You've Been Thinking About Manchester All Wrong

In Manchester, industrialisation rubs shoulders with Shaun Ryder while Marx nips out for a Northern Quarter cocktail with Tony Wilson. It is, perhaps, that blend of rigour and hedonism that makes it such a fascinating place.

Two men who understand the appeal of Manchester more than most are Jack Hale and Eddy Rhead, the creative forces behind The Modernist, a publication dedicated to examining all things, well, modernist. It was borne out of the Manchester Modernist Society, a group founded by Hale and his artist friend Maureen Ward. What began as a humble picnic shared between a few architectural aficionados soon became a city-wide series of events, with an impeccably designed magazine to boot.

The Modernist has a defiantly international approach, but at heart it remains the work of a city-specific group of individuals who stick two fingers up at the grim forces of urban regeneration. With that in mind, we spoke to Jack and Eddy about the magazine and Manchester.

VICE: Can you tell us a little about the genesis of the Modernist Society? What were the early aims of the group, and how did it build up a following in Manchester and the surrounding area?
Jack Hale: During a conversation with an artist/writer friend, Maureen Ward, we were lamenting the lack of love being given to the many 20th century buildings in the city, as compared to that given to the industrial and Victorian heritage. We were both from an arts background and thought we could do something about this, maybe some arts commissions or "happenings" to raise attention to these buildings and the important story of social and technological progress that went alongside them. We became the Manchester Modernist Society there and then, soon joined by Eddy, who knew a bit more about the architectural history than we did. We set up a Facebook group and decided to have a picnic. Thirty strangers turned up, so we knew there was an appetite for this stuff. We decided to try and host some sort of event every month and showed archive films in cafes, did walks and rambles around the city, and the following grew and grew.

Did a magazine seem like a natural progression after the creation of the Society?
Eddy Rhead: It didn't to me. I'd always wanted to do a magazine, but when the idea was floated so soon after we started the Society I was sceptical, to say the least. It was around the time that it was claimed that "print is dead", and I thought it was a bonkers idea. Six years on we're still going. We're never going to be mainstream or make any money out of it, but we'll keep doing it as long as people keep contributing articles and people keep buying it.

Where should we head for a Modernist experience in Manchester?
Eddy: Manchester isn't perhaps many people's idea of a "modern" city, but if you peel back the layers there is Modernity in virtually every period of our history. We have been at the forefront of virtually every important epoch in the last 200 years. I can show you where the world's first railway station was, where the Communist Manifesto was written, where the first computer was built, where the atom was split for the first time, where acid house was born and where graphene was invented. From an architectural point of view, though, I'd send you to the former UMIST campus. One of the principal architects of the campus had been inspired by Oscar Niemeyer's Brasilia and brought a little bit of that bright white Modernism to dreary Manchester.
Jack: I'd send you to the Royal Exchange Theatre, a bit of 1970s high tech modernism that resembles a moon-lander hidden inside a grand Edwardian produce exchange. The Toast Rack, a former college built in the late-1950s, is always a favourite. Oxford Road Station, a 1960s railway station made entirely of wood but resembling a mini Sydney Opera House, is good – but for a pure 1960s concrete fest you need to go to Piccadilly Plaza, a "mega-structure" combining a hotel, shopping and what is still one of the tallest office buildings in Manchester – a properly exciting building that make you look up and go, "Ooh!"

Are you life-long residents of Manchester?
Eddy: I was born in Macclesfield and grew up in Handforth, which is the first place you come to as you cross the border into Cheshire. I'm a classic suburban kid who was drawn into the city by the promise of hedonism – The Hacienda, in my case. I've lived in Salford and Manchester all my adult life.

Manchester is a cruel mistress sometimes. It delights and frustrates in equal measures. Just when I'm getting pissed off with it something will happen which makes me fall back in love with it, and that could be something as simple as evening sunshine catching a building in a way. It's a huge cliché, but it's probably the people that make it so beguiling. We can be a cynical and sarcastic bunch most of the time, but there is always a lot of positivity and creativity happening, and people just getting on and doing stuff. We rarely wait for an opportunity to pass us by. People just get on and do it.

Jack: I was born in nearby St. Helens and so have a life-long relationship to the industrial north. After studying in London, I've spent all my adult life in Manchester and Salford. There is a vibrant cultural scene in Manchester, which I like, but I've always felt that the big cities like Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham deserve to develop so much more. The economic and cultural imbalance of the country is deeply unhealthy, but these cities should offer an interesting alternative to the South East.

The city obviously has an incredible industrial, artistic and cultural history, but like everywhere else in the UK it seems to be being smoothed out, transmuted into a ready-made mini-London. Is that a fair assessment, and are there still pockets of the city that are rejecting those changes?
Eddy: There is an element of that, but I resent the "mini London" idea. We never look to London for how we should be heading. Not in the circles I mix in, at least. I mean, we obviously don't represent the entire cultural and economic make-up of Manchester, but in the creative community – which I like to think we're part of – we are very determined not to have corners smoothed out. I think our city leaders, property developers and corporate organisations would love to turn our city into a mini Canary Wharf, and they are doing a pretty good job in places, but there are enough people in the city with enough strong opinions to allow that never to happen.

I know that Eddy, you've been a vocal opponent of the proposed Giggs and Neville scheme at St Michael's. Are there effective ways for citizens to fight back against councils when it comes to these kind of plans?
Eddy: We set up the Modernist Society partly as a reaction to changes in the city we didn't like. Much of what we do is about a sense of place, and we feel that Manchester is losing that sense of place. The best cities are the ones with entropy and diversity. I don't dislike modern architecture. I'm not a preservationist. I understand cities need to grow and build, but I just want the best for our city, and most of the time what is on offer just isn't good enough. We are falling behind other world cities in terms of quality of architecture, quality of life and place making. The art of town planning has been lost and developments are market-led and piecemeal. There is no sense that our city is being improved for all its citizens. We have a huge wealth gap in this city, and while the city centre seems to be prospering it hides great inequality. Mancunians will not stand for that. I think Manchester will retain a lot of its character, but that will be thanks to its people and not thanks to this current architectural period.

@Bain3z