Dear readers — we hope you had a wonderful weekend, and that your sunburn is slowly converting to tan. We enjoyed reading through the 64 comments left under Ophira’s Saturday deep dive into the world of Trafford’s grammar schools, filled with backstabbing parents and extortionate private tutoring companies. The piece clearly struck a chord with many of you. Arguments went unmediated, old school friends were reunited, and we remain in the scrum of that commentary hoping to answer your questions. So, in case you haven’t yet, read the piece below and join the fray.
Ophira Gottlieb
But onto today’s briefing, which covers plans for a Manchester underground system, a new nature reserve in Salford and whether the Gallagher brothers are really getting along during their clutch of homecoming gigs at Heaton Park. Enjoy!
Catch up and coming up
- Last Thursday's edition featured us unravelling the mystery of the new owners of a 16-storey tower block in Trafford, Jack Dulhanty’s analysis of Andy Burnham’s new strategy and some good news from the Castlefield Viaduct sky park, which will double in size (hopefully) in time for next summer.
- Plus, we published a fascinating story about The Manchester Man, a 19th century novel that depicts a Manchester where the fancy houses are separated from the city by fields and Market Street was a “confused medley of shops and private houses”.
- Coming up this week, Jack Dulhanty on the remarkable story of how a team of University of Manchester researchers rediscovered Imet, an ancient city in Egypt.
- Plus, we have a wild story about the homeless sector that we cannot say much more about until it drops on Thursday morning. If you know about this story, get in touch.
🌦️ This week’s weather
Tuesday 🌧️ Cloudy and much fresher with heavy rain. Breezy. 18°C.
Wednesday ⛅️ Warmer and mostly dry with hazy intervals of sunshine. 22°C.
Thursday 🌦️ Warm with bright spells during the morning then cloudier with patchy light rain. 23°C.
Friday 🌦️ Mixed with sunny spells and scattered heavy showers. Feeling warm and muggy. 23°C.
Weekend 🌦️ Warm but mixed with showers or longer spells of rain. Temperatures in the low twenties.
Your briefing
🚆 The announcement of a planned Manchester Underground late last week seems to have taken much of the country by surprise. At the launch of the Greater Manchester Strategy, Andy Burnham set out plans for up to two routes, one running North-South and one running East-West, centred on an underground station at Piccadilly. But, if you’ve been paying attention, the case for an underground network has been coming together in front of our eyes for some time. TfGM’s Rapid Transit Strategy from last year rehearses the argument; Metrolink simply won’t be able to cope with many more passengers, and putting more trams on the city streets won’t fly (given the number of close calls with trams on our daily walks to the office over the years, we can sympathise with this). TfGM’s favoured solution is closer to London’s Elizabeth Line than an entirely new subterranean network. The idea would be to tunnel under congested city centre streets and link up with existing rail or tram lines, massively increasing frequency and volume And the draft strategy outlined two leading candidates – a Bolton/Wigan-Airport/Stockport route, and an Altrincham/Didsbury-Bury conversion of the existing Metrolink network. This is an idea with a long heritage. Longstanding Mill readers may remember a piece James Gilmour wrote back in 2023, looking at the 1970s proposal for a network running from Wilmslow to Bury, through a Piccadilly-Victoria underground tunnel. The project fell apart when the national government cut funding in a challenging fiscal environment. Better luck this time? Many European cities smaller than Manchester have underground networks, and cities like Madrid have delivered cut-price projects at pace. But can Manchester avoid the chronic delays, ballooning costs and constantly shifting scope that seems to plague major British infrastructure projects? City officials have been arguing for years that Metrolink demonstrates that locally-led delivery gets results; the complexity of underground development will put this to the test.
🎹 We haven’t heard much about The White Hotel since we reported last August that the much-loved music venue was under investigation by Salford Council’s planning enforcement team for being registered as a garage, which could undermine its ability to run as a nightclub. One council insider told us recently that it looked like the investigation had been dropped, after they asked a council officer what the latest was and received a shrug. However, a Salford Council spokesperson has now contradicted this impression, telling us: “The investigation remains open.”
📃 The MEN reports that Greater Manchester Police and Suffolk Constabulary are the only two forces in the country where officers do not carry naloxone, a nasal spray medication that can rapidly reverse opioid overdoses. Tom Morrison, Liberal Democrat MP for Cheadle, has written to GMP’s chief constable Stephen Watson and the GMCA’s deputy mayor Kate Green, who is in charge of policing, to urge them to reconsider. The MEN understands that politicians and senior officers will convene to discuss the issue later this year.
🍃 Greater Manchester has a new nature reserve. Risley, Holcroft and Chat Moss, an ancient wetland that spans 11 hectares across Salford, Warrington and Wigan, will be restored to provide homes for rare species like lapwings and curlews, after centuries of damage from drainage and peat cutting.
🎸 The Guardian reports that talks are in progress between Manchester City Council and the promoters of Live From Wythenshawe Park about dropping Irish hip-hop band Kneecap from the lineup over “safety concerns”. A Manchester City Council spokesperson confirmed that “regular discussions” are happening over whether the event on 15 August “can take place safely and effectively”.
👮 16 people were arrested in Manchester city centre on Saturday on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action, an activist group recently proscribed as a terrorist organisation. Georges Almond, 33, was among those arrested and has now been released on bail, and told The Mill: “I don’t want to live in a world where people can’t speak out about genocide or take action to prevent it.”
Quick hits
🔍 An international manhunt continues for Kasir Bashir, one of seven men convicted of the sexual exploitation of children last month. Days before the trial began in January, Bashir disappeared, and the MEN has revealed it is still not known whether he is in the UK or has left the country.
🎶 Popbitch reports that despite hopes that the Oasis reunion tour would be friendly and positive, the Gallagher brothers are now leaving in separate cars and the tour now has three separate tour managers.
🏗️ Plans for the third tallest building in the UK are expected to be approved by Salford Council on Thursday. The 273m tall tower is part of a scheme including 3,300 homes being built across ten buildings at Regent Retail Park, just on the border of Salford and Manchester City Centre.
🏠 A Manchester City Council team dedicated to bringing empty homes back into use has brought 276 properties that have been empty for six months or more back onto the market. The majority have now been sold or are being rented on the private market. Go deeper with this excellent investigation into empty homes by File on 4.
Home of the week
This three bed in Fallowfield has not one but two gardens, for £385,000.
Our favourite reads
Why many believe Andy Burnham can harness Manchester’s moment and be a better Prime Minister than Keir Starmer — The Independent
Could Andy Burnham’s “easy authenticity” make him a better Prime Minister than Sir Keir Starmer’s “stiff-necked” gloom? Commentator Sonia Sodha argues that his growing popularity as “King of the North” and big interventions in Greater Manchester have helped paint him as someone who can get stuff done. But the logistics of him finishing his third mayoral term, becoming an MP and there being a vacancy for a Labour prime minister all work against Burnham. Plus: he’d need the backing of MPs to launch a leadership bid, and his criticism of the government hasn't landed as well with them as it may have with voters. “He’s deeply unhelpful,” one sitting MP says.
Fenix review: ‘A large, brash cabaret of a thing — good for them’ — The Times
Critic Charlotte Ivers finds Fenix to be the kind of restaurant you’d expect to find in Mayfair, minus the snooty waiters and “guests constantly shouting into an iPhone”. The Greek spot open in the not-quite-finished St John neighbourhood (Soho House pending) exists in the “world of the Santorini super-rich,” with white stone, arched ceilings and an indoor olive tree. But how’s the food? Ivers’ verdict: Camp. A bit nonsensical, mostly Greek with random forays into Asian fusion before bringing you back for feta ice cream. Apparently, it’s easier to just not ask questions.
£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race — The Londoner
Our sister paper in London delves into the burgeoning battle between Rupert Murdoch and hedge fund manager Paul Marshall to wrest the control of the capital’s right-wing media. “There is an arms race going on,” one Murdoch employee says. “There is a lot of cash flying around.” Marshall, also a major Christian philanthropist, believes he has been called upon by God to try and take control of the political-media landscape while it remains in flux. But Murdoch, who has had an iron grip for decades, isn’t ready to let go yet. “They want to choose the next Tory leader. They want to oversee the Tory-Reform merger,” one person who has met both men says. “They want to be the power brokers.”
Our to do list
Tuesday
🍷The Commission for New & Old Art are back with a free American Harpsichord concert at Annihilation Eve. As per all of the Commission’s events we’ve recommended so far, there will be clog dancing.
🤔 And Manchester Art Gallery’s monthly philosophy café returns this week — for the ponderers among us.
Wednesday
⛏️ The Big Dig in Rochdale are running guided tours of their local archaeological sites. There are also opportunities to get hands on with the digging.
📚 And Harriet Constable is off to Serenity Booksellers in Romiley to discuss her new historical novel The Instrumentalist — which the Observer called “compelling, vividly described magic.”
Thursday
✏️ The John Rylands Library is hosting the live launch of the very first issue of The Aftershock Review — a brand new poetry magazine exploring trauma, survival, and literary transformation.
🎭 And it wouldn’t be a To-Do list without the compulsory MIF event. Germaine Kruip’s A Possibility at Factory International promises to merge illusion, sound and performance, creating infinite possibilities.
Got a To-Do that you’d like us to list? Tell us about it here.
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