A love letter to Manchester: Mancsy paints Valentine’s Day mural at Corn Exchange
Corn Exchange is unveiling a special mural for Valentine's Day this year: A memorial to Manchester featuring famous faces of the city we've "all fallen in love with".
Corn Exchange is unveiling a special mural for Valentine’s Day this year: A memorial to Manchester people we’ve “all fallen in love with”.
Painted by local artist Mancsy, ‘Messages from Manchester’ the mural can be found next door to Salvi’s restaurant – adorned with inspired words and famous city faces from codebreakers to comedians.
Emmeline Pankhurst, James Joules, Les Dawson, Tony Wilson, Alan Turing, Rowetta, Caroline Aherne and Foo Foo Lamar were selected for the mural following a social media poll in which people were asked to put forward names of their Mancunian heroes.
A QR code can also be seen alongside the painting – offering passersby the opportunity to make a donation once they’ve posed for a pic, with all proceeds going to We Love Mcr Charity.
Corn Exchange / Image: Wikimedia Commons
Mancsy said he was “thrilled” to get involved with the Valentine’s Day project.
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“I’m very excited to be helping the residents of Manchester beat the lockdown blues and bring some positivity to the city,” the artist added.
“I really wanted to convey in my art the history of Manchester, showcasing the people that made it great, as well as give people hope that the city will soon be buzzing again soon with little motivational quotes.”
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Liam Mooney, General Manager at Corn Exchange Manchester, said: “In previous years, the Corn Exchange has been filled with couples enjoying romantic meals on Valentine’s Day.
“With lockdown making things very different this year, we wanted to celebrate by showing our love for Manchester with our very own love letter to the city and its amazing residents throughout history.
“That’s why we partnered with an iconic local based artist to create a mural that can inspire and delight city residents during their daily walks or while they run essential errands.
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“We can’t wait to see the reaction on social media and hope to raise some funds to support the amazing work of We Love MCR in the process too.”
Most restaurants in the area are currently closed under national lockdown rules, but a handful of Corn Exchange community members are still open for collection and takeaway.
These include Salvi’s Deli – which is selling a wide variety of Italian produce and coffee – and Vapiano and Gino D’Acampo Restaurant for food orders.
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Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
The Manc -
11th February 2021 
