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Here's the Mancunian Way for today:
Hello,
“Tell me how do I feel?” crooned Bernard Sumner in trademark deadpan on the classic New Order song Blue Monday. Well if you’re to believe the marketing companies who still insist today is the most depressing of the year, you’ve got your answer, Bernard.
I’ve had six press releases about this already today (9am at the time of writing) including one claiming Manchester is ‘most likely to get hit by Blue Monday’. Of course it’s true that there is plenty to concern us nationally and globally - but let’s not get sucked into a loop of despair just because a PR company tells us to.
So in an act of defiance I’m going to concentrate only on stories with a positive slant in today’s newsletter. Please remember that if you are feeling blue, the best advice is to speak to someone. In the meantime, the sun is shining and will shine again this week - making it the perfect weather for a crisp winter walk.
Completely mad and absolutely ace
'Ian's ashes. Do not sell' reads a handwritten note sellotaped to a small brown urn at Empire Exchange.
It’s a necessary instruction, given the precious ashes are those of the shop’s co-founder Ian Stott and actually were sold for £3 not so long ago.
"The customer brought it back a couple of days later," says store manager Dave Ireland. "She thought it was someone's pet's ashes. I didn't even realise they'd gone! We gave her her three quid and put them back."
Damon Wilkinson has been speaking to the staff at Empire Exchange - arguably Manchester’s most interesting shop.
The basement store, just off Piccadilly approach, sells everything from rare vinyl to vintage porn and is known for its eye-catching window display and the classics tunes it pipes out onto the street above.
“It's completely mad and absolutely ace,” writes Damon, while looking up, uncertainly, at a giant sea monster hanging from the stairs.
As store manager Dave tells him, recent additions to the shelves have included a collection of mint condition 1960s and 70s Spiderman comics - the best of which are on sale for more £150 each - and 40 pogo sticks found under the stairs from a house clearance in Irlam. The comics are selling well, the pogo sticks are proving a little harder to shift, says Dave.
"We've never done a stock-take," said Dave. "We've no idea how much stuff we've got. The storeroom is even fuller than this."
It’s early days, but I think Damon may have penned my favourite story of the year here.
If you’ve never been to Empire Exchange, it’s well worth a visit. I myself have been gifted all sorts of gifts from its shelves over the years - mainly from a mate who visits fresh off the train because he can’t be bothered with Market Street.
In recent years I was handed (unwrapped) a Toby Jug depicting a Lifeboat worker and a vinyl record of Judy Garland’s greatest hits (Over the Rainbow not included). Precious treasures.
‘It was great to be mentored by old teachers’
They say great teachers can change lives - and that’s certainly true for Akeim Mundell.
In fact it was his own primary school teacher who inspired and nurtured him to take on the profession himself. Now he’s one of the UK's youngest assistant headteachers.
Akeim, 28, hopes to inspire the next generation of students in his new role at William Hulme's Grammar School, in Whalley Range. He says a 'lack of representation' from local communities in high schools is what motivates him.
As reporter Maisie Lawton explains in this lovely story, Akeim left school at 16 and got a job as a teaching assistant at his old primary school in Moss Side. It was the support of headteacher Jenny McGarry - who had taught him in Years 2 and 3 - that led him to pursue teaching.
"I left high school unsure of alternative routes until Jenny approached and encouraged me to apply for the teaching position - it was great to be mentored by old teachers and then watch my progress. Since then my aim will always be to go above and beyond to support, educate and uplift younger people,” he says.
While building his teaching career, Akeim has been an award-winning campaigner for young people in Moss Side - winning honours including a British Empire Medal, Unsung Hero’ award at the Manchester Be Proud Awards, Young Community Leader of the Year in the Groundwork Community Awards and Alumni Fellow of the University of Bolton.
‘We are overwhelmed’
This time last year, Anna Shturmak and Nastya Berest were looking forward to starting a candle-making business in Kyiv, until war broke out.
The friends, from Dnipro, were forced to leave Ukraine when the Russian forces invaded and ended up with a host family in West Didsbury.
It was here that they set up their business, VIRA, with a little help from their new friends, as Maisie Lawton reports.
"It was a very difficult time for us to begin with - especially with English not being our first language. But our English family made us comfortable in this big city, and we have come to love it,” Anna says.
Anna and Nastya spend a lot of time with the family, Liz and Matt Neidhardt and their three children, Grace, Joseph and Patrick.
“They include us and make us feel involved in their lives - we can't repay them enough for their huge support,” Anna says. "We are overwhelmed with the support from everyone. We didn't think making the business here would be possible, but through the overwhelming support from the Neidhardt family and all our new friends, we made it work.”
Fancy a walk?
Winter may bring some miserable weather, but it also brings us those bright, crisp days that are perfect for a walk.
Liv Clarke has been looking at the prettiest villages near Greater Manchester that are perfect for a visit.
From the village used as a filming location for period dramas, to the cave nicknamed the ‘Devil’s Arse’, she’s come up with some interesting suggestions.
If charming cottages, cosy pubs and breathtaking scenery are your thing, you’re in for a treat.
Weather etc
- Tuesday: Cloudy changing to sunny intervals by late morning. 3C.
- Road closures: M56 Eastbound exit slip road to the A34 closed due to roadworks at A34 Kingsway until 7am February 5.
- Trivia question: The first electronic stored-program computer was built at the University of Manchester in 1948 - what was its nickname?
Manchester headlines
Facelift: Bury Market is set to undergo a major overhaul. The shopping destination has looked largely the same for years, but council bosses are hoping a £20m facelift - along with some eye-catching new features - will 'future-proof' the site. Computer-generated images of how the market could look show the impressive new structures that will surround a new flexi-hall. There will also be a large over-sail canopy built above the stalls. The multi-million pound development will form a central part of wider plans to regenerate the town centre, including a new Bury Interchange and redeveloped Mill Gate centre.
Party bar: A venue that describes itself as the ‘latest opened, most fun, wild party bar’ in Stockport has been given permission to open even later into the early hours of the morning. Ate Days a Week, in Vernon Street, will be allowed to stay open till 4.30am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights after its application was given the nod by licensing chiefs. It will stop serving alcohol and playing ‘background ambient’ music at 4am. Soon to boast a new ground floor ‘pizza spot’ and be rechristened Notion, its latest nights were previously Friday and Saturday, which had a kick-out time of 2.30am. More here.
Building: Construction work on Manchester’s latest skyscraper appears to have started in the Northern Quarter. The £154 million One Port Street development will sit on the site of an existing car-park on Port Street, just off Great Ancoats Street. Once it is complete, the tower will stand at 33 storeys and feature 477 apartments. Architects SimpsonHaugh hope it can become as famous as the iconic Beetham Tower. However, opposition to the plans was vociferous during the planning process, with the scheme being rejected twice by Manchester City Council. More here.
Worth a read
“We’ve turned the fridge into a bookshelf for self-published authors so they can get their works read, but if you plug it in it still turns on,” says Charlotte Josephine.
Her new space Nocturne Cafe, in Stockport, which has been transformed into a place for classical music fans, musicians and people who love good coffee.
The former Handy Hardware stood in this part of Shaw Heath for six decades until the family who ran it sold up last year. Now Charlotte and her partner Daniel Dudek have started a new venture there.
They’ve been speaking to What’s On editor Jenna Campbell about their cafe, which regularly welcomes pianists to play everything from Chopin and Mozart to Debussy.
Gremlins
You may have noticed that Friday’s Mancunian Way actually arrived after midnight on Saturday. Not the most timely delivery, I know. And it certainly prompted at least one four-letter expletive from me.
I can only apologise for the gremlins that are currently clogging up the system that sends out our newsletters, but thank you for bearing with us.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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The answer to today's trivia question is: Baby
