Can you believe it’s still January? It’s absolutely wild to me that this is the same month where Prince Harry unleashed his explosive memoir, Rishi Sunak announced pupils will study maths at school until they are 18 and, of course, the extent of the Piccadilly Gardens ‘mud bath’ was bestowed upon us all.
One thing that’s been getting many people through the seemingly never-ending month is the return of BBC’s Happy Valley. Whilst the show itself isn’t exactly all sunshine and rainbows, the third season - the first since 2016 - has been met with huge acclaim as it keeps viewers gripped with its usual level of suspense and mystery.
To get on board with the hype train and to help me with the January woes whilst avoiding spending any money, I decided to finally give Happy Valley a chance. Having never seen an episode before 2023, I have since managed to get up-to-date with proceedings and I am now a fully qualified member of the Sarah Lancashire fan club.
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Like all of the diehard viewers who have tried but failed to get me to watch the show since 2014, I’m now just as equally excited and nervous about how the show is going to end.
But what will we fill our time with when the show comes to an end in two week’s time? Now that many of us have somehow managed to make it through that weird, horribly extended break between December and January's pay days, we can start to consider getting back into society once again.
Thankfully, there's a few things outside of the realms of television that will help get us out of the January rut.
In Manchester alone, there’ll be gigs from the likes of Florence and the Machine, Loyle Carner, and Yungblud, alongside fab theatre productions like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Mamma Mia and some great art exhibitions and event nights also dotted around the city-region. Personally, I’m excited for the return next month of one of Manchester’s grandest institutions: the Manchester Museum.
The museum, which has undergone a whopping £15m five-year renovation project, will feature brand new galleries and exhibits ready to dazzle and educate visitors when it opens its doors for the first time since August 2021. The M.E.N’s Ben Arnold recently got to have an exclusive look behind the scenes as the museum gears up for its grand reopening and it’s definitely worth a read.
As a geeky Mancunian, it’s one of the places I feel really proud to have in our city. It’s regarded as the UK's largest university museum for a reason, as there’s around 4.5 million different objects to discover. One of my favourite pastimes is just popping in on a gloomy and quiet Tuesday morning off work and getting lost in the history of one of the exhibits. From what I remember, the museum’s café used to serve really good cake too, which is always a bonus.
What are you most looking forward to in February? Let us know in the comments below.
For today’s Unwind, we’re going to be looking at how one Greater Manchester's best town centres has been hit badly by the British high street's woes, the owners of a staple Chinese restaurant, and the little neighbourhood underneath the Mancunian Way which only has one shop.
‘Nothing to entice people’
Only a few years ago, Bolton town centre would be thriving with people on a Saturday afternoon. From those collecting their weekly groceries to families spending the day browsing Crompton Place shopping centre for books and toys, it was a hub of activity and kept local businesses thriving.
But, like many other high streets, recent years have not been kind. Instead, the town centre's main thoroughfare, Deansgate, now features rows of boarded-up fronts with leading department stores, like BHS and Debenhams, and local institutions, like Beales and Prestons of Bolton, having shut up shop.
"There were so many shops on every street," Marie Walsh, 84, the owner of beloved Bolton bakery Ye Olde Pastie Shoppe, recalls. "If you look at old photographs, there were crowds of people shopping in town. It's just changed so much."
Earlier this month, it was announced that Bolton's much-loved Marks & Spencer store in Deansgate would also be closing, in a decision described as 'yet another death blow to the town centre' by one resident.
"The town centre is just dying a death," Marie added. “There is nothing to entice people to come here. All the shops are closed.”
The area has seen some recent investment and the promises of multiple redevelopment projects but progress isn’t being made quick enough. Not far away, the nearby Market Place shopping centre saw an uptick in its fortunes after transforming into a mall with a cinema, restaurants and bars.
But councillors, like Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi, and local residents want the same love and attention to be spent on the Deansgate area too. They believe it could see more people use the high street more instead of always opting for the likes of the Trafford Centre or Cheshire Oaks.
“It just needs investing in and it will thrive,” one resident said.
You can read the full piece here
‘I didn't do well in my A-levels so I worked in a Chinese restaurant’
If you head into Manchester’s Chinatown on any given night, chances are you will see a large number of people heading to Little Yang Sing on George Street. If you’ve never been before, you should definitely put it on your list - I can vouch for their fantastic honey and lemon chicken.
First opened in 1977, the restaurant has existed in various forms at different nearby locations throughout the years but it's remained a hotspot for those looking for good quality Chinese food in Manchester. In 1987, Warren Yeung, 65, took over the reins of the business from his cousins and he’s continued to run the much-loved spot ever since.
Speaking to the M.E.N’s Ethan Davies as part of the brilliant ‘I Work in Town’ weekly feature, Warren said he was offered the opportunity to run the restaurant because he 'didn’t do well in my A Levels' and 'came here to learn some skills’.
When asked to describe Manchester City Centre, Warren said: “As a city, Manchester is compact. As a city, now, it’s thriving because there are a lot more people living in it. You can get to where you want — like shops, eating out, and drinking — within 10 minutes.”
You can find out more about Warren and his thoughts on Manchester here.
Underneath the Mancunian Way
Tucked away beneath the Mancunian Way, one of Manchester’s busiest roads, is the neighbourhood of Brunswick. There’s a school and a housing estate, and it's home to many teachers and hospital staff, yet there's just one dedicated shop.
As Ethan Davies reports, it’s easy enough to miss the neighbourhood, which is often confused as part of Ardwick. The local Ardwick Climate Action (ACA) group have been working hard to ‘re-wild’ pockets of the area in a bid to make it feel more like it's own place and be more detached from the swirling traffic above.
£20,000 from various public sector funds has been dedicated to the Brunswick project, which will see more plants and wildlife introduced to ten locations in the area. One aspect of the project, for example, will see wildflowers planted next to the wall of Gartside Gardens, whilst another will see a trail built in in the cemetery of the former St Saviour’s Church.
“The area gets lost because of the arterial routes,” the ACA’s Gordon Flear said. “If you say ‘Brunswick’, people do not know it because it's so close to the city centre.”
It is hoped that the project, whilst making the area feel more green, will also help build relationships with the local communities surrounding the area. There's been a heightened awareness of the importance of the environment and socialising since lockdown and it's something that people - especially those living within the proximity of the city centre - are longing for more than ever.
“Apart from the Tesco, there’s one convenience store on a parade of shops behind the Apollo,” Danniell Musaheb said. “That incentivises food poverty because their prices are higher.”
Gordon adds: “There’s nothing else. People either have to go into town or Asda in Longsight. There’s the Chinese Centre and Salvation Army but you get lost with the University being there. There are groups around and it would be good to bring those together.”
You can read more here.
Thanks for reading - have a great weekend!
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