[Tony Sebo]

Apologies if there is already a thread for this (if so, please delete this one Comdot?), but!

I walked around the RC cathedral grounds today, just to get an impression as I did not have too long... the impression was a qualified wow. The developments round about work really well together. The new entrance to the crypt looks fantastic. The choice of light/white materials is fantastic.


The building with the Sayers and BSM is shit, though it looks OK. I tapped some of the cladding and it sounded like it was hollow and lose. It was also spattered with filth.

The grounds round the new arts building are a little bland, but could be made fantastic as they mature. It was very busy there, with a group of Italian students sunning themselves on the Hope St steps. What is that big stone 'eye' thing supposed to be about though?

It is an even more fantastic place to take pictures now, so next time I'm taking the camera with me.

Please post as many pics as you have on this thread? The artier the better!

 

[Howie_P]

Here's a view from Byrom Street a couple of months ago:

 

[Tony Sebo]

What a fantastic picture... !

 

[T0M]

Good idea Tony. ^^ Awesome shot Howie, looks like it was taken in the 1930's!

Here's a few random shots I've taken recently..

 

[T0M]

 

[T0M]

 

[T0M]

That whole area has undergone a massive transformation, even the Metropolitan Cathedral has got in on the act, smartening up the steps which lead onto the plaza (used to be nasty grey concrete) and installing some spectacular stained glass scultpures which totally took me by surprise but look utterly amazing.

The steps are finally open for the first time in months, and you can see the new visitor centre and crypt entrance to the left of this shot

 

[markonasty]

The last two photos are amazing, Looks somewhere more like Spain.

 

[Tony Sebo]

I think it is our most photogenic building, for sure.

Great pics tom. In that sun the site does look dazzlingly Iberian.

 

[design_man]

The last two photos are amazing, Looks somewhere more like Spain.

I agree - thanks for those Tom they are fantastic.

There is a nice new park just outside the cathedral, with an oval stone plinth at its heart.

 

[Tony Sebo]

I didn't get the chance to check if the path through the landscaping round the west of the cathedral and the arts chool link and/or continue through to Brownlow hill?

I don't like the Eye thing ... did they get it off that early Lime St gateway design?

 

[Martin S]

Some great photos there Tom. I love the close ups of the lantern tower, which I think is the best part of the building and has this brooding presence over the area, in much the same way as the dome of St Pauls dominated London in old films.

 

[T0M]

Cheers guys, as you can probably tell, I love photographing this building as I find it one of the most interesting and creative cathedrals in the country.

A few shots of the newly finished new Science Park wing

 

[Tony Sebo]

Yeah. I think it almost has the perfect setting now and should lose the BS attitude against it for being modern... it's fookin great!

 

[T0M]

Sorry for the image quality (taken on my phone during a meeting!)

 

[buggedboy]

Now THAT is where they should put a local market/skate park. I think it'd be amazing to get some regular activity there.

 

[Martin S]

Now THAT is where they should put a local market/skate park. I think it'd be amazing to get some regular activity there.

Not sure about the skate park but the market idea (provided it had some shelter) could be a goer. They would do that sort of thing in Italian cities.

 

[T0M]

I think you'd have access issues for a market, and the Catholic church might have a thing or two to say about it! Don't want to be buying my local organic venison sausages one saturday and be confronted with an enraged bishop overturning tables and whacking people with a home made whip..

It does seem like a waste of an otherwise excellent space. Does anyone have any photos of when they had that massive granny-killing dreamscape inflatable there?

 

[Awayo]

People are suggesting that the church itself should organise or at least permit a market there. In spite of Matt 21:12, this type of thing is common in churches and cathedrals here as well as abroad.

 

[T0M]

That's sort of what I was saying, I can't see it happening without the church's active approval and engagement, and I'm just not sure they'd be up for it. But I'd love to be proved wrong!