h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I went into Manchester today and part of the trip was to go and see the work done in rebuilding the part of the city that was blown appart by the IRA on a summer saturday in 1996.
I must say I'm impressed. The new Marks & Spencers store looks good on the outside. The bridge linking M&S and the Arndale across Cross St is a nice piece of engineering, a glass cylinder with an outside lattice of steel to hold it up. Around the back of M&S a new street has been opened up from the old Shambles Square shopping arcade. New Cathedral street currently has boards up while the redevelopment of the shambles takes place. On the boards though is a pictorial histry of the work done to rebuild since the bomb. It shows the new glass domes on the roof of the royal exchange building being put into place. The new alien spacecraft like theatre inside the Royal Exchange. The waste land of demolished buildings that were the site. The inside of the Corn Exchange building. After walking along the street I came to where two pubs now stand, Sinclairs Oyster Bar and The Old Wllington Inn. These are a couple of very old buildings which managed to survive the bomb very well. The have also managed to survive being taken apart and rebuilt twice. The first time they were moved was when the Arndale centre was being built and now they've move again. They did look the part, sitting together with a courtyard area outside. Shame the weather today wasn't up to sitting outside at times.

Sounds like an interesting day. I like the description of the old buildings in the middle of it all. And what would Manchester be without rain?
Are you going to Salford at all? (In particular the new Lowry gallery?)

Did you like the windmill things and the benches that look for all the world like little railway carts round the front of M&S??

Yep, The windmill things are quite nice. I went down another time and saw them spinning round

I think they could have put in a few more steps in those ramps that lead down from M&S to the corn exchange though.

You're right, they could. I didn't get to study the windmills properly... surprisingly enough it came on to rain!

It had just stopped raining when I saw them. I walked through the new bridge in M&S. I like the bridge, the glass cylinder (I know it's really a pair of intersecting curved cones ) enveloped in it's steel mesh holding it up.
I was quite suprised to see the large windows in M&S you don't normally get that in big stores.

I quite like the building, except it disorients me... I never can seem to leave at the exit I plan to! and I love being able to walk across Corperation Street again, watching the people below me getting soaked!! Did you see all the photos beneath the walkway into the shop on the ground floor? I thought they made a good effect.