Manchester

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New Islington, New East Manchester - and a new book

Manchester photographer Len Grant has spent the best part of a decade documenting the transformation of Manchester's notorious Cardroom Estate into the shiny New Islington

Len Grant is clearly a man who never sleeps. The renowned Manchester photographer has spent the best part of a decade attired in hard hat and hi-visibility vest in his quest to document the city’s renaissance, and his images have immortalised everything from the post-bomb rebuild of the city centre to the closure of City’s Maine Road stadium. Grant’s latest publication ‘From the Ground Up: New Islington 2001-2007’ follows a similar path, this time documenting the transformation of the notorious Cardroom Estate into the scrubbed-up and shiny New Islington – a 29-acre site a few minutes’ walk east of the city centre and which is characterised by new waterways and clever architecture from the likes of Will Alsop and Urban Splash.

 

Grant’s book is a labour of love as much as a serious tome: he has been on site, interviewing residents, architects and council workers, since 2001, and the resulting publication captures the gritty reality of what it takes to turn a sink estate into a viable, attractive ‘millennium community’. Where Grant excels is his ability to get people to open up, both to camera and to tape recorder, and it’s this that makes 'From the Ground Up' a compelling and, at times, brutally honest account of the ongoing attempts to resuscitate Ancoats.

 

From the Ground Up: New Islington 2001-2007 Published by Len Grant Photography and distributed by Cornerhouse Publications (www.cornerhouse.org/books ). £13.

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