In the late 1970s and early 1980s Piccadilly Gardens and Market Street, Manchester were not pedestrianised (and there was no Metrolink tram system), so it was possible to ride straight up to the burger van. On some Saturday nights we would ride here on our motorcycles and "hang out" as they say now. After getting bored and full of hot dog and carbonated drink, we would often go to Jutland Street and some crazy people (not me of course) would see how far they could jump their bikes. I've never worked out a good way to photograph Jutland Street - but it's amazing. There were no 'luxury apartments' there back then, so nobody to object to a bunch of pimply youths risking life and limb.

 

Back in those days there wasn't a Starbucks in the area.

 

If someone had told us back then that people would be paying more for a coffee than a pint of beer, we would have laughed out loud.

 

The 'van' (is it still a van?) was next to Debenhams department store which was opposite Lewis's Department Store, neither of which exist any longer - another fact that would have been hard to contemplate back then. The changing face of retail.

 

I got a shot of a food delivery person next to the van - another concept that certainly wasn't common back then around here. Seriously you can't move for these guys now.

 

In 1981 I'd never even heard of McDonalds, never mind been in one, so if someone had said oh yes in 2022 you can go on your mobile phone (uh?), connected to the internet (uh?) use an app (uh?) to order some fast food (uh?) pay for it electronically (uh?) and a guy on a bicycle will drop your food off at your home / office / shop doorway, it would have been a bit hard to believe.

 

So moving on another 40 years what will it be like? Firstly more than likely there'll be no davekpcv around to find out. Driverless cars? Motorcycles "banned"? All home shopping? All the pubs shut down? No thanks.