Every tour in pictures and some words

Timing is everything. I took this lively and large group of Alliance Business School students around on 1 February, just prior to the rededication of the cross in St Peter's Square. The stepped plinth made a fine stage for the photo. The cross marks the site of the former St Peter's Church. The site has a rich and important history as explained here.

 A Gothic tour of Manchester with students studying Gothic forms in the city centre from Manchester Metropolitan University. We went to the Gothic-revival Town Hall, passed similar revival Gothic buildings in the streets and finished in the real-deal medieval Gothic of the Cathedral choir. I'm hoping the students can now spot those pointed arches and vaults with ease. Joan Crawford, their lecturer, took the picture below because my phone was playing up. Below the picture of the group is the stunning stalls of the choir. 

Graham, Kevin and David from Allied London on a personal tour of London Road Fire Station. They are standing under Night and Day figures, representing the 24 hour readiness of the former station. Below are two of the wallpapers that still exist in the building. One looks original from the 1906 construction date, the other is from the 1970s. It isn't hard to tell them apart. 

Delta Airlines Group over from America with Marketing Manchester and Emma Gordon in the red coat. The Cuban woman in the tan jacket loved the Northern English accents. "They are so clear," she said. She hasn't been to Newcastle yet.

Uruguayan guests on a tour of Manchester and really enjoying Britain generally. "Manchester is a really beautiful city," the gent said. The two on the left were staying at a B&B in Crumpsall, and although they thought it a little far out of town were enjoying that normally unregarded suburb. "Some people have said Crumpsall has problems," said our man, "but they should see some parts of Montevideo."

The Gibson family on a private tour of the Principal Hotel. The reason was Chrissie Gibson's birthday (the lady on the right). With her are Mike Gibson, over her shoulder, their daughter Beccy and son, Paul, with Paul's girlfriend on the left. When people are genuinely interested in what you are saying it makes the tour so very easy. 

Grant and Kath flank Mark Jorgensen on a private tour of the city visiting the Royal Exchange, John Rylands Library, the Town Hall and Extension and Manchester Central Library. Lovely folk all with Mark being one of the great wits of the city. He once wore a latex pig's head to scare guests for me in a deep underworld in Manchester. It worked despite the fact he fell over. Then again it was very dark. 

Alan Beswick's wonderful and very funny group of gents from car dealerships around Manchester and into Yorkshire. We did a Friday afternoon pub tour and it was hilarious. The pubs we visited were Beermoth, Sam's Chop House, The Town Hall Tavern and, pictured here, the Bridge Street Tavern. We finished around 4pm and the men were off to San Carlo restaurant. I wonder how much was left of it by the end of the evening. 

Lots more pictures of London Road Fire Station tours here including Neil Bohanna's group from the RNCM and two very special guests from other tours. Pictured with his wife below is Gordon Price who was well-known throughout his service years and was the fireman who had a slate from Strangeways Prison roof thrown at him during the 1990 riot. The slate ended up wedged in his helmet. Also below is a picture of Louise Bayliss who is the great granddaughter of the very first Chief Fire Office at the station in 1906, Frederic Bayliss. Apparently Bayliss began life, in Louise's words, as a 'tinker's son' in Malmesbury in Wiltshire. A friend or relation got a job in Manchester, he came up and eventually became the boss of the Manchester Fire Brigade. Nine children were brought up in his flat at the Fire Station. Louise is shown below holding a picture of her long-ago relation. 

This was a cracking occasion. I was at Astra Zeneca in Macclesfield before Christmas talking to about 300 people on the achievement of the North West, the Nobels, the science, the art and the ridiculousness. Lots of laughs and lots of questions.. 

Here are some more London Road Fire Station tour pics in December. Poignant memories from Bob, Val and Harvey as they toured the lower floors of the soon to restored giant building. These tours took place on 9, 10, 11, 14, 15,17, 29 December and the pictures appear in reverse order. 

London Road Fire Station tour with the group in the Coroner's Court (note to self, take some pictures when people aren't in the Coroner's Court). The gent in the third row of seats on the right is Steve Parkinson who trained in the Fire Station in the eighties. He remembered so much of his time on the site. And some of the pranks too, such as the occasion when the trainee in the next bed snored so loudly Steve tipped his bed out of the window when the man was out. The bed was left hanging elevated on the external wall over Whitworth Street. When Mr Snorer came back he couldn't find the bed so he found somewhere else to sleep. Problem solved. On the back row is Amy, a colleague from Manchester Confidential. This tour took place on Wednesday 7 December. 

Two tours of the Fire Station from Sunday 4 December. The man in the witness stand of the Coroner's Court and demonstrating how to use a fireman's pole is Alan Russell who worked at the fire station in the late seventies until it closed. Going to be getting in touch with Alan as he has a whole raft of stories and the stories make this building leap back to life. 

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The Chetham's :Library tour from Saturday 3 December. Michael Powell, the librarian, has pulled from the shelves a missal from the mid-1300s to show guests. This is beautifully illuminated and all in Latin. A missal is what the priest would read to an uncomprehending congregation at mass and is arranged in sections across the year. “There is one bit in English,” says Michael Powell. This turns out to be the marriage vows which people had to understand even if they didn't understand the liturgical Latin because they were taking an oath and had to know what they were entering into. The male side of of the vow is identical to that today - almost. The female’s is similar except it doesn’t have ‘to honour and obey’, instead women vow to be ‘boner and buxom in bed’. This means to be sprightly and enthusiastic during love-making and thus help the man increase the flock for the Church. The expression became a bit too direct for more sensitive Ages. It was funny to note the slightly shocked expression of the guests around the table and then the shy giggles. 

Two Saturday tours at London Road Fire Station. Saturday 3 December.

A few of the guests couldn't make the tour so it was just two people on Saturday 3 December's Principal Hotel tour but they were fine company and hugely interested in the story of the former Refuge Assurance building and its astounding tilework.

A group in the dark during a tour of the city on Thursday 1 December. I hope the tour was illuminating even if the light wasn't.

Tuesday 29 November and the Bonnie Prince Charlie tour of Manchester. This was the 271st anniversary of when the rebel Stuart army entered Manchester in 1745. The chap on the right was an authority on the occasion and has been studying the subject for twenty years. One day he might do a book. Here we are warming up in the fabulous bar of Beermoth on Brown Street. 

A lovely group from the Heywood, Middleton and Circle Club gathered on the stairs at the Principal Hotel. The second lady from the left it turns out was a friend of my mother's years and years ago and worked at the Nat West Bank with her. Tuesday 29 November.

The Friedrich Engels birthday tour and people singing Happy Birthday to the man who was born 196 years earlier. The tour took place on Saturday 26 November rather than the actual date of 28 November but we didn't think he would mind. Engels and Karl Marx studied in Chetham's Library and the books they read are on the desk in the bay window behind. Engels would smile to think of us singing Happy Birthday in a place he knew so well, he was a man who like jolification. 

This was a tour across the city finishing at Chetham's organised by my long-lost now recently found relation Georgina Schofield, she's the first woman on the left clutching some of my books. My brother, Charles, is next to her on the right. This was a fine tour that began and ended in the Abel Heywood pub. I mention Heywood in this article and this one. I adore this quote from Abel Heywood to justify the expense of building Manchester Town Hall: ''We cleared a vast area, and Mr Waterhouse’s beautiful design rose, stone on stone and pillar on pillar. We spared no expense. Every detail we desired to have perfect. To have been parsimonious, to have neglected corners or recesses which were obscure, to have allowed ornamentation which was tawdry, would have been for ever to brand Manchester as a city given up to no higher thought than the quickest accumulation of wealth.'

Some interesting and important creatives and influencers here with Liz Pugh from Walk the Plank. They include Lotte Van de Berg, Jeanefer Jean-Charles, 'Cycling Tsar' Chris Paul, Nathan Jackson and Billie Klinger. We're sampling the delights of the Sir Ralph Abercromby after a Peterloo Massacre tour. Plans are being hatched maybe for something big on the 200th anniversary of the massacre on 16 August, 2019. Outside the window, it seems, a blue van is spying on us. Sneaky.

Two groups from the Forward Institute enjoying 8am-9am tours on Monday and Tuesday 21/22 November. Lots of good questions from these fine folk although I must be careful with jokes. As we walked through Albert Square, one woman said, "These Christmas Markets are huge." "They're the only ones that can be seen from space," I said. "Wow, who'd have thought that?" she said. "Er, forgive me, I was only joking," I hastily added.

​A odd occurrence happened during this meal with enthusiastic Dutch guests on Saturday at Albert’s Chop House. They were over for the United v Arsenal game and they were great fun. The meal had been pre-booked for them by the organiser. To start with we had sourdough with a dip. Everybody loved it, especially the Dutch chap opposite. “This is a lovely oil,” he said. I raised an eyebrow, “Oil? That’s beef dripping.” There was a crisis over the table, “Oh no I’m a vegetarian, I’ve never eaten meat all my life.” The man was wiping at his mouth with his napkin. “I thought it was a really good balsamic,” he said. The organiser looked suitably embarrassed as he hadn't asked if there were any vegetarians. Later, though, I saw our vegetarian friend pick up the sourdough, as though in a trance, and make to dip it once more. Can’t blame him, good stuff that beef dripping. It’d turn anybody. The gentleman in question is the one in the second picture, wearing the paper crown, blowing a whistle and reading a joke from a cracker. Saturday 19 November.

Big group takes on the Incredible Interiors tour and finishes in the Directors Suite of the Principal Hotel. Third from the right is Tony Lloyd, the acting mayor of Greater Manchester. Saturday 19 November.

Night time tour of the city and taking in the Victoria Station area.

Four interesting people taking a real interest in Manchester on Tuesday 15 November. Here they are in the Cathedral. This was the first tour in twenty years during which my shoes were complimented. So thanks to the lady, second from left below. 

Seven very funny mates from Holland who chose Manchester as a fun place to visit. They wanted a pub tour so we went to Pilcrow, The Angel, The Marble Arch and finished at the Briton's Protection. Saturday 12 December.

My blurry and busy public tour pic of Chetham's visit on Saturday 12 November. Some excellent phone pictures from Mark Payne.

Turley Planning group on the Incredible Interiors tour on Friday 10 November. They've gained scary eyes.

Personal tour for two delightful and incredibly well-read ladies on Thursday 10 November.

The strategy team from Transport for Greater Manchester. They're a bit blurred. I blame the speed of the world spinning underneath us. Actually it's my dodgy camera technique but since this a picture of every group then it has to be included. Thursday 9 November.

Blue Badge and Green Badge Guides from the North West Tourist Guides loving a Chetham's tour on Monday 7 November.

After dinner speech at Manchester Architects (formerly Manchester Society of Architects) dinner at the Imperial War Museum North on Friday 4 November.

Eric Grossman, USA Today journalist and his partner, working out Manchester in the sunshine in close harmony with a woman's passing head and a black cab. Wednesday 2 November, 2016. 

Stretford Grammar School group on a tour of the area close to their school including Longford Park and Great Stone Road on Tuesday 1 November...and a cat.

The three pictures below were taken of the groups on the Halloween tours Monday 31 October, 2016.

General tour of the city centre with perceptive guests on Saturday 29 October.

Gallery Of Guests
I have 26 tours and one talk in 16 days between 2-19 July 2015, 16 of these tours are for Manchester International Festival. Here's a picture of every tour and the talk.