Although I can neither draw nor paint to save my life I’ve become really interested in street art over the last couple of years. It all began after I came across, quite by accident, a huge tiger mural on a double gable end wall during a visit to Manchester’s Cat Cafe in 2019. I was so impressed that back at home I did some Googling, made a ‘street art’ list and returned to the city the following day to track down as many street art examples as I could and since then I’ve photographed artwork in Blackburn, Dublin, Limerick, Morecambe and my home town.
Knowing that after a while many murals get painted over and replaced with something else, last summer, once circumstances allowed, I made two more visits to Manchester. Some of the murals I’d already previously seen but thanks to some ‘inside knowledge’ from my blogging friend Paul, who lives in the city centre, I was able to photograph many I hadn’t seen so my Monday walk this week takes in some of the main roads and side streets of the Northern Quarter although I can’t remember all the street names, nor have I been able to find out who all the artists are.
The first two shots are of plaques on the front wall of the City Pub on Oldham Street; not exactly street art and definitely worse for wear but I liked them enough to include them, especially the one with the lion and unicorn. The following four images, taken on the corner of Spear Street and Hilton Street, were all by Kelzo and the next four on the corner of Spear Street and Stevenson Square were by Tankpetrol, a Polish stencil artist based in Manchester.




The next mural, on the wall of a redundant substation, is quite significant. Painted by Akse it’s a portrait of Manchester-born Nicola Mendelsohn, vice president of Facebook for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Diagnosed with the rare blood cancer Follicular Lymphoma in November 2016 she underwent chemotherapy and immunotherapy then in November 2019 she established the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation to raise funds to find an effective treatment and give support to other people diagnosed with the condition. The mural was painted to help raise awareness of the Foundation and a video of Akse completing the artwork went viral, being viewed millions of times. Also on the walls of the same building are two artworks by Ketones6000.








The next mural, at the corner of Thomas Street and High Street, replaced the tiger one I saw in 2019. Painted by the same artist, Jim Vision, it’s my favourite one so far.

Across the main road from the Northern Quarter into Ancoats I came across the Waterside Coffee Bar facing a section of the Rochdale Canal on Redhill Street, and though the window decoration wasn’t exactly street art it was pretty and I liked it enough to take a photo of it.

These are very good. You need to visit Belfast.
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Thanks for the suggestion, it’s something to think about for the future. I want to go to Liverpool next as I’ve been told there’s lots of street art there, also Sheffield is a possibility
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A bit further east, Hull has a lot of good fishing related murals.
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Thanks, fishing murals sound good, I’ll make a note of that one 🙂
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They are all fabulous. I like the one with the animals and birds the best too.
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I’m hoping to get back to Manchester as soon as circumstances allow as I have an idea for a future post. Probably by then the birds and animals will have been replaced by something else, it will be interesting to see what’s there 🙂
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Wow that is a lot of street art! The artwork of Nicola Mendelsohn gets your attention!
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It certainly does, and there’s lots more art to come in a future post 🙂
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What a stunning post Eunice, and one I’ll return to later tonight to study the pictures in more detail.
Impossible to select a favourite; the quality of some of the work and the talent shown is awesome. xx
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I’m glad you like the pictures Jayne. It’s amazing the talent that can be found on buildings around the NQ, I just wish I could draw and paint like that. I’m already working on my post for next week so there’s plenty more to come yet 🙂
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I’m sure that you’d be able to save your life by drawing or painting a picture, Eunice. Yes, I do. Those were some amazing pieces of art!
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I could probably paint a reasonable psychedelic picture with swirls of bright colour but I’m hopeless at drawing/painting something proper so I really admire those who can. Then again, with some of the things that pass for ‘art’ these days I could probably do just as well with swirls of colour 🙂
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All very nice paintings, but I prefer those where the artist plays with your perception and has you almost walking through the wall. You showed a good example in your Aug 12th 2019 post. A Connect 4 illusion by ? Boo_Who_Up_North.
I also seem to remember sometime last year you showed an old mill wall in Bolton with a spectacular image.
Looking forward to your next selection.
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Wait until you see what’s in the next selection, there’s one that sends your eyes funny if you look at it long enough and you’ll swear the lines are moving 🙂 🙂
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Amazing! It looks like street art has become more popular recently, something to see when out and about. My favourite is the same as yours. 🙂
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Apparently the street art scene in Manchester started in the late 1990s and has gone from strength to strength since then. It’s evolving all the time and there’s so many different things to see in so many different places – I’m looking forward to going back when circumstances allow as I know many artworks will have changed since I was there last year 🙂
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Wow!!!! and I thought we had some great murals over here. Some of those are stunning & to think my paternal grandmother lived in Manchester as a child before they emigrated to Oz. Thanks for sharing, take care, stay safe & hugs from down under.
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There are some really excellent artworks here, I’m glad you like them. Next week’s mix is a bit different so I hope you like those too 🙂
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Wow, some fabulous murals there. It seems to be a popular idea in so many cities now, it’s great.
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I think it’s a great way of brightening up blank walls and ‘lost’ corners, especially if an area is a bit ‘run down’. It’s become quite a big thing in Manchester now and there are even guided walks to find the most popular artwork 🙂
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There’s a great mix here, Eunice, some of it compelling. I like the red on black that you feature early in the post. 🙂 🙂
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I think red and black always go well together 🙂 I’ve just spent four hours working on next week’s mix of street art but WordPress hasn’t been playing ball and it got all the spacings wrong so I’ve had to re-do everything twice. I hope it behaves itself tomorrow when I go back to it! 😦
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I know that feeling! Fingers crossed for you 🙂 🙂
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Some stunning artwork, impossible to choose favourites. There are some very talented artists and I’m always in awe as I’m useless at painting, drawing etc.
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To be able to draw and paint well and create murals like these is a great talent to have, I only wish I could do it. I noticed on Instagram last night that the double gable end wall where the animal and bird mural was is now painted plain grey, which means there’ll be something different there before long. I hope whatever it is is still there when I finally manage to go back again 🙂
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The lady holding the candles has a good message
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She does, although I like the message on the other one as it’s very fitting to someone I know.
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I did the same walk a few weeks ago … before Lockdown III, when it was actually OK to go into town! Great photos.
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Thanks, I’m glad you like them. I’ve got a couple of ideas buzzing round in my head for some more street art posts and there’s some new stuff gone up just recently but I’ll have to wait until I can get back there.
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