Manchester city centre on a Friday evening is usually a hive of activity with workers often celebrating the end of their week with food, drinks and laughter. St Ann’s Square, however, painted a much more peaceful picture as mourners paid their respects to Queen Elizabeth II.
As the evening went on and the sun set over St Ann’s Church, with its half-mast Union Flag gently blowing in the September breeze, the square became increasingly calm and quiet as the minutes between mourners arriving grew longer. Meanwhile, just metres away on Deansgate, it seemed almost a completely different world, as pub golfers sang along to Oasis with a busker outside House of Fraser.
Earlier in the day the heavens opened and drenched those who came to lay flowers and other messages of condolence at the base of the Richard Cobden statue but as the afternoon wore on the skies cleared and hundreds of floral tributes were left.
