Victorian Buildings - Deansgate area

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Victoria Station is at the end of Victoria road which leads off from Deansgate. It was built in 1844 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway. As population in Manchester increased, so did passenger traffic so the station was enlarged on several occasions with 8 platforms and an impressive entrance.

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In the last half of the 20th century the increased use of private car had resulted in a sharp decline of the amount of people traveling by rail. The station became under-used so it was decided to reduce the number of platforms and simplify the station. Part of the station was turned into the MEN arena (left half in photo above).

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The John Rylands Library (above photos) was designed in 1889 by architect Basil Champneys, and built ten years later in 1900. It was founded by Enriqueta Ryland in memory of her husband. John Ryland (1801-1888) was Manchesters first multi-millionaire, he was one of the most successful buisness men of Victorian England. He founded a textile buisness (Ryland and sons) with his father and two brothers and 8 years later he took complete control of the buisness. In 1834 he moved to Manchester which soon became the heart of the cotton industry.

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There are a few buildings still surviving in and around Deansgate, including Victoria station and John Rylands Library, that were built in Victorian times. I really like the attention to detail in Victorian architecture and would like to look more into Victorian way of life (culture) - looking more into there styles and fashions-colours and patterns. I think the Victorian era was a really important time in history for Manchester as this is when the industry really took off, making Manchester develop and grow, bringing people from different places over the world, into this distinctive city.

Corridor Manchester

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Corridor Manchester runs from st Peters square to the Whitworth (243 hectre site), the heart being oxford road. In todays talk Claire Lowe mentioned the 5 themes that they look at for improving this area.

1- sense of place

2-Transport

3-Environment and Infrastructure

4-Research and Innovation

5-Employment, buisness and skills

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Corridor have installed a two by four metre digital screen on the side of Mabel Tylecote building MMU. This screen is there to make the public more aware of corridor and of the history and culture behind this area. At the moment they are showing 1960 archive photos.

 

"With funding from the European Regional Development Fund, the screen will be strictly non-commercial and will promote the Corridor’s five main priorities for the Oxford Road area; employability and skills, research and innovation, transport, environment and infrastructure and pride in the area."

"Anything from scientific research to images from graduate fashion week could be put on the screen to bring the institutions along Oxford Road to life for the hundreds of people who pass them every day.The screen will also be used specifically to raise awareness of sustainability and environmental issues and keep the public up to date with how the partnership is working together to reduce carbon emissions across the Corridor area."

Quotes from http://www.corridormanchester.com/news-and-features/digital-screen-1

Tutorial

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We have brought together some photos that each of us in our group have taken of different areas of Manchester. This helps to show the different cultures, colours and patterns that we have found within Manchester, however we each need to look into a particular culture abit deeper now, particularly focusing on pattern and colour.

We also need to think of our final outcome and how we are going to bring it all together. We are looking into projection of images onto garnments for a video, and need to experiment with this and see what works and what doesnt work. Then we will have more of an idea on what drawings and samples we need to do.

DEANSGATE

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I took a number of photographs of buildings as I walked up Deansgate, trying to get some inspiration. Here are a selection of some of my favoriates. I liked the stark contrast of the brand new glass buildings against the old brick buildings. Aswell as this contrast there are also buildings that were in good shape, but others which were degrading, unused and abandoned.

However, I am more interested in the history and culture rather than the architecture for this project, so I walked up to Victoria station and realised that I would like to look more into the history behind this station, as it used to be the main place for people arriving into Manchester.

I also came across the John Rylands Library. This building has a real sense of atmosphere and the architecture is really inspirational. I loved the textures, subtle earthy colours and patterns within this builing and I am going to research the history and culture behind it.

Next steps:

- Research history of deansgate. Find old photos.

- Research Victoria Station.

- Research John Rylands Library.

By the end of this week I want to have narrowed down my research to one part of Deansgate and the history and culture within that. Then I can widen my research again to look at pattern and colour within this culture/history for inspiration in my drawing and sample work.  

 

Collection of old photographs - (PAST LIFE) People In Manchester

I really want to find out what it was like for people living in Manchester in the past and how people-their lifestyles and fashion have changed. I have collected some old photographs from various points in the past of family and family friends living in Manchester.

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Platt Hall - Gallery Of Costume

Platt Hall was useful to visit as it has a gallery of fashion through the ages and also shows how certain events (things happening within cultures) affect the type of clothing being worn. I also found it interesting to see how fashion today is very much influenced from various periods from the past, not just in vintage fashion but within new fashions and collections happening now.

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The above dress - Atomic print dress (Christopher Kane 2009-2010) - Mini cocktail dress in silk with pludging back neckline and screenprinted design of an exploding atomic bomb. Influenced by politics.

Leopard print dress - (Cavalli 2009-2010) - Bias cut silky everning dress, with ruffles at the skirt and a short train - influenced by the 1930s.

Lilac linen summer cocktail dress 2011 (Joyce Ridings) - The overdress is caught up or 'polonaised' in loops at the hem, suggestive of 18th century 'shepherdess' styles.

Sudley house inspiration

I have always been interested in the history behind things and a visit to Sudley House has led me to look more into how clothing and lifestyles used to be in Manchester. I was drawn to the folds, layers and textures in the clothing I saw at Sudley house and this has led me to focus on these in my photography and drawing. I dont want to just take pictures of the obvious in this project- I want my photography to be unobvious like Andrew Brooks work, (a photographer that I have recently been looking at.)

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Patchwork World

As a group we have chosen the 'patchwork world' scenerio. We are looking at the cultures/different areas within Manchester like a patchwork and so are planning to bring these different areas together. We all have seperate areas to investigate and I am going to look into the area around Deansgate,(Deansgate, Victoria street/station, Cheetham). I am particularly interested in the history of this place and want to look at the fashion, buildings and people and their past.


Things to look at :


- Kendal Milnes                           -Peterloo masacre 1819
- Forthsize                                   -Cheetham hill- Jewish culture(moved from Russia) Strangeways
- John Rylands library                  -Fashions from the past and influence on todays fashion (vintage)
-Victoria station

Andrew Brooks photography

Alot of Andrew's work is about taking a series of photographs and merging them together into one shot, giving a big span of information. He picks out the best parts of photos and brings them together to create one perfect shot.

This idea reminds me of our project that we are doing as a group. How we are looking at different parts of manchester and are going to bring all the best bits of information that we each collect, together and try to combine these.

Andrew's work isnt just about the shot, It's about the experiences and feelings that he got from that place. He brings these into his photography, to give the viewer a real feel of what it was like to be there. This is an idea that we could use within our project, trying to record enough information about each place within manchester to give a real feeling of the culture within that place and really 'capture an experience'.

It's definately worth taking a look at some of Andrew's work. He did a collection of photography in 2008 in Urbis museum called 'Hidden Manchester'. Here he has recoreded spaces around manchester  that we wouldnt normally see, but he has also recorded them in an unobvious way, paying attention to things that perhaps we wouldnt normally notice or think much of.

He really explored Manchester and says that it is important to dig out information about how it is presently but also how it was in the past as this gives you an understanding of why its like it is.

Andrew Brooks also does videos by using thousands of still images he collects them together and edits them on a program called aftereffects which is simular to photoshop. One he showed in the talk -

www.andrewbrooksphotography.com