Up in the air

28th May 2010

Senior Librarian Fergus Wilde recently took the opportunity to enjoy the view from a platform sixty feet above Chetham’s medieval buildings. The on-site arrival of a cherry picker for the essential inspection of guttering and roofs offered a photographic opportunity which proved impossible to resist.

The image above shows the quadrangle of the medieval building formed by the three-sided double cloister and the baronial hall. In the centre is the tiny cobbled yard known as Fox Court. Just behind the old buildings it is possible to see the Vallins Arts Centre, designed in the nineteenth century by Alfred Waterhouse.

This second shot shows the medieval buildings in the foreground, with the old steps descending down to the River Irk and the skylights set into the roof of the Priests’ Wing giving additional light to the Library. The car park in the middle distance is on the site of the old Exchange Station.

Here you are looking down on the cobbled street known as Walker’s Croft, underneath which runs the culverted River Irk. To the right of the picture you can see part of the construction works for the new building which will house Chetham’s School of Music.

This shot of the cathedral also shows the view along Deansgate, with the partially obscured residential building known as Number One Deansgate just behind the cathedral tower. Also on the skyline are the Town Hall and the glass dome of the Royal Exchange, as well as other landmarks both old and new.

All of the photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.