Ski Club City Walk — November 2024

Reporter: Dave Taylor

As usual, our guide Ed was on top form leading us through the streets of Manchester showing us fine building examples from various historical architectural periods including Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Gothic, Italian, Venetian. Some had religious influences and ranged from the 1800s up-to the more modern post war decades of the 1950s 60s 70s 90s to our present day modest sky scrapers compared to the those currently being built in the Middle East.

Ed has a plethora of architectural knowledge and his tales and enthusiasm seemed to lean more in favour of the great Architects of yesteryear such as the brilliant architect Sir Christopher Wren, and the finery and indulgent architectural designs of the likes of the Free Trade Hall (1850s) with its timeless beauty of rich sandstone facade details compared to the modern equivalent of the Bridgewater Hall with its now rather dated 1990s facade of glass sandstone and metal cladding.

Ed also explained the importance of mathematics in architecture and the golden ratio where the proportion of a buildings height width and depth 1:1.6:0.6 provides the recipe for buildings with successful aesthetics.

It was another fascinating and enjoyable historical guided tour of our great city and a very enjoyable SCoM social.

Many thanks to Barry and Jonquil for organising and it was great to catch up with everyone there.