Icons of Manchester I

Afflecks, Tib Street, Manchester

 

We only ventured into Manchester in order to pickup our train tickets for the London meet-up next month but I was so desperate to shoot something new I took my camera as well. If you read my comments from my last upload you will know Manchester is one big building site at the moment so I decided to venture into the Northern Quarter for a change.

 

I have seen the David Bowie image and the local landmark "and on the sixth day, God created MANchester" mosaic on Flickr before and thought it about time I captured it myself, only I failed to research their actual locations and wandered about the back streets like a lost tourist.

 

I eventually found them... the Bowie artwork I'll leave for another time but the mosaic shot wasn't to be for a delivery van had parked right in front of it and I couldn't work the angle I wanted. However, on the Tib Street side of the building are another series of mosaics which I haven't seen before. There are eight in total and this image shows just three of them (I'll post the others in my next upload).

 

They were created by local artist Mark Kennedy who had created the original mosaics that were taken down by the previous owner of Afflecks. The new commissions reflect Manchester's cultural, economic and sporting history. I've listed a few of the ones I recognise but others... not sure who they are or the Manchester connection.

 

Boris Karloff (Frankenstein)

Christopher Lee (Dracula)

 

Meat is Murder (The Smiths)

Top of the Pops

Quentin Crisp

Sex Pistols

Granada

MIF (Manchester International Festival)

 

Morrissey (The Smiths)

Ian Brown

Oasis

Badly Drawn Boy

 

Done