Today, we went up to the site again to find out what the general consensus of where the Cheetham Hill boundary was. We had printed maps and we were going to ask people to mark on where they thought the Cheetham Hill boundary was.
We started at The Fort and tried asking people if they had a couple of minutes to answer out questions. While we did get a couple of answers, the majority of people we asked clearly didn't want to talk to us.
We had to try a different approach.
Rather than asking people, pen and paper in hand, if they had a couple of minutes. I suggested we went for the 'lost person' approach. We began asking people if we were in Cheetham Hill and if not, where it was. People were more open to helping us and extended the conversation by asking us where we were trying to get to exactly.
Once we had the information we needed, we then simply marked it on the maps ourselves. It was interesting to see that people in the industrial estate considered themselves to be part of Cheetham Hill although they acknowledged that the main town was further north.
As we approached Strangeways and the Prison, people did begin to seem unsure as to whether they were in Cheetham Hill or not.
Some people didn't seem to understand our question and pointed us in the direction of Cheetham Hill Road.
Monday saw us back on site, this time to take a closer look at the area we were assigned and to take our street panoramic.
The area we were assigned was to the very south of Cheetham Hill, around the prison. Wandering around, it had a very different feel to that of the rest of Cheetham Hill. There was a distinct lack of activity, whether pedestrian or vehicular. The majority of the area is made up of wholesalers and warehouses, mainly in the textile industry. Any activity that was going on was between proprietor and business owner; selling on goods. It seemed to be an area that excluded the public and there was very little, if any, sense of community.
The only 'community' orientated area was to the north, closer to what was more considered to be Cheetham Hill. It seemed to become more residential although the only residences in the area was a gated community that was shut off from its immediate surroundings. The park, while being adjacent to a primary school was empty and there were very few people just walking thought the area.
It was entirely different to the hustle and bustle of what I want to call the 'town centre' and it made us question whether our area was actually considered to be part of Cheetham Hill.
I went to site for the first time the day after studio to get a feel for the area and maybe gather some ideas.
I started by taking the bus to Victoria Station and then I planned to walk the remainder of the way up to Cheetham Hill. I briefly looked at the map before I left and saw that Cheetham Hill Road started near the train station so it was pretty straightforward to get there. However, so does Great Ducie Street and this was the one I started up in an attempt to get to Cheetham Hill. Luckily I realised my mistake before I had gone too far and found a route to Cheetham Hill Road with as fewer turns as possible.
My route took me straight around the Strangeways Prison perimeter. I had already walked past the prison en route but it was one thing to walk past along a main road and another to walk past along quiet back roads. There were no cars, except those parked outside the brick warehouses and I passed only a couple of people. The high walls of the prison were unsurprisingly intimidating and the quietness of the surrounding streets really made me want to move on as quickly as possible to Cheetham Hill Road. There was very little activity along the surrounding roads and there was not much sign that they buildings were inhabited, particularly on the side facing the prison.
Despite being late morning, when I reached Cheetham Hill Road, there was very little pedestrian activity on the street although there was plenty of traffic in the way of buses, cars and lorries. The activity seemed to increase as I approached The Manchester Fort and headed further into Cheetham Hill. The section of the road I walked along before I reached The Fort seemed to be more of a transitory space rather than part of the Cheetham Hill territory, a bit of a no-man's land between the city centre and Cheetham Hill.
The amount of activity increased further as I headed up the road. Along with houses, there were more shops, restaurants and community buildings such as mosques and job centres. There were more people out and about in the streets, many of them shopping. There were lots of small supermarkets that spilled out onto the pavement creating small markets.
Once I reached the library, I turned around and headed back to the city. This time I managed to stay on the right road!
