In this video presentation, we look at the First Street site on the south fringe of Manchester city centre. It's a prime example of a former industrial location being transformed into an area of residences and offices. I get to use a few of my photographs of the Hacienda and the railway viaduct, taken with my old fashioned film camera. We take a longer look at the old Hacienda building comparing it to the new. We look at the demolition and construction including the gigantic co-living complex named Square Garden. Finally we go to Tony Wilson Place and see how the Grand Island Building has completely transformed its appearance and setting. Finally I invite people for beverages in the bar at Home Manchester, the arts centre.

00:00 Introduction from Aidan on Whitworth Street West
00:35 Old and new Hacienda
02:35 Transformation of the Grand Island Building
03:18 Cambridge Street and Dunlop Building
04:29 Home Arches Whitworth Street West
05:15 Vision Manchster empty site awating construction
05:40 The 'strange glass building' demolished No1 City Road
06:30 Acer Tower and the Downing co-living complext Square Garden
09:25 India Rubber Building - a drawing from 1824 by Mr Witness
10:00 Tony Wilson Place and Home Manchester

Manchester History Net on the old No1 City Road
https://manchesterhistory.net/manches...

First Street South - Publicity pages by the architects
https://www.simpsonhaugh.com/projects...

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co....
https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/summ...
https://squaregardens.com/
https://www.robertson.co.uk/case-stud...

Dyalla - Organic Guitar House
Aakash Ghandi - Shake it
Sharp Edges - Half Cool
Rev - Eveningland

On the AidanEyewitness channel, I produce snapshots of the ongoing development of Manchester, Liverpool and connected cities, focusing especially on new construction, renovation and adaptation of heritage buildings, modern architecture in general, public transport infrastructure, future construction plans as well as questions of urban identity and the uniqueness of cities. I like to document the construction of buildings, taking images at regular intervals and mergin them into timelapse sequences.

I’ve been interested in architecture and city development since I was a child. I was doing projects on Manchester architecture in primary school. From 1997 to 2005 I produced my website Eyewitness in Manchester which documented the reconstructin of the city after the IRA bomb in photos and words. I’ve contributed photos and writing to books, magazines and newspapers. AidanEyewitness is the latest chapter, I dream of a big audience and lots of success, but there is still a long way to go! Please help me by liking, subscribing, sharing, commenting and providing some financial support, so I can fulfil my dream of producing AidanEyewitness full time.