IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Portland Street, MANCHESTER, M1 4GU

Grand stone-fronted former warehouse, dating from 1873, by Pennington & Bridgen. Eclectic style, Pevsner picking out the particularly lavish decoration around the first-floor (piano nobile) windows. Grade II listed.

Crowds gathering for the start of the Bupa Great Manchester 10k run

Another handsome Manchester warehouse by local firm, Clegg & Knowles, 1870. In contrast to most of their work, this is entirely brick, the ground floor with banded rustication, and the floors above articulated by giant pilasters and paired arches with tapered imposts in the centre. Grade II listed.

Good Beer Guide-listed pub on Portland Street. Small front bar, widening out; tiny open-air passage at back, with central counter, drinking right, TV, old local and sporting photos on walls. Five cask ales on offer at my visit, mainly from Hydes.

The junction of Sackville Street with Portland Street in Manchester City Centre.

In a street of large modern blocks, hotels and Victorian / Edwardian palaces of commerce this unassuming row of shops and pubs has so far escaped the developer. The taller building with the huge windows houses the Colin Jellicoe private art gallery on its ground floor.

Taken on Princess Street in central Manchester, this is Faulkner Street in the city's Chinatown being readied for the 2011 Chinese New Year celebrations.

The view up Faulkner Street

The magnificent Chinese Arch stands proudly over Faulkner Street, proclaiming the important place Chinatown has become and celebrating the large Chinese community in Manchester and the North West of England. The Arch, which has stood here since 1987, was gift to the city from the Chinese people and was the first true Imperial Chinese arch erected in Europe. Even more decorative than the one found in San Francisco, the arch is painted in red and gold and adorned with dragons and phoenixes, colours and symbols of luck and prosperity. http://www.mmu.ac.uk/the-guide/places-of-interest/chinatown.php - Manchester Metropolitan University http://www.manchester.com/community/chinatown/history.php - Manchester.com History of Chinatown http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Manchester – Wikipedia article on Manchester’s Chinatown

The magnificent Chinese Arch stands proudly over Faulkner Street, proclaiming the important place Chinatown has become and celebrating the large Chinese community in Manchester and the North West of England. The Arch, which has stood here since 1987, was gift to the city from the Chinese people and was the first true Imperial Chinese arch erected in Europe. Even more decorative than the one found in San Francisco, the arch is painted in red and gold and adorned with dragons and phoenixes, colours and symbols of luck and prosperity. See Image] for a day-time view. http://www.mmu.ac.uk/the-guide/places-of-interest/chinatown.php - Manchester Metropolitan University http://www.manchester.com/community/chinatown/history.php - Manchester.com History of Chinatown http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Manchester – Wikipedia article on Manchester’s Chinatown