Here's some photos I took earlier...

Monday, December 9th, 2013

Any visitor to Salford Quays (as I frequently am) should also pay a visit to the MediaCity UK complex, which houses the glassy northern headquarters of the BBC and Granada (including a newly built Coronation Street).

And right next to the MediaCity UK Metrolink station is that iconic bastion of children's television programming, the Blue Peter garden.

Well, I say iconic. Maybe it was iconic before Children's BBC moved from White City to MediaCity, but I can say with some considerable certainty that the Blue Peter garden has seen better days. Whereas before it was a proper, expansive garden that the presenters could plant things in and walk around, now it's merely a concrete corner with virtually no grass and just a hint of green. It's tokenism on a not so grand scale.

Having said that, for what it's worth, any member of the public can walk around it (well, it's more like a couple of steps than a walk) and I recently took some pictures, as I was quite taken with a very photogenic "gardener's shed" they have in one corner.

They also have Petra the dog's statue on a plinth, transported up from London, and while I am always surprised that the Blue Peter garden isn't in a permanent state of vandalism and chaos, I suppose the reason it's largely left alone is because a) it's barely noticeable, and b) nobody really cares any more, perhaps least of all the BBC.

Lights in the water

Saturday, November 16th, 2013

One of my favourite places in England is Salford Quays. Until a few years ago it was an undeveloped, partly abandoned disused - or under-used - docks, but in the last 15 years it has really sprung up and become a top destination for eating, shopping and the arts.
The Lowry theatre opened in 2000, and there's also the Lowry Outlet Mall, the Imperial War Museum North, and now, perhaps infamously, the BBC's new MediaCity UK base.
It's a very watery, glassy, new place: not a lot of vegetation or greenery (although we did stand just feet away from two cavorting foxes this evening as we walked through the Blue Peter garden!), but this modern look allows for some stunning photography after dark. The lights on the quays are like Blackpool's illuminations, and the reflections from the glass structures all around lend it an almost futuristic air.
It's a place well worth a visit, whether for shopping bargains, a good meal, a tour round the BBC (and now, of course, the new Coronation Street set at Granada), a trip back in time at the war museum, even a visit to Old Trafford close by.
To me, who sees an awful lot of cracking stuff at the Lowry theatre, it's like a home from home.