SleuthSleuth is a sideways glance at the city every week, it's the truth, but Sleuth's truth. He's several people all at once. We give £25 for every story/rumour and piece of absurdity you find for us to publish. Sleuth sometimes even gets serious. We ask for the money back if any legal action follows. Follow Sleuth on twitter @mcrsleuth
Leese's Folly
Serious Sleuth here. Confidential is pleased that the men from the ministry are calling the city council to account over the blocking of glorious Library Walk with a pointless intrusion. We call this glass box Leese's Folly, after the city council leader.
The council will face an inquiry on 21-22 October into the legality of removing Library Walk's status as a public right of way - especially as they broke the rules by not issuing a temporary stopping off order. Of course, given Leese's Folly is now constructed, there's little chance of it being demolished but something good might come from the inquiry. Some ear time.
Leese's Folly. A pointless blockage
Council Needs To Listen
Lawyers consider the work of the tireless Friends of Library Walk in getting the protest to the stage of an inquiry remarkable. If successful it may mark a change in the way councils can impose structures such as Leese's Folly on their citizens. It may make them listen a little more. Manchester City Council seem blind to informed opinion from outside their ranks. They have been bloody-minded and pig-headed over Library Walk, dismissing people simply because they don't bow down before their mighty bureacracy. Arrogance doesn't do it justice.
Leese's Folly And Functionality
The thing is critics of Library Walk have been proved right. Sleuth knows that up to 5,000 people a day are using Central Library. Sleuth regularly walks between Central Library and the Town Hall Extension through the more than adequate basement access. There is never any congestion at any of the entrances or in the underground routes. It is clear that £3.5m has been spent on Leese's Folly for no reason. It is useless. It is the very definition of an architectural folly: one that serves no practical function.
The Britannia Hotel Comes Clean
Sleuth loves the fragile neon on the Britannia Hotel. He particularly loves the broken 'o' and 't' over the entrance. This now spells 'HEL'. Very honest. Although maybe the Britannia Group are redirecting money to the long awaited refurbishment of London Road Fire Station. And there's a flying pig.
Hell shines out over Britannia
Sleuth's Coolest Man On A Wall
Sleuth took some American guests around this week. One dapper gentleman from Florida jumped onto the lintel underneath the Affleck's Palace mosaics - see the picture at the top of the page. "Look," he said, "I fit right in." His mate said to Sleuth, "There's a bar in a hotel in Colorado Springs called The Manchester and they throw little bees at you when you get certain drinks. The story you told about bees being the symbol of the city now makes sense."
Manchester bee in the Town Hall
Sleuth's Best Pun Of The Week
The Editor got a message this week. 'Just wanted to pitch something to you. In the Flesh, the Salford-filmed zombie drama returns to BBC3 on May 4. It’s massively popular and acclaimed and I'm sure people would want to read about it. We could call the article The Walkden Dead.'
In The Flesh - will anybody notice zombies in Lower Broughton?
Sleuth And The Dead
Sleuth has been reading a fine book called Forgotten Fields by John Marsden in which he tracks the history and burials of Manchester's old burial grounds. Fact of the week: Southern Cemetery has seen more than 350,000 burials. Wow.
Death in published form
Brewdog Bitching
Sleuth loves a bit of direct talking. This response from Brewdog Bars to being ticked off by The Portnam Group, the 'responsibility body for alcohol producers', over their advertising is splendid. Brewdog said: 'The Portman Group is a gloomy gaggle of killjoy jobsworths, funded by navel-gazing international drinks giants. Their raison d’être is to provide a diversion for the true evils of this industry, perpetrated by the gigantic faceless brands that pay their wages. Blinkered by this soulless mission, they treat beer drinkers like brain dead zombies and vilify creativity and competition. Therefore, we have never given a second thought to any of the grubby newspeak they disseminate periodically.' Sleuth is thinking something similar up for the Health and Safety idiot who banned him from taking guests down the Great Northern Tunnels in Manchester.
Judge Dredd in Manchester Brewdog as Brewdog judges Portnam Group
New Restaurant Is Named
Spinningfields, as previously reported, is to get a new Thai restaurant from the Chaophraya group. It will be called Thaikhun - a name you have to be careful with when saying quickly - and will open on Tuesday 27 May. The PR says it's a 'casual dining restaurant offering affordable dishes full of fresh, healthy ingredients and recipes from the world-renowned street food stalls of Bangkok'. Apparently the word ‘Khun’ means ‘yours’ - add a 't' to the end and it means 'up yours'.
Sleuth's Lies To Tell Tourists
The litter in Piccadilly Gardens, every Sunday until midday, is not litter at all, it's an artwork called 'Liberated Paper In A Successful Public Space'.
It's an artwork not something which shames the city and spoils visits to Manchester
