www.motgm.uk.

© Greater Manchester Transport Society. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited and may result in action being taken to protect the intellectual property interests of the Society.

Taken in: UK / England / Ringway / Manchester city centre (show map)

Taken on: January 1, 1964

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