Hydes Queen's Brewery, Moss Side Manchester, June 2013 [Permission visit]

[True_British_Metal]

Visited with a friend, CloakedUp and OJ. Apologies to Boba Low, Scrappy, Speed and Zero81 who were unable to make this visit.

Though few if any will agree about what I'm about to say, I count this among the best sites I've ever done. Certainly the best industrial site I've done behind Millennium Mills. Why? So many things; I knew this would be good, but this smashed expectations. Perhaps it's a culmination of just being there, embracing the atmosphere of the place (the ever-strong smell of yeast, for example) and (keep your mouths shut this isn't self glorification), it being 'uncharted' territory and not really knowing what lay inside. Stuff that you can't capture on a camera. But then as I've consistently banged on about in previous reports, it's the architecture of a place that I really dig above any level of natural decay or things left in situ. Not only was this fully kitted out and powered up, some of the original machinery from when it was built (or at least from a long time ago) remains in place. True, when the nearby Boddington's Brewery nearby was demolished in the 1990s, Hydes did take machinery and put it in here in place of the existing machinery but unlike say, Tetley's in Leeds or Courage in Reading (both now demolished) the Victorian architecture of the building remains, which really gives this place that 'magic' that makes it special. Not only that, this place had that a perfect combination; lovely architecture, machinery, power on, and that contrast between one area being immaculate and another being pretty grim and dirty.

I'd been planning this for ages, but thankfully I never attempted it without permission. On first look it doesn't really look like a fortress, but without going into details here had I tried it before I knew it could be done with permission it would have been disastrous. So I got a date down, but since it was done on a whim it wasn't planned too well; none of the tenants/contractors knew we were supposed to be there, so it took an hour before anyone turned up to let us in. Still, good things come to those who wait eh? Make your mind up, here's the pics.

On a final note, I think it's fair to say that if you can do something as brilliant as this, to say all permission visits are rubbish is a bit narrow minded. But each to their own, I s'pose. If you'd like to visit this place, then get in touch and I'll pass on the details for the man in charge. Although just to say, he can't do weekends unfortunately. It's well worth a visit, so get down there whilst you can as this might not be around in its current state for long!

Yours as always,

TBM x

[ROYALBOB]

Nice pics

[fenrir]

Stunning!

[scrappy]

great set, shame i couldnt make it!