Continuing my walk round Manchester city centre this week with another collection of street art and quirky bits photographed two weeks ago, and on the edge of the Northern Quarter not far from Piccadilly Station I came across an artwork which was so long I couldn’t get all the detail in one shot.
In October 2018 the international arts and homelessness movement With One Voice, founded by Streetwise Opera, collaborated with American community muralist Joel Bergner to produce the huge mural. Known as The Doodle On Ducie Street it depicts a homeless man flying from hardship to a better future and led by Joel, who drew the initial design on the wall, it was created by over 30 artists who were, or had been, homeless in Manchester.
My quest took me away from the NQ for a while and a few streets behind Piccadilly Gardens I found a design on a wall in China Town, then my feet led me to the Gay Village in the Canal Street area. To be honest I wasn’t terribly impressed with the area as a whole, but with its rainbow colours in various places Canal Street itself was bright enough and just one street behind it I did find some artwork.


In September 2014 a huge mural was painted on the side wall of the Molly House bar on Richmond Street. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries ‘Molly-house’ was a term used for a meeting place, generally a public house, tavern or coffee house, for gay men and cross-dressers. Honouring the city’s most famous gay people the mural on the present day Molly House features drag act Anna Phylactic, feminist Emmeline Pankhurst, drag queen Foo Foo Lamarr, fashion designer Quentin Crisp and computing pioneer Alan Turing.




Killing two birds with one stone, as well as street art I was also looking for something else which will feature in a future post so my quest took me briefly towards Manchester Cathedral before I headed through the very deserted Arndale shopping centre back to the NQ.








