More Manchester street art – the Northern Quarter

For someone who doesn’t ‘do’ cities I don’t seem to have been able to stay away from Manchester just recently. Less than two weeks since my last visit, and only a few days ago in some cases, I found out about some new street art in the Northern Quarter, so an early start yesterday morning saw me in the city for 9am on a mission with the camera.

My first port of call was the section of Thomas Street which was in the process of being pedestrianised when I was there two weeks ago, and without all the barriers which had previously been in place I was able to get several uninterrupted photos. In an alleyway just off the street was a large artwork stretching along two walls of a corner building and only completed last Friday, and though there was nothing to say who the artist was I’ve been informed since then that it was done by otto_schade.

Artist – @otto_schade

A bit further up Thomas Street was Cane & Grain, a New York style cocktail bar; two weeks ago the frontage was surrounded by scaffolding so I could only get partial shots of the shutters but now with its makeover complete and the scaffolding gone I could photograph the whole building.

The old Tib Street/Thomas Street substation had gained two new artworks to accompany the recent Tom Moore mural, and a few yards further along was a newly painted wall which I assumed had been commissioned by the Northern Soul Grilled Cheese place just across the street.

Artist – OskarwithaK

Artist – Qubek

Artist – Qubek

At the junction of Thomas Street and Hilton Street the shutter of Fresh Bites takeaway had undergone a makeover by Qubek while round the corner on Oldham Street another couple of shutters had new words painted on them. Up the road the lower part of Stevenson Square had been blocked off to traffic and had new artwork in several places; even the bollards, metal barriers and the lower parts of some of the lamp posts had been painted in wacky designs and bright colours.

Artist – LeiMai LeMaow

Artist – Folie ArtandDesign

Artist – Bukun Baldwin

Even the road has been painted

Flok wine bar, Stevenson Square

Most of the new artwork seemed to be concentrated in just a couple of small areas so once I’d found as much as I could I went walkabout round the side streets and alleyways to see what else I could find. Some of the alleyways were the type of places most people wouldn’t dream of going down but then you never know what you might miss if you don’t, and I actually did find a few things which I hadn’t seen before.

My wanderings had actually taken me away from the NQ for a while until I’d come full circle and ended up back on Thomas Street. That was where I took the last four shots of artwork on a series of hoardings surrounding a patch of disused land then I made my way back to the station for the train home; after four hours of constant walking it was time to relax for a while.