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George Street, MANCHESTER, M1 4AB

Two more accomplished (and early) examples of Manchester's Victorian warehouses. Utilitarian buildings but distinguished by sufficient detail to avoid dullness. The red-brick building, by Travis & Mangnall, c1847, has an arcaded ground floor and arched windows. Grade II listed. The stone-fronted one round the corner is by Edward Walters and dates from c1845. Rusticated ground floor, rubble above. Grade II listed.

Greater Manchester Police handing out "Alan Turing Sunflowers" from their "Hate Crime - Report it" float at the 2012 Manchester Pride Procession. Manchester Pride is the current name of the annual Gay Pride festival held Manchester. The event began in the second half of the 1980's as a jumble sale outside the Rembrandt Hotel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Pride ). It is one of the longest running in the country and attracts thousands of visitors to the city's Gay Village, which centres around Canal Street, each year. The ten-day festival culminates in "The Big Weekend", a 72-hour party in Canal Street and the surrounding area over the August bank holiday weekend. The Manchester Pride Parade is the highlight of the Big Weekend and the biggest Parade in Manchester! The Parade is promoted as a fun way to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Greater Manchester, the UK and overseas, and to raise awareness of the issues around HIV. More than 100 floats made their way through the city centre, setting off from Deansgate and ending on Whitworth Street at the gay village. The theme for this year’s Manchester Pride Parade is “Queer’d Science”, in honour of “Father of computer science, mathematician, logician, wartime code breaker and victim of prejudice,” Alan Turing. The gay computer pioneer was prosecuted for gross indecency for having relations with another man in 1952, when homosexual acts were illegal in the UK. He died from cyanide poisoning two years later and it was ruled at his inquest that he had committed suicide. A number of charities, venues, public sector bodies, housing authorities, political parties and commercial organisations take part in the parade each year. http://www.manchesterpride.com/parade Manchester Pride Web site http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-19379394 BBC News.

Stagecoach 12119 (MX12 ENP), an Alexander bodied hybrid Dennis Trident, passes along Princess Street (A34) in Manchester city centre. It is operating on route 197 to Stockport via Burnage and Levenshulme.

Former warehouse of ashlar with a rusticated ground floor, segmentally-arched first-floor windows, round-arched second-floor windows, and prominent cornice. The listing dates it to the 1840s. Grade II listed.

The A34 passing through Manchester city centre. Town Hall in the background.

António Frade truck unloading on George Street in Manchester's Chinatown district.

Three late-C18th houses, now shops and offices. No. 87 has an especially grand pedimented doorcase. Georgian houses are a rarity in central Manchester, and generally found as isolated singletons or in short groups such as this. Grade II listed.

Looking southwest - the sign confirms that this is an area of Manchester with many Chinese businesses. The next street crossing is the main A34, Princess Street.

After 1882, The Royal Institution which had been based in the present City Art Gallery (above) transferred its art treasures to Manchester Corporation, conditional upon £4,000 a year being committed from rates by the Corporation to purchase further works of art. The original gallery soon became overcrowded, and after many other new sites had been rejected, it was decided to build the Athenaeum, immediately behind the City Gallery as an extension to the gallery's facilities. Charles Barry, who had designed the Art Gallery, was commissioned to build the Athenaeum. This time he chose a Tuscan Italian Palazzo style, quite different from the original, with a connecting entrance directly with the Art Gallery, and a separate entrance in Princess Street. This now forms a visiting or temporary art and craft exhibition space, with frequently changing and exciting shows on offer. Both the eminent art critic John Ruskin, and Charles Dickens gave lectures in this building. Now part of the main Manchester City Art Gallery - the subject of considerable refurbishment and a novel solution to joining two great Manchester buildings together.