Ask the Bear & Badger - The Bear and Badger

Diluted Dante

Mate, the posters on the bus stops aren't art. Or the spray painted dicks on the wall behind.

Hodge360

acemuzzy wrote:

I can also vba

Noted with thanks.

Yossarian

Diluted Dante wrote:

There was just wasteland before, so I guess you could say it's not got worse?

Are they building the horrible copper towers that were mooted?

I don't know what these towers looked like but in general I think more buildings should be made out of copper, verdigris looks fantastic.

poprock

Diluted Dante wrote:

There was just wasteland before, so I guess you could say it's not got worse? Are they building the horrible copper towers that were mooted?

Aye, it’s those.

I hate working on these kind of projects, really doesn’t feel like I’m helping add anything of value to the world. Just trying to keep them as un-shit as possible, in some small ways.

M0stly harm13ss

@Pop

Eastern bloc records is still going, and Stevenson square is a good spot to start with the 'cool manchester' thing. Also look up from Dusk til Pawn.

From there Thomas Street and Cain and Grain, the old Almost Famous (now a Mexican) and nearby Afflecs.

One of the best places for eating and drinking, and making great use of a space though is nearby in Altringham (sic). The Market hall there has been refurbished in the style of a small Spitalfields and is amazing. That's worth a google, as there's a few pics online and it's won a couple of food and drink awards.

M0stly harm13ss

Also, just had a quick look online re the building you mentioned.

Fuck me, that part of the Quays is even worse than media city, it's the office block area, right next to Salford, so after 6.30 or at night it's completely deserted, and no one goes outside their front door.

poprock

Aye, that’s why I think it’s a depressing place to put another big block of flats, however fancy. not kidding at all when I say that the best thing about it is the Metro stop right behind.

That market hall does look ace. As does Dusk til Pawn – reminds me a little bit of Satan’s Whiskers down in Bethnal Green.

Yossarian

Can you design in a soul?

poprock

Not on this budget.

poprock

Seriously, that’s not actually impossible. In an area like this though, it’s bloody difficult. And with the architecture already being fixed, bloody unlikely with the influence we’ll have left.

You absolutely can design better places and encourage (not force) cultural vibrancy in and around them. But this job’s likely to be a case of sprinkling glitter on a turd to help them sell the flats inside.

Yossarian

I'm trying to think how I'd go about it. It would probably involve lots of mismatched furniture and second hand crap to stick on the walls. And it would probably look shit.

poprock

In this case I’d ideally be starting with the landscaping and infrastructure. Make allowances for space, power hookups, lighting, seating, etc in the public realm and encourage existing small businesses from the cool end of town to send over food trucks, market stalls and satellite traders. Make sure the zoning allows for performance (buskers, gigs, etc) and that there is provision for small businesses to cheaply rent retail units on the ground floor and provide groceries, off sales, and coffee. Make the area directly around the buildings conducive to hanging out – give residents good reason to stick around and meet their neighbours. To do all that though, you need financial incentives to encourage the indie traders to move in. Tax breaks, maybe.

Most of the useful things you can do involve local Councils and money in the end, not the fun part of designing a nice room.

Diluted Dante

Honestly, that area is mostly like a retail park/industrial estate. If Old Trafford wasn't next to it I'd never go there.

Eric

I live in Stretford about 5 mins away from Media City and can attest it's souless. External landscape around media city however is high tier and the stockyard pub takes advantage of this with outdoor bar which is lovely on a hot day. Damson shut about a year ago now, but they are about to open an Alchemist (gold skinned building that bridges the Lowry and Media City) which is a quite a coup for the area.

In general Media City shares many parallels with Spinningfields which is another souless wall of architecture but this time in the city centre. It benefits because of this though (footfall and a shit tonne of businesses) so can court some of the bigger boys like Living Ventures who own Botanist, Oast House. artisan, Gusto, Australasia, Manchester House and the Alchemist.

If you are looking at the new placed on the block then Ancoats is your place. Sits to the north of the Northern quarter over Great Ancoats Street. This has a proper gritty industrial past and sits in tge Ancoats conservation area which means most of the cotton mills have been converted and retained. The excellent Rudys pizza, Japanese Tea place Cha ology, Ancoats Coffee and Co in the fantastic courtyard in Royal Mills, Campanio bakery (shit hot savoury danishes) Ancoats General Store (draft beer!) and Seven Bros Brew House.

Remember that Media City sits in Salford which is a city in itself (although part of Greater Manchester). Salford unfortunately is a bit of a shit hole (Worsley and the Quays excluded) and struggles to keep up with Manchester. It does have a vibrant Student community and the Chapel Street Link into Manchester is about as good as it gets.

One thing that Media City has is great links into and out of it, including the metrolink, M602 but also the Manchester Ship canal goes through it and the Bridgewater canal runs very close with its new water taxi (waxi). I think a concept about connections could work pretty well!

Apologies for the wall of text but if you do need any more info let me know.

Diluted Dante

Ooh, Ancoats is a good shout.

I always am amused by the people who are mortally offended that you would combine Salford and Manchester. It seems to irk them more that a lot of people from Salford do this, as if it's some kind of betrayal.

Lord_Griff

So, laptops.

Need a little something for work/travel.

Seems like it is a toss up between the XPS 13 and Surface pro 4, unless I am missing something.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Eric

Edit: @dante Yeah its a weird one, people like to identify themselves with an area like a badge of honour. I have a work colleague who is from Oldham but tells every one he is a manc. When I told him he wasn't, he got well arsey about it. I'm not really a manc either by the way as I live in Trafford (which is the same grief city fans give us about OT not really being in Manchester).

Sorry Griff

Lord_Griff

Or HP Spectre?

cockbeard

Neither of those have beefy graphics and the xps 15 isn't really very very big if you want gwaffix

I've a lot of love for the Surface, we have a coiuple in the office and they're lovely bits of kit. Personally I'd be going for the xps 15 with gwaffix so I can game as well, but if I was choosing between those two I'd go Surface for the flexibility

Lord_Griff

does the xps15 fold over itself?

cockbeard

No but neither does the 13, hence me thinking the Surface a better option. Though actually they might do a 2 in 1 range that do the origami thing. In which case you'll likely get more for your money (spec wise) from Dell than MS

Lord_Griff

The xps13 2 in 1.

The problem is I hate laptops, but I can't avoid having to get one.

Diluted Dante

Eric wrote:

Edit: @dante Yeah its a weird one, people like to identify themselves with an area like a badge of honour. I have a work colleague who is from Oldham but tells every one he is a manc. When I told him he wasn't, he got well arsey about it. I'm not really a manc either by the way as I live in Trafford (which is the same grief city fans give us about OT not really being in Manchester). Sorry Griff

I'm from Oldham. I'd call all of Greater Manchester, bar Bolton and Wigan, Manchester. I don't know why those feel separate. I guess they're the only ones that don't border Manchester.

poprock

Thanks for all the Manchester/Salford chat guys. All really helpful.

I’m gonna wrap up my work and get this project off my desk by tomorrow, but now I have all the confirmation I need that the area around the Quays is exactly what it looks like from web research. Ancoats is a great shout from what I see – I’m assuming that prices are rising in the Northern Quarter, so Ancoats is the next bit of town to get the cool stuff.

Eric

Ancoats is getting snapped up fast, the next place is New Islington which sits further north has loads of new really architecturally interesting resi developments which has involved a fair bit of slum clearance so its still a bit tasty in the evenings! Good luck hope it goes well Pops!

Tempy

@griff do you need it to do any heavy lifting or run programs? If you just need it for email, spreadsheets and word docs, get a chrome book.

Lord_Griff

Need a bit more oomph than a chromebook unfortunately.

Yossarian

A Chroomphbook?

Lord_Griff

I am disappointed in the lack of a "get Griff a laptop" thread.

Yossarian

Naming yourself 'Lord' is backfiring now, eh?

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories