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
HUGE NEW RESTAURANT FOR ALBERT HALL?
Whopping Sleuth news this. Joel Wilkinson, the club/bar/restaurant mastermind behind the Manchester's Trof, Gorilla, Deaf Institute and Albert Hall venues, is currently beavering away at another hugely ambitious project for the humming-again Peter Street. Wilkinson intends to turn the former-Brannigans bar in the basement of Albert Hall into a 350-cover bar-kitchen. Sleuth told you it was a whopper. Wilkinson plans to turn Albert Hall - a former Methodist meeting hall designed in 1910 - into the city's most multi-armed operation, with bar/restaurant/club/gig/conference/and even wedding facilities.
No idea on the food slant yet, or any other details really, Sleuth tried to pin Wilkinson down last week at a drum & bass night (at least Sleuth thinks it was, he isn't sure) but the notoriously media-shy owner slipped out of Sleuth's grip faster than an eel in KY Jelly.
Former-Brannigans now Albert Hall on Peter Street
SLEUTH & CORNERHOUSE CONFUSION
Serious Sleuth this. The editor’s doing a full report on this next week but the row over the Cornerhouse site rumbles on as the arts centre with its cinema prepares to move to HOME. Plans and schemes – pipedreams really – have been drawn up which would involve the demolition of all the buildings between Oxford Road and Oxford Road Station including not only the Cornerhouse but buildings such as The Salisbury pub. The replacements would be tall and generic.
Sleuth says this: with its cobbles in front of the Salisbury, the long stair to the station, the variety of the buildings and the up and down topography, rare in Manchester, this would be wrong. After the demolition of the old Twisted Wheel/Legends (read here) buildings and countless others around the city centre we need to keep pockets of charm such as the urban landscape at The Salisbury and the Cornerhouse. Short-term economic ‘wins’ sometimes should be secondary to a long-term vision of how the city may exploit culture and tourism.
Still, as far as Sleuth knows no developer has even been confirmed yet so let's all take a deep breathe...
Cornerhouse
PARKLIFE WALLY
Sometimes revenge can be dangerous. "I am the son of peasants and I know what is happening in the villages," said Gavrilo Princip. "That is why I wanted to take revenge, and I regret nothing." Princip had just shot dead Archduke Franz Ferdinand and... well... it kicked off.
At other times Sleuth reckons revenge can be entirely just and even funny. Take Parklife Director Sacha Lord for example. There's little that gets on Lord's wick more than a ticket tout exploiting his events. So when one utter fool took to social media this week to brag that'd he'd just scored 12 Parklife tickets and intended to sell them at 3x the cost price (around £300) in the lead-up to the festival in June. Lord did this... *clapclap*
Congratulations Sadiq Ali!! You've just won the Total Dick of the Day Competition...going to cancel your tickets now! pic.twitter.com/BzSGF34oFI
— Sacha Lord (@Sachawhp) January 29, 2015
SLEUTH AND THE BEST SOUP
Sleuth found himself in London on Thursday despite the whole of the North collapsing into frantic excuses not to get into work because of a bit of snow. He went to Iberica in Farringdon and ate. Writing can be a fraught process involving many difficult and dangerous tasks, there are those covering war in the Middle East and those laying themselves open to a faint possibility of gout by reviewing food. But for the latter it’s all more than worthwhile when something appears as lovely as Iberica’s beetroot gazpacho with red berries, anchovy and ice cream cheese. Sleuth can’t wait for this baby to arrive in Manchester when Iberica opens in March. Not least because it cuts out more danger for a Manchester based writer, or at least inconvenience: no need to get that choo-choo to the Smoke.
The Best Gazpacho In The World
ST JOHN'S QUARTER
Sleuth dropped in on another St John's Quarter public consultation this week, the 47th such public consultation on St John's, or the 3rd, Sleuth doesn't mind though because Allied London always put on a decent spread with beer and superior biscuits. The new'ish (not much has changed) version of the £1bn redevelopment of Old Granada Studios between Castlefield and Spinningfields certainly has some interesting nuggets: The £75m Factory Arts Centre, a new 'Granada Gardens' public park, eight whopping 20-30 storey Beetham-looking glassy towers along the River Irwell and a thoroughfare linking Deansgate straight through to the Salford banks of the Irwell.
Still, at this stage the whole things conceptual so Sleuth is waiting for the council to approve the masterplan (in theory) in the second week of February, until the Council says GO it's all fur coat and no knickers and Sleuth's over by the biscuits anyway.
Old Granada Studios
SLEUTH AND INCREDIBLE TOURERS
Sleuth was doing the Incredible Interiors tour on Saturday for people who want to see inside some of Manchester’s more spectacular or curious interiors. He made for the rendezvous point and wondered why there was a demonstration taking place. With shock he realised the demonstration was his group: all 73 of them. The idea of taking them all (the limit is usually around 30) was intriguing, so he did. First stop was the Royal Exchange about fifteen minutes before matinee of Little Shop of Horrors began. As the army of tourers left, a lady rushed from the theatre, “Are you all leaving because the show’s that bad, have you heard something?” “No,” Sleuth assured her, “I’ve seen the show, it’s superb. We’re doing the Incredible Interiors tour and I was showing off the Royal Exchange.” “Ooh can I come along too,” said the woman after a moment. Sleuth shook his head, he had to draw the line somewhere.
Biggest Tour Group With Even Emmeline Pankhurst Joining In
BIG NEWS & KANGAROO BALLS
As ISIS threaten to behead Obama in the White House and those Russian scamps fly bombers over Bournmouth, the world's attention turned for a moment to Rochdale where literally 'dozens' of people queued to get into a new Iceland. Why? To get their hands on 'kangaroo balls' of course, which, Sleuth is told, actually sit above the penis (which is often double-pronged) and are 'highly mobile'. Weirder still, Kangaroos have three vaginas. Sleuth reckons even Peter Andre would struggle to shift those...
Iceland
