high rises

Manchester steel

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My camera stays at home during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, but here’s a photo walk I took before the restrictions.

There’s no shortage of new glass and steel buildings in Manchester and I love photographing them.

Deansgate Square is a cluster of high rises that dominates my low-rise canal basin neighbourhood of Castlefield. 

If you cross the usually busy Mancunian Way into neighbouring Hulme, there’s the outstanding Brooks Building on Manchester Metropolitan University’s campus. It’s a latticework that catches the light and has countless angles. Modern marvel or a blot on the landscape?…

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The future of Manchester

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After taking you a long way away, it’s back to my home city of Manchester and right in the backyard.

I’ve lived in the canalside area of Castlefield for three years now, and have been watching huge changes take place. 

A cluster of high rise blocks called Deansgate Square has sprung up and dominates the immediate skyline, overlooking the neighbourhood. One of the towers is now the city’s tallest building. On a clear, sunny day I went out to photograph them and the nearby Axis tower, another new addition.

This is the story of Manchester’s city centre, where several skyscrapers are being constructed and planned in an incredible flurry of prestige developments. ‘Manchattan’ here we come!

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A golden dusk settles on the buildings of Castlefield. Deansgate Square, on the right, was not there when I first arrived. Beetham Tower, on the left, was once the area’s only high rise and Manchester’s tallest building. The cranes are the site of another high rise construction, while out of shot another two towers are quickly taking shape. The skyline is undoubtedly changing.

High-end living

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London bristles with cranes. There is development everywhere. Quite often you find it’s for luxury residential developments, full of sharp angles, contemporary materials that ascend several floors. This clutch of new buildings are around the Thames, from the base of The Monument and across the river on the South Bank, in the shadow of The Shard along to Tate Modern, which is also currently being extended.

Throw in a lightly clouded blue sky and the odd passing helicopter, these can be very striking captures. And there are certainly a lot to choose from in this ever-growing town…

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Feline patternA little closer to the ground I found this stylish, feline-like cover on some doors to one of the South Bank’s luxury apartment blocks.

The Photo Shop

London City concrete

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A spark of inspiration from photographers Richard Cooper-Knight and Richard Guest led me to take a photographic walk around a London landmark previously uncharted by my camera.

The pair captured London’s Barbican in one of their regular collaborations, distilling its essence into an intriguing set of photographs. It’s a concrete housing estate with a high-rise element which was built in the 1960s and 70s. It lies in the heart of the city and is a prestigious address.

The Barbican is something of a maze and on the face of it far from beautiful. But as the two Richards found, it’s bristling with lines, curves and angles. Quite Unmissable for the photographer.

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Here are further high-rise posts:

Ode to the tower block

More joy of tower blocks

Dazzling desert towers

More joy of tower blocks

/ mikeosbornphoto / 4 Comments

In May last year I wrote a post about loving much maligned high rise housing here in London. It’s still regularly looked at and turns up in Google searches.

So I finally got round to venturing out and capturing more tower blocks, starting with my local examples. There is a quartet of residential high rise which line one side of Shepherds Bush Green and are unmistakable landmarks in the area. They may have seen better days, but I’m used to them. Seeing them means that home isn’t far away.

This small set also features a trio of much taller blocks at Latimer Road, in the foreground of this sunrise shot from November 2011. The scaffolding has since gone, revealing spruced-up, pristine facades for the buildings.

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Jumbled facade

And a quick trip back to summer and Walworth, south London. This tower block facade appears jumbled, chaotic and far from pretty. But it is bristling with life – satellite dishes, open windows, washing and curtains. This is human life and it doesn’t have to look uniform and pretty.

There are hundreds of tower blocks dotted around this big city, and I’d like to visit many and capture them – that’s quite a project…