Castlefield - my walk into the city centre

This is St George's Island, a relatively new development by Dandara (a large mixed use property developer). St George's Island is made of five blocks of modern apartments (which kinda remind me of new HDB flats but no fear, there's nothing wrong with HDB flats and I love my flat very much. This is where I live, and for me the three biggest selling points of the apartment are:

1. The new-ness. No faulty windows or creaky floors. No cracked tiles or funny boilers.
2. The balcony which is accessible from all rooms within the flat through floor to ceiling sliding glass door-windows. Lots of sunlight and amazing to sit outside and just chill (or do pilates, sunbathe whatever - the balcony is massive compared to a lot of space-starved city centre apartments).
3. The proximity to the city centre without actually being in the city centre. I walk to work every day and it takes me about 20 minutes of leisurely walking. No buses shifting up and down the roads on the ground floor driving you nuts

So let me take you through my daily walk to work. Sorry I didn't get to take very many photos and the ones I did take didn't do very much to document the whole trip, and certainly not the excellent bars we have along the canal! I'll update this one when I get a chance to take more photos. Castlefield is extremely picturesque and so even for a photography noob like me, it's still pretty easy to capture good photos.


Geese and the canal. Yes we are inundated with geese and I have a love/hate relationship with these birds. They are pretty to look at but boy are they aggressive when you have (food) shopping bags in your hands. These geese have been completely urbanised and the sound of a rustling Sainsbury's plastic bag means food to them. The white bridge leads to the other side of the canal, a shortcut to Dukes 92, the Museum of Science and Industry, the White Lion and many other Castlefield gems. But we're keeping to this side of the canal to get to Deansgate station and beyond... into the city centre.


There are plenty of narrowboats going up and down the canal or just parked (docked?) at the sides of the canal. I often get the smell of woodfires as I walk to work, especially on a frosty winter's morning. Woodfires will always remind me of my little flat now. This dog is always around, s/he's really mellow and chilled out, and he loves lazing in the sun. Sometimes the boatowners put out knitted baby jumpers, pottery and other bits and bobs that they've made to sell to passers-by.


This is one of my favourite boats. It's definitely more modern than the others and looks out of place but there's something very cool about it. I love the nautical colours (blue and white). If you look beyond and into the background, behind the trees on the left, that's where the exit into the real Manchester city centre is. You go under a bridge (a motorway runs above it) and I always think of this exit point as being similar to the wardrobe in Narnia. Two different worlds, one bustly and concrete and the other chilled out and peaceful. I love Castlefield!