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Here's the Mancunian Way for today:
Hello
Hope you're all feeling relaxed and refreshed after two Bank Holiday Mondays on the trot.
In today’s newsletter we’ll be taking a look at what’s happening on the ‘Bond Street of the North’. More than a quarter of shops on upmarket King Street are currently empty as the economic downturn continues to hit traditional bricks and mortar retailers hard.
But experts and insiders explain how a comeback could be on the cards as King Street looks to re-establish itself as one of the city centre’s prime locations.
Elsewhere we’ll hear the remarkable story of Nic Lee, a gay teenager from Tameside, who after teaching himself dance during lockdown has now bagged a place at one of the country’s leading performing arts schools.
And comedian Jack Whitehall also tells us about his love affair with Manchester, the time his front door got stolen in Fallowfield and discovering his 'schtick' here in the city.
Can King Street regain its crown?
For Mancs of a certain age it was the place to go if you were looking for a posh frock, a diamond necklace or a new suit. But while King Street still has its fair share of upmarket boutiques and restaurants, it’s fair to say it’s lost a bit of its lustre over the last few years.
During a visit last week Manchester Evening News city centre reporter Ethan Davis counted 12 empty shops - out of a total of 41 at street-level. Although business leaders say half of the vacant units have offers on them, it means more than a quarter of the street's commercial properties are dormant.
But insiders say it's more of a reflection of the slowdown in the British economy rather than a case of the area not being attractive to businesses and shoppers. And if you look a little closer there are signs King Street could be making a comeback.
A branch of Gordon Ramsay’s Lucky Cat restaurant is opening soon, and famed London bakery Gail’s has chosen King Street for its first Manchester city centre outpost. Clarks shoe shop also relocated there last year.
Olivia Wasp and Sue Cooper, who work in White Stuff, say it's still a good place to do business, despite the empty shops. “I guess I have seen a few units shut,” said OIivia. “Considering it’s a nice street you would think it would be busier.”
Sue added: “The Christmas Markets definitely help, and the flower show coming has. Anything on King Street or St Ann’s Square will help us. We would still rather be here than on Market Street.”
Vaughan Allen, chief executive of CityCo & the Manchester City Centre business improvement district, said King Street is ‘continuing to evolve, as it always has’.
"Footfall is up on last year, and as we get into summer, with events like The Manchester Flower Festival, hospitality businesses will have outside dining once more, in turn encouraging more people to visit and linger,” he said.
"There are always limitations when you work with historic buildings, but they give the street a flavour and atmosphere unlike anywhere else in the city centre."
Manchester council leader Bev Craig said: "King Street is an iconic shopping destination that has been attracting visitors for decades. Of course, city centre shopping has changed in recent years and that has meant we have had to adapt as well to ensure that our city centre continues to be a vibrant, exciting place.
"For King Street, this has included supporting more hospitality businesses to open alongside the traditional retail offer, which has attracted a new generation of visitors - and helped by new outdoor seating that has increased the footprint and viability of businesses. And with some exciting new names arriving on King Street in the coming weeks, we are seeing the positive impact of this work."
‘Growing up gay was never really easy’
By his own admission Nic Lee was a ‘bad kid’. He would steal money from his mum and take beers from the fridge.
It was all part of a desperate attempt to fit in with the other childen on the Tameside estate he grew up on. It didn’t work.
Nic had known he was gay from a young age and came out when he just 10-years-old. But it meant he was relentlessly bullied.
Nic said: “The environment I grew up in wasn’t great and growing up was kind of awful.
“The people who lived around me were the type of kids who set garages on fire and things like that. All these people were awful and at some point they all turned on me because I came out as gay. I used to be awfully bullied by all of them.
“Growing up gay was never really easy. I knew I was for so long but when I came out pretty early at the age of like 10 everybody had an opinion and this led to me being bullied every single day by people on the estate.”
But Nic, now 17, had a passion that allowed him to escape the torment he was suffering. From a young age he’d loved to dance and when lockdown hit he spent the time honing his skills in his box bedroom in Ashton.
When restrictions eased he joined a local dance group and now he’s now been offered a spot at London Contemporary Dance School – becoming one of the youngest people to ever be accepted. And now Nic hopes other bullied and marginalised kids will find hope and inspiration in his story.
"My advice for others is to never apologise for who you are or feel the need to label yourself,” he said “The only person you are on this planet for is yourself and learning to accept yourself is the greatest skill you can have because as cliché as it sounds, if you can’t accept you, then you can’t expect others to!"
You can read more about Nic’s story here.
Like Fresh Meat but 10 times worse
Jack Whitehall moved to Manchester after making a mess of his interview for Cambridge University. The idea was to ‘coast’ through his degree then quit ‘as soon as I could convince my parents that stand-up was a viable career choice’.
As the Hollywood film roles and sell-out arena tours prove, the plan worked and then some. But what Whitehall wasn’t expecting was to ‘completely fall in love’ with the city and ‘have the best time of my life’.
“After I started getting paid [for comedy work] I continued to live in a student house in Fallowfield on Egerton Road for two years,” he told Ben Arnold in this eye-opening interview. “It was like the Fresh Meat house, but about 10 times worse.”
When the front door was stolen from the house in Fallowfield, Whitehall did what any self-respecting student would do. He taped a bin bag to the door frame and carried on as normal. Similarly, when a lightbulb went, he and his housemates just resigned themselves to that room being ‘just for the daytime’.
And when his landlord came to get the keys back from them as they were about to move out, he actually ‘started welling up’ on seeing what they’d done to the place. “It was disrespectful,” Whitehall now sheepishly admits.
But those chaotic, raucous few years in Manchester also laid the groundwork for the success that followed. It was here Whitehall says that he found his ‘schtick’.
“I thought ‘I’m going to own that I’m this posh fop and send that up, take the p**s out of it rather than shy away from it’,” he said. “Over the space of that couple of years, I arrived at that place, and I created that persona that people now recognise as me on stage. And I had far more success as a comic the minute I unlocked that.”
Jack Whitehall’s Settle Down tour arrives at the AO Arena on June 21.
Watching the detectorists
Since retiring four years ago Mark Wilkinson has spent many happy but fruitless hours metal detecting. But on April 16 last year, buried seven inches below the ground at an undisclosed location in Bury, he hit the jackpot.
That day he uncovered a hoard of coins dating back 650 years. The ‘remarkable find’ was made up of a gold Half-Noble coin of King Edward III; two Edward III silver groats; and a silver Scottish Groat of Edward II which date from around 1360 to 1377.
Details of the discovery have now been made public at a rare ‘treasure’ hearing at Rochdale coroners court. In a quirk of the British legal system it falls on coroners, who usually deal with sudden or unexpected deaths, to decide whether historical finds are 'treasure' and were legitimately found.
But it doesn’t happen every often. In fact coroner Julie Mitchell said it was only the second in the north Manchester jurisdiction she has seen.
It now remains to be seen what happens with Mr Wilkinson's find. Under the rules the coins must be offered for sale to a museum at a price set by independent experts. If no museum expresses an interest, or is unable to purchase them, they can be kept.
But whatever happens to the find Mr Wilkinson now has a story to tell for years to come.
"I've spoken to people who have done this for years and have never come close to a find like this,” he said. “It felt really exciting - you never know what you've got until you've dug it up."
Private Eye artist goes public
He can turn his hand to the poignant, funny, and heartbreaking. His subjects range from his dad's dementia to refugees risking their lives crossing seas in small boats.
Now in recognition of his stellar career as a cartoonist an exhibition of Tony Husband's work is to be shown in Manchester. Based at his studio in Gee Cross, Hyde, he has contributed to national newspapers and magazines, winning major accolades.
A show, at The Edge Theatre and Arts Centre in Chorlton, will feature his cartoons which appeared in the satirical magazine, Private Eye, which has published his work for nearly four decades. More here.
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Weather etc
Temperatures: Cloudy changing to light showers by late morning. 15C.
Roadworks: Temporary traffic lights on the A56 Manchester Road near the BP petrol station in Blackbridge, Bury.
Manchester headlines
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Forest Bank: Police have investigated 27 reports of rape and 34 other sex crimes as well as 344 alleged crimes of violence at Forest Bank prison since 2018. They were among 1,648 crimes reported at the troubled, privately-operated prison in five years, according information obtained by the M.E.N.
Last month an M.E.N. investigation into Forest Bank prison uncovered allegations of widespread drug use and inmates who 'run the wings', prompting an MP and Salford's mayor to write to the government to demand an 'urgent' review. More here.
Harry Kane: Manchester United target Harry Kane has discussed his frustration at Tottenham's dismal results this season, which have seen the club thrown into disarray and fall out of contention for Champions League football, putting the Red Devils' on high alert. Steve Railston reports.
- Teen kidnap charge: A teenager from Oldham has appeared in court charged in connection with an alleged kidnapping in Bournemouth.The charges follow a report to police of a group of men carrying a man into a car outside a block of flats in the coastal town on April 28. Read more.
Worth a read
‘No suits, no townies’. That was the door policy at mid-80s Goth club Banshees, where even the bouncers were encouraged to channel their inner Robert Smith.
Despite being often over-looked in the annals of Manchester’s clubbing history, Banshees, which opened on Oxford Street in 1986, still has its dedicated fans, as Lee Grimsditch discovers in this hairspray-tinged and eye-liner-smudged trip down down memory lane.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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