Andy Mallins with the picture, Jonathan Schofield with the words
The latest superb drone image from Andy Mallins is a panorama from above Peel Park looking almost due east. It's a modern view on an old theme.
The comparison images make for fascinating viewing
Andy Mallin's drone panorama gives a 2023 view of the lofty diorama painted by John Raphael Isaac from 1859.
Before Manchester Isaac had painted a famous image of Liverpool, his home city, as though taken from a hot air balloon – although some sources say he actually went up in a balloon and sketched as he saw. Later he came to Manchester and Salford and did it again. This is probably as much a dream of the reality of the twin cities at the time as it is the actuality.
The viewpoint Isaac chose is from high above Salford Museum and Art Gallery looking more or less due east. Salford Museum and Art Gallery had just been created from the former residence of Lark Hill House in 1849. Lark Hill had become the country’s first true municipal library in January 1850, shortly before the municipal library in Manchester although Manchester, as usual, claims it was first.
Andy Mallins has taken his April 2023 image from the same vantage point but lower. Given legal restrictions he wasn't allowed to achieve the height from which Isaac imagined the twin cities.
Still the comparison images make for fascinating viewing.
Eagle-eyed readers should be able to spot in Isaac’s image Salford Cathedral, St Philip's Church, Manchester Cathedral, the Free Trade Hall (now the Radisson Blu Edwardian), St Ann’s Church, Watts Warehouse (now the Britannia Hotel), Manchester Art Gallery and Castlefield Basin with Castle Quay Warehouse. There is no Manchester Town Hall or University to be seen as they have yet to be built.
There are more than 200 chimneys and in the distance clumps of chimneys marking where Ashton, Stockport and other outlying towns lie. Isaac seems particularly intrigued by the railways painting jolly little trains with lots of carriages chugging over viaducts. There’s almost something of LS Lowry in those elements of the diorama.
Andy Mallins' image captures no chimneys, there maybe one in there possibly. There seem only four main constants, Salford Cathedral and St Philips church, both off Chapel Street, are plain to see, the River Irwell still rolls on and the profile of the hills in the background is the same. The other churches, the rows of terraces have been swept away.
Nothing much else remains or if it does it's hard to recognise as a forest has sprouted; a forest of tall towers and skyscrapers. The modern cities are unrecognisable from their ancestor cities. That's as it should be, if cities don't change they stagnate. Or become heritage
You can buy loads of fabulous pictures from Andy Mallins here.
You can buy Jonathan Schofield's books about Manchester and the North West here.
John Raphael Isaac (1809-1870) was born in Liverpool where he lived out his life. He came from a well-known Jewish family and worked in a number of fields, engraver and art dealer as well as artist. He specialised in depicting his home city’s rich and illustrious maritime tradition at the swansong of the sailing ship era.
Get the latest news to your inbox
Get the latest food & drink news and exclusive offers by email by signing up to our mailing list. This is one of the ways that Confidentials remains free to our readers and by signing up you help support our high quality, impartial and knowledgable writers. Thank you!
If you liked this story you might like:
Kayacking down the Bridgewater Canal
