Manchester Museum

Well we had typical Bank Holiday weather here for the weekend, rain. After being stuck in doors for most of it we wanted at least one day out and opted for a day at Manchester Museum. So back to Manchester, twice in less than a week. As long as the traffic isn't bad it only takes about 30 minutes to drive there.

The admission is free and we managed to find a car park near by which cost £2 for the full day (much better price than last time). The museum was quite busy and I expect most people like us wanted to find an indoor activity due to the weather.

Dinosaurs were what Little L was most looking forward to seeing.

The T Rex is named Stan.

She was also impressed by the mummies in the Ancient Egypt collection. I don't think she could have got any closer to them when she was peering in to the cases.

The zoology collection was massive and houses one of the largest shell collections in the UK. 

Another thing Little L wanted to see after we had been reading about the museum was Maude the Tigon. Her father was a tiger and her mother a lion. She lived at Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester until 1949. When she died the skin was preserved and given to the museum. The skin was only mounted and displayed in the museum in 2015. Until I read about Maude I'd never heard of a Tigon and thought they was called Ligers. I also never knew that there used to be a zoo in Manchester (it closed in 1977)

These are just a few of the collections that we saw. It was a great day out and I think we are quite lucky that Little L finds this kind of thing interesting. 

The journey home was a bit of a nightmare. There was a big game on at the Old Trafford football ground. It wasn't so much that the traffic was bad, it was that grown men think they can waltz out in to the road straight on front of your car all because of a bleedin football match.

Anyway on the drive I managed to snap a photo of this Art Deco cinema in Stretford. The traffic lights changed to red just as we approached it so I quickly wound the window down and took a snap.

Art Deco Architecture

Yesterday we took a quick drive out to Sale so Anders could pick up a new guitar amp. Luckily I had put my camera in the car because we spotted some lovely Art Deco buildings on the way and stopped on the journey home to take some pics.

The first building we looked at was the Mecca bingo hall. Originally it was a Lido and the pool used to be covered to use as a dance floor.

The next building, The Pyramid Theatre opened in 1934. Since opening it has been an Odeon cinema, a nightclub and a fitness centre. I loved this building. Even through the garish paint you could still see hidden details. I found a lot of information about the theatre's design here.

Sourced From Cinema Treasures

While searching the internet about this building I found this old photo. Doesn't it look fabulous? ... it reminds me of old Hollywood films

I haven't found out what has been happening to the building after 2013. Looking at the dust it clearly hasn't been used for quite some time though. The main door was left gaping open and after popping my head inside for a quick nosey I saw that the next set of doors were also open. Little L was all for going inside to explore but there was no chance of that. Who knows who was inside there. I hope that whoever is in possession of the theatre sorts out the security before the interior gets vandalised.

So far I have not been able to find out anything about this building at all on the internet. Nothing at all, not even an old photograph. 

Just around the corner from the unknown building I spotted this detail above some shops.
What started off as what I thought to be a mundane trip turned out to be a great afternoon after all.

A Day In Morecambe

Yesterday Anders and myself spent a day in Morecambe. I hadn't been since I was around eight years old and it was some where Anders had never visited before. Due to my love of art deco buildings the main reason for our trip was for me to see the Midland Hotel.

I loved the seahorses and curved frontage above the main entrance of the hotel.

We found many more art deco buildings while walking around. I don't think I have seen so many in one location.

One of my favourites was this old Odeon cinema.

Walking along the seafront I spied this bookshop so had to cross the road and go in for a quick look.

I've never been in a bookshop so jam packed before, I didn't know where to begin looking. It was quite busy with people browsing.

We got talking to the owner and I mentioned the art deco buildings that we had seen. He told us that there was a boom in art deco building in Morecambe due to new rail travel links at the time. He also mentioned some buildings for us to keep our eyes open for. It was very nice of him to spend his time talking to us.

Walking along the seafront again we headed in the opposite direction towards the remains of Frontier Land. When I visited as a child I think it would have been called Morecambe Pleasure Park.

After the obligatory seaside bag of chips which Anders declared to be the best he'd ever tasted it was time for us to head home. We had a great day, lovely weather even getting a bit of a sun tan. Morecambe is definitely somewhere we will return to again.