When Michael Kay arrived in Manchester, he found himself in a whole new world.
He’d accepted an offer from the new Polytechnic to study photography – swapping his humble, isolated cottage surroundings of Snowdonia for the bright lights of Mancunia.
It was a change of pace – not least due to the fact he had access to mains water and electricity for the first time.
Intoxicated by the foreign sights and sounds of the city landscape, Michael eagerly grabbed his camera and bounded into the streets – snapping everything he could along the way.
It might have been bigger and faster way of living than the young man was used to, but during his shoots, he saw that Manchester was troubled.
The city was poor, poverty was rife, and gloom hung heavy in the air.
Council leaders, recognising the necessity for change, had just launched a programme of local urban regeneration in an attempt to spruce things up – leaving inner-city slums piled high with rubble as work commenced on clearing the path for a seemingly brighter future.
With Manchester on the cusp of a new chapter, Michael caught it all on camera, sharing a dozen of his favourite photos from the 1970s with The Manc.
Down comes Moss Side
Fifty years ago, Moss Side was one part of Manchester undergoing significant transformation – as city leaders decided to tear down the old Victorian properties and replace them with council houses and flats.
“Most of this Moss Side street had been demolished,” Michael explains in reference to the image above.
“But one or two properties were still occupied and these two friends still lived there.”
Also shown is a young boy – standing against the backdrop of another street scheduled to be mowed down by construction vehicles.
In the distance, Hulme’s controversial Crescents were being assembled; making the area home to the largest public housing development in Europe (with space for over 13,000 people).
The infamous project proved to be an enormous failure, turning Hulme into one of the most deprived places in Greater Manchester.
Within months, the block was overrun with infestations of mice, cockroaches and feral dogs prowling through the derelict complex, with hundreds of residents seeking new accommodation.
Much of the north was living hand to mouth during this decade, and although Michael describes the scenes of poverty as “heartbreaking”, he often used to see children scampering amongst the ruins of old houses without a care in the world
“The children played amongst the rubble and seemed happy,” the photographer tells us.
“I’d love to know what became of this young lad.”
This carefree spirit of youth is embodied in the image above – with five young boys beaming for the camera with unkempt bundles of wood at their backs.
They’re accompanied by similarly-satisfied-looking pooch.
According to Michael, the dog used to follow this group of friends around wherever they went.
Pints and pennies
Michael took his camera indoors from time to time – seizing the opportunity to grab some pictures inside the local pubs.
These photos were shot at Birch Villa on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme – which eventually became known as Hardy’s Well (a famous old building with a Lemn Sissay poem written on the side wall).
“I spent a couple of hours taking photos in this pub,” Michael tells us.
“I liked the way that this lady had dressed up in her finery. The man to her left was playing the mouth organ for most of the evening.”
Despite the boozer being a little rough around the edges, Michael said he felt completely comfortable snapping away within its confines.
“Although there were some tough characters in there I didn’t feel at all unsafe and everyone seemed to be having a good time.”
A little further afield from the drinking den was a sweet shop – which found itself trapped between two separate sets of currency around the time Britain changed the makeup of its legal tender; evolving from pounds, shillings, and pence.
“This shop was on Wilmslow Road near the junction with Platt Lane,” explains Michael.
“[It was] just post decimalisation – with some of the sweets marked up in old and new currency.”
In amongst the crowd
Margaret Thatcher was an unpopular figure in Manchester long before she moved to Number 10.
The Iron Lady also managed to ruffled feathers in her preceding role as Education Secretary – a position she held between 1970 and 1974.
The photo above shows “one of many student protests from the early ‘70s,” says Michael.
“[Thatcher] was Secretary of State for Education and students generally disagreed with many of the changes she brought in.”
Michael also managed to capture a superb shot of seventies crowds coming together for an “Armed Forces Fete” during his trek around the city.
“I think [this] was in Platt Fields but it could have been Wythenshawe,” Michael muses.
“There’s an armoured car somewhere under those kids.”
The city in the seventies
Manchester’s nucleus has changed beyond recognition in the half-century that has passed since these photos were taken.
And so has the typical way of life.
Take this shot for example – with a baby left outside a shop in the middle of the busy city centre streets.
“No one thought anything of it in those days,” Michael says.
Still, despite the city remaining in a permanent state of flux, the presence of local cult characters has never wavered.
Before Frank Sidebottom and The Piccadilly Rats, there was the Piccadilly Gardens Man – who used to spend most of his days sat on a bench feeding the birds.
“I thought some people may remember him,” Michael says.
“Apparently he used to regularly visit the Dance dept. of the Polytechnic which was nearby and give red roses to the girls!”
The final image in the collection is particularly striking – a snapshot of a space that has undergone so much renovation it looks like its from another city.
Look closely, and you’ll be able to see that beyond the heaps is actually the neighbourhood of Castlefield.
“[This was] the huge Castlefield fuel depot,” Michael tells us
“The buildings in the background and the bridge still remain.
“But so much has changed in this area.”
One look at the cranes populating the city skyline reveals that plenty more change is yet to come.
After graduating, Michael moved away from Manchester and had a successful career as an advertising and food photographer with a studio in Wimbledon.
He is now semi retired and works from home in Surrey. Because of the lockdown he’s been digitising his old negatives. Most of the images shown here have never been seen before and none have ever been published.
View some of Michael Kay’s wonderful work online on the photographer’s official website.
Feature
Lupo Caffe Italiano – a taste of sunny Rome on a Prestwich industrial estate
Daisy Jackson
The sun is beating down on you, there’s a couple of luminous orange Aperol Spritzes on the checked tablecloth, Italian pop music is trickling out over the speakers and you’ve got two heaping bowls of pasta on the way.
The setting could easily be a cobbled street in front of the Colosseum in Rome. But it’s not. It’s an industrial estate in Prestwich.
Lupo must be one of Greater Manchester’s most hidden gems in a very literal sense.
To get here, you have to drive or walk a strange looping circuit around industrial warehouses peddling everything from splashbacks to burglar alarms to grow tents.
One of these warehouses, located in the very furthest yard, looks a little different to the others, festooned with bunches of garlic and dried herbs strung up from the ceiling.
There are shelves full of pasta, sauces and even crisps, a fridge packed with delicious Italian wines and beers, and retro football shirt-inspired merch hanging from the walls.
Its awkward location does nothing to hold back its loyal customers, who repeatedly return for the authentic taste of Rome on offer here.
Lupo is operated by Nico Pasquali, who first ran it as a tiny Italian cafe on Chapel Street in Salford (before all the high-rises appeared), then shifted it over to the odd shiny-commercial-office-land that is Exchange Quay, then took it almost entirely remote to trudge through the pandemic.
Lupo’s charming interiorsNico has added outside seating to LupoThe pasticceria selection at Lupo
At one point, Caffè Lupo existed mostly on WhatsApp, with customers texting in their orders ready for a doorstep drop on a Friday night.
But now the large-ish commercial unit is its main business, and it’s a special one.
You are greeted, always, with a friendly wave, then given the sort of service where you’re very gently guided to order all the best things on the menu that day, feeling like you’ll personally offend Nico if you order differently and stray from his recommendations. Thankfully it’s pretty easy to trust this man.
It’s extremely hard for me to see amatriciana on a menu and not order it – so I don’t try. One bowl of rigatoni amatriciana for me, and make it cheesy.
This is a textbook example of the deceptively simple pasta dish. Fatty guanciale cooked right down so that all that delicious pork fat melts into the tomatoes, then it’s seasoned with, I presume, several generations of secrets and love from Italian nonnas.
Rigatoni amatriciana, and fennel sausage orecchietteA spread of Lupo’s Italian foodPepernata – Nico’s mum’s recipeThe Pizza Lupo
The sweet, salty, meaty sauce is available on a pizza too, which will be top of my list next time I visit.
Across the table it’s a special (but it’s been on the menu for a while now) of orecchiette with fennel sausage and romanesco broccoli.
Nico tells us a customer once refused to pay for this dish because it wasn’t ‘saucy’ enough. Heathen.
That’s the running theme with Lupo – don’t come here expecting Neapolitan pizzas, or flat whites, or hot honey dips for your pizza crusts. It isn’t the Roman way, and Nico isn’t about to veer away from his proud roots to mould into any passing fads or trends.
If you’re after authenticity and tradition though, this is comfortably the top Italian in Greater Manchester.
If you can come to Lupo and walk away without ordering something sweet from the counter, you’re a stronger person than me.
PasticceriaOwner NicoLupo’s famous millefoglie
They’re famed for their doughnuts (rightly), with bouncy dough filled with flavours including pistachio cream, lemon, and homemade jams.
Also displayed in neat rows are fruit tarts with a glossy glaze, towering cream cakes in neat layers, and puff pastry cannoncini.
But Nico is adamant, absolutely adamant, that we order a slice of his millefoglie. It’s a sell-out, he says. We’re lucky he even has some in stock, he tells us. Who are we to argue?
And if you’ve made it this far, just stop reading right now, get in the damn car and go get yourself a slice before it sells out again.
Layers of lighter-than-air homemade pastry are sandwiched together with delicately sweet cream, hints of almond throughout, and it’s good enough to bring a tear to your eye.
We leave with a doughnut in a box too, so that we at least have a snack if we get completely lost finding our way back out of the industrial estate.
You can stay in an aircraft, old school bus, or even a helicopter at this glamping pod near Manchester
Thomas Melia
There’s a glamping retreat near Manchester offering extraordinary stays in an aircraft, helicopter, old school bus and more.
Over in Blackpool at Manor House Glamping, there is a range of static vehicles that you can have an overnight stay or two in, and according to the pictures on its website, there’s even a resident emu.
You can stay in various modes of transport, such as an aircraft, an iconic yellow school bus, a campervan or a military green truck.
Each has its own perks ranging from a hot tub, outdoor bath, fire pit, sandpit and more. Whatever type of getaway or retreat you’re looking for, you’ll find everything you need right here.
The most eye-catching of the company’s stays is certainly the aircraft, which has kept its original cockpit features, although it’s safe to say the interior has definitely had a makeover.
There’s no such thing as a bad in-flight experience with this guest house, as you can get cocktails delivered to the cockpit after taking a dip in your own personal hot tub – not too shabby, eh?
With the bright and unmissable yellow school bus, there are plenty of decorations that help continue this theme in the form of various American road signs, one of which acts as your headboard for the night.
If you’re after a more toned-down chance to unwind, you can step into a pale-white camper van with cosy cushions and a snug haystack-turned-sofa adorned with some gorgeous blankets.
And if you’re looking at going all out, then your Manor House Glamping accommodation of choice has to be the chopper, which was once used by the Royal Navy.
Worried this option might be a tad nippy? Fear not, because this helicopter is fully kitted out to suit your glamping needs with two fluffy-lined cushions on each seat of this vintage heli.
Anyone who experiences cabin fever, fear not, because all the aircraft and vehicles are static and aren’t planning on making a long-haul journey anytime soon, you’ll still be able to keep your feet firmly on the ground.
Manor House Glamping has a variety of vehicle-themed guest houses, both old and new, for you to stay in overnight and if you’re interested or after any further information.
If you fancy staying within the boundaries of Greater Manchester but still fancy getting the feel for a cockpit, though, there’s a very fun day out over at Barton’s City Airport.
The Manc -
8th April 2022 
