Hot tuner

My thoughts have been far from the blog for quite a while now: snowed under by life, work, the whole deal. High time I galvanised myself before the onset of some seasonal disorder.

So I was a bit tickled to get an email from Levenshulme stalwart and good friend Bill, one that I guess I'd have to file under "Misc. - Levenshulme characters."

ps. Last night I had an emergency phone call from Daniel Craig!!! ~ (without the Bond girls..)
It led me to go to a club under Piccadilly arches to tune an electric '70's piano for
Jack Penate, Hot Tune & Paul Epworth (Phones). Heard of any of them? (I'd not!!)

Actually, I hadn't heard of them either, but that's not surprising, I'm too busy keeping track of the characters in the Green Balloon Club and the names of all the Chuggington trains.

But isn't it reassuring to know that Levenshulme has at least one resident piano tuner, prepared to drop his cheese toastie and head to an ailing Fender Rhodes with only minutes to go until curtain-up? Email your own examples of Levenshulme's curious trades to lovelevenshulme@gmail.com

ps. I did wonder whether it was a wind-up, like sending an apprentice for a left-handed screwdriver. Particularly given that Bill did used to send me photos of cats and dogs dressed as firefighters or pulling sunflower babies in carts or different species mothering each other (like the one where the great white shark is nuzzling up to the ant and just nurturing it and you really don't expect to see that kind of trans-specific maternal care going on in the animal kingdom) and if you don't forward it to everyone you're warned that you're stopping the love going round and how could you live with yourself for having prevented your friends from seeing an armadillo that has taken it upon itself to raise a dozen abandoned wolfcubs and it's doing so in sepia, shame on you. But I googled it and it seems to be true. So we can sleep a little easier now.

Hallowe'en Haunted Happening

This just in from Elaine Acton, the Secretary of the Four Avenues Residents Association:

Four Avenues Residents Association and the Friends of Highfield Country Park present:

"Hallowe'en Haunted Happening" on Saturday 31st October from 5.30pm. Meet at the top of Broom Avenue near to the entrance of Highfield Country Park. There will be a Fancy Dress competition, a Creepy Crawl around Highfield Country Park (it may be muddy, so dress appropriately), 'angin' apples, spooky dip, Howling Haunted Disco, lots of (trick or) treats for the children. All free!! A food van will also be available (food will have to be paid for).

This event is funded by Grass Roots, Greater Manchester Community Foundation and Levenshulme Festival.

Cozzy Fan Tutte

Is it just me, or is the water temperature at the Levenshulme swimming baths lower since the showers and toilets were fixed? My youngster was turning purple after ten minutes and I had to whisk him out pronto.

Anyway, it reminded me that the Friends of Levenshulme are keeping up the pressure on the Council to improve facilities there (maybe that includes fixing the thermostat?!) Here's the info:

Dear All

After a lovely summer break it is time for the Levy Baths Protest! Your one opportunity to make a substantial difference to the condition of Levy Baths is this Saturday 5th September, at 2 p.m outside Levy Baths. Wear your swimming gear! (This is not compulsory, just bring a towel, or a bath toy if possible).

Many Thanks,
Friends of Levenshulme

Outdoor gyms: what do you reckon?

I've had an email from Emily about outdoor gyms...

Hey Matt,

I've recently come across a company called 'the great outdoor gym company'. They create free outdoor gyms in parks for residents to use wthout having to pay the expensive gym membership fees. They are amazing (and more importantly very robust for all our naughty vandals). They would be such a good resource for our parks in Levenshulme. Sadly it seems its just the southern councils that have invested in them.

But with the government's new proposals to get the nation fit, surely there is funding available to get our local parks fitted with these amazing gyms?? Lets hope so, a friendly email to EastAreaParks@manchester.gov.uk might help.

Emily

Well, there's certainly one over the border in Shaw Heath, and I was chatting to a Levenshulme chap who looks after the parks in Stockport and he said it's still working, give or take the odd wobbly bolt, so perhaps we could get one round here. Where should it go?

Blackpool rock and roll

There's a wonderful sense of determination when a bunch of Levenshulme Mums decide to head to our nearest stretch of sand. Thirteen adults and eighteen children WILL get to the sea, by any means necesarry. I was the sheepish dad-in-tow, rucksack front and rear, coping very badly indeed with a bout of claustrophobia as we got on a train at Picadilly that needed one of those nice little men in gloves who wedge the commuters into the Japanase underground. (It's all due to a near-death experience at the Monsters of Rock festival in 1988, and it all came flooding back.) But Levenshulme Mum just hands out the apple rings and rice snacks and before you know it Phil and Teds are arranged in corridors and toddlers are sitting nicely, leaning against the automatic toilet door and chatting to their pals. And then it strikes me: to the under fives, the train is just a carpet on the move.

I'd never been to Blackpool before. I'm in no rush to get back, but there's something approaching the spirit of Dunkirk about getting a caravan of buggies and toddlers back to the station, via the fish and chip shop, in time to, well, invade 1st Class because yet again there aren't enough seats to go round. It was worth it for the camaraderie alone: back on Albert Road I was hugging mums that I felt warranted a medal for coping so admirably with children born particularly close together or with fiendishly complicated prams.

All in a day's work, they shrugged. Levenshulme Mum, we salute you.

Hot Hot Hot in Levy

This just in from Hugh Peters:

Attention Citizens of Levenshulme M19

Live and Direct Fri Aug 7th at KLONDYKE BOWLING CLUB AND PLEASURE DOME (on Burnage range off Albert Road)

the amazing local reggae act TREVORS ROOTS AND THE GENERAL

and Levenshulme's own Township Jazz Band THE SARGASSO TOWNSHIP BAND

8.30 pm £5 on the door for a full night of sunshine reggae and tropical grooves

The Big Lunch & other community events this weekend

It's about time I gave a mention to all those folks who have the gumption to get together with their neighbours, spread wide the picnic blanket of civic friendship and, sandwich by sandwich, Pringle by Pringle, sudden downpour by sudden downpour, add a few extra flanges and sidebrackets to the great big gazebo that is the People's Republic of Levenshulme.

This coming weekend there's a handful of local community events under The Big Lunch banner.

Imagine a summer's day on which millions of us, throughout the UK, sit down to have lunch together, with our neighbours in the middle of our streets, around our tower blocks and on every patch of common ground. The food, entertainment and decorations we will have either grown, cooked, or created ourselves. This will be a day to break bread with our neighbours, to put a smile on Britain's face. [The Big Lunch website.]

There are Big Lunch events on Tonbridge/Bowler/Watts Street on Saturday (lunchtime, I guess...), and then on Sunday from 1pm at the Green Triangle (behind Levenshulme Baptist Church on Elmsworth Avenue), and also at Fernleigh Avenue and Osborne Road.

Big lovelevenshulme respect to everyone who gets stuck in with organising and clearing up.

And for the record, the Big Lunches follow hard on the heels of a whole spate of Neighbours events back in May and June, so a big hand to everyone involved in everything from sunflower planting to birdbox building in and around (roll call!): Broom Avenue , Belvoir Avenue, Rodney Fields, Lansdowne Community Garden (Broom Avenue/Ventnor Avenue), Tonbridge, Watts and Bowler Street and Delamere Road.

Finally, a heads up for the latest in a series of open days at the Tonbridge Road Community Allotment (I blogged about the Spring Fair a few months back and took a few photos...). They're calling it Sunshine and Vegetables and it's also this Sunday 19 July from 1-4pm. Tons of stuff going on.

Now, confession time: I'm not actually around in Levenshulme for any of the cool community stuff on Sunday, so if anyone takes any photos or fancies doing a write-up, just email them to lovelevenshulme@gmail.com and I'll make sure they're posted up here pronto.

Matt Clements

We are Family

You'll maybe remember the Art in the Park workshops in Highfield Country Park back in April (check out the blog here for photos), and the Fallowfield Loop sculpture project. Well, Rachel Ramchurn's putting her chainsaw and sander away for the evening to host the unveiling of the finished sculptures. Here's her press release:

The Friends of the Fallowfield Loop invite you to the unveiling of ‘The Family’ By Sculptor Rachel Ramchurn on Thursday 2nd July 2009, at 6pm, with refreshments

Meeting on the Fallowfield Loop near the Lattice Bridge (nearest entrance Crayfield Road, continue under Broom Lane) Levenshulme M19 2UP

Rachel was inspired to create a family unit after noticing a young family enjoy a walk along the Loop. The sculptures were completed to a very strict deadline as Rachel needed to carry out the crucial chainsaw carving before her pregnancy got in the way! Now in her final trimester, Rachel is delighted to have completed ‘The Family’ before her own family begins.

The three sculptures are abstract with a hint of the figurative. The Father is angular, sturdy and strong, The Mother is curvaceous, soft, rounded and smooth, the child is an amalgamation of mother and father, a large mouth expressing pleasure at the world.

The Friends of Fallowfield Loop have been funded by the National Lottery through Awards for All for Local Artist Rachel Ramchurn to create this series of public sculptures for the Fallowfield Loop in Levenshulme.















For more information:
Please contact Rachel Ramchurn on 079606 13786 or email rachelclementine@gmail.com. For information about Friends of the Fallowfield Loop please contact Dick Venes on 0161 224 3843 or check out: www.cycle-routes.org/fallowfieldloopline.

The Fallowfield Loop sculpture Project has been devised and led by Local Artist Rachel Ramchurn with generous support from Friends of the Fallowfield Loop and Sustrans. Funded by the National Lottery through Awards for All.

Local author publishes second (Yorkshire) novel in German!?!

Well, they continue to make contact, those authors with Levenshulme connections. This time it's Clare Sudbery. Anyone else out there? Come on, don't hide your literary light under your bushel...

Hello!

I'm a fellow Levenshulmite, and I confess I've seen your postcards in local shops for a while now but only just got round to visiting your site. I've lived in Levenshulme (well all right then, I'm technically in Longsight, but only just over the border - the Levenshulme side of Crowcroft Park - so do all my shopping / doctoring / general-service-using in Levenshulme) for twenty years now and I doubt I'll ever leave. I've had some strange reactions over the years from Cheshire-dwelling urban-phobics, but I think Levenshulme is marvellously diverse, friendly and useful.

After reading your post from Steve Woods, I thought I may as well add myself to the Levenshulme Literati. My first novel, which was published in 2004, was set in Levenshulme - as is my third (but I'm still writing that one). My second was set in Hebden Bridge but weirdly has only been published in Germany (translated into German).

But anyway, my first was called The Dying of Delight, and is about two women whose lives are connected by a mysterious event which happened during the solar eclipse of 1999. There's also a dead body in a Levenshulme cellar, but you need to read the book to find out whose it is. There are more details available at thedyingofdelight.co.uk, where people can also buy copies.

It's a lovely little blog - keep up the good work.

Cheers
Clare Sudbery (www.claresudbery.co.uk)

Manchester Libraries facebook

Our friends at the Levenshulme Library have posted a bit about our neck of the woods on the Manchester Library Services' facebook page. Apparently "there are over 77 Facebook groups with over 6000 members" with Levenshulme as a focus. There's a whopping 750+ people signed up to Levenshulme Manchester, M19 means something to me... so I'd better add it to my blogroll pronto...

Time for a dip

I have to admit it's been a while since we went to the Levenshulme Pool, but I've been galvanised into action (well, I will be on Saturday) by this email from Emma Herrero:

Hello all

I went to the Levenshulme swimming pools on Monday to happily discover that finally they are investing in the building (after a hard campaign from the neighbours to avoid their final closure...)!!

After our swimming session , I spoke with the person in charge and she was proudly glad to inform us that they have managed to get some funding and things are getting done!

Also she told us about the variety of new work out classes (as below listed) and that the membership price has been dropped from £30 to...£18!! Furthermore you don't need to sign a contract or monthly direct debit...just to pay for the month you fancy going and that is all...how many times do we see something improved and getting cheaper!!

With those £18 you get access to the pools, gym and classes. Pass it on please...

Monday 7.30-9.30pm yoga
Tuesday 6.30-7.30pm circuit
Wednesday 8.00-9.00pm aqua
Thursday 6.30-7.30pm boxercise
Friday 6.30-7.30pm circuit

Emma


Update: since I posted this, the Swimming Baths featured in the South Manchester Reporter. I can't make a link to the online version, but it's fair to say that there's still some campaigning to be done to make sure that the £200,000 isn't just a drop in the ocean. Check out the petition that the Friends of Levenshulme have set up at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Levenshulme_baths

Off-shoots in Old Trafford

I guess I've always hoped the lovelevenshulme postcard idea would be simple enough for it to be reproduced wherever people wanted to reach out and make connections with their community. I mean, just work out where you live, put "love" in front of it, and you're off. So I was hugely chuffed when I got an email from Ally Fogg, co-ordinating editor of the Old Trafford News:

Hi there "Love Levenshulme"

I thought it would be polite to let you know that way over here in Old Trafford, we have shamelessly pinched the original idea of Love Levenshulme postcards, and are getting some postcards printed that say "It's a better place to be, thanks to you."

Your "crazy little grassroots community appreciation project" is inspired and inspirational, and this is what it has inspired us to do!

We'll be putting a little piece in our next community magazine, Old Trafford News, and we'll pay due credit to you for the idea and mention your blog.

Kind regards, and well done for helping make Levenshulme a great place to live!

Ally












Which reminds me, if you live a bit further along the A6 in Longsight, there's a LoveLongsight postcard and blog project that's now up and running, thanks to Susannah Townsend.

Cue images of dandelion clocks, seeds scattering in the summer sunshine (hmm, must stop watching that new advert for the Co-op...)

A place called Friendly

There's a bit of a theme emerging in recent weeks... people with Levenshulme connections, while not exactly pining for their old stamping grounds, certainly googling for old times' sake. Take this email for Chris:

Just a quick note to say hello. I lived in Levenshulme for 6 years when I moved to Manchester in my mid 20's. This site brought back some happy memories - I loved my time in Manchester's most underrated southern suburb and would never had left had it not been for the woman I'm about to marry.

Please keep up the good work (but don't shout too loudly about That Cafe - we wouldn't want the Didsburyites finding out about it and claiming it for their own, would we?).

Chris
(Now in a place called Friendly just over the border in Yorkshire. Sorry.)

Now, Chris, there's no need to apologise about having moved to the People's Republic. And even if there were, it'd all be water under the bridge once the place name "Friendly" was revealed. Surely there's an independent road movie just yearning to be made with a title along the lines of Postcards from a Place Called Friendly.

And on a That Café note, I have to disagree (ever so politely): I want to shout from the rooftops about just how fantastic the food is! I'd rather the place be packed every night with the world and his aunt than keep it all hushed and under wraps.

Levenshulme Literati

Here's an email I got from an author with Levenshulme connections:

Hi

When I 'googled' Levenshulme recently I wasn't quite sure what I'd find (if anything). I certainly never expected anything like lovelevenshulme.com. What a wonderful, feelgood site for the 21st century. Well done to whoever created it.

I thought you might like to know about a book I've written. It's called 'The Angels of Mona Terrace' and it's set partly in Levenshulme. To quote the blurb on the back cover: "Set in the era of black and white TVs and the Blue Peter time capsule, this book thrusts us back into the grittiness of 1970s childhood in the backstreets of Manchester." You can find out more at www.stevewoodbooks.co.uk where you can also see my mini tribute to good old Levenshulme. I've also linked to lovelevenshulme.com - hope that's okay.

Bye for now. Steve Wood

So, what do you love about Levenshulme? (Episode 1)

In between spending time at the outdoor art thing at Highfield Country Park and the Spring Fair at the Tonbridge Road Community Allotment on Sunday afternoon, I got asking people about what they love about Levenshulme, and thought I might stitch a few of the video clips together every now and then. So here's a very brief Episode 1, just to check it works OK...

The Good Life

We used to have an allotment on the Tonbridge Road site, before it got a bit too much to tackle when our own little "nursery" got established. I guess Miriam was a few months old when we decided to transplant the leeks into our own back garden and abandon the War of the Weeds. We were sad to give it up, though, because for the previous two years it'd been a great place to burn off energy, get some fresh air, improvise fences and, occasionally, grow something to eat.

So I'm mighty chuffed to know that the Levenshulme Community Allotment Project is still ploughing ahead and providing local people with a chance to get back to the land (without the massive time commitment in getting a plot started and keeping it running). Like on Saturday afternoons between 2pm and 4pm when folk can just rock up and get stuck in. (See photos in the gallery below right).

And there's even a Spring Fair this Sunday (5 April) between 1pm and 4pm. You can get in touch with the wonderful Ruth Jacobson (ruthjacobson@o2.co.uk) for more information. Looks like there'll be plenty of stuff for kids to do too (sunflower planting, name the chicken...)

When I went up to take some photos a few Saturdays back, Ruth paused for a moment, looked up from her digging, and said she'd got a lovelevenshulme postcard from someone a while back. So thanks to whoever sent that one.

A chance to get creative on The Loop

I liked the sound of these events when I read about them in the Reporter, so here's Rachel's press release:

The Friends of the Fallowfield Loop Sculpture Project

The Friends of Fallowfield Loop have been funded by the National Lottery through Awards for All for Local Artist Rachel Ramchurn to create a series of public sculptures for the Fallowfield Loop in Levenshulme. These Wood Sculptures will be installed at the beginning of May 2009.

The following free events celebrate these sculptures and the local environment:

Art in the Park: Join in as Community members, professional artists and passers-by construct amazing sculptures using stones, twigs, leaves, grass, mud, wood chippings and other park treasures. Two workshops are being held in Highfield Park inspiring and energising people to care for and protect Highfield Park, The Fallowfield Loop and Levenshulme. Float your sculpture on the pond, hang it from a tree, hide it in the grass or show it off!

Dates: Sunday 5th April, 12.00 until 3.00pm; Sunday 19th April, 12.00 until 3.00pm

Venue: Follow signs to The Picnic Area, Highfield Park, Levenshulme.

Free to all ages. Bring a picnic and your wellies.

Find a site for the Sculptures: Bring your bike and come and help decide where to site the sculptures whilst enjoying an invigorating cycle on the Fallowfield Loop. Suitable for cyclists of all ages and abilities.

Date: Sunday 3rd May, 11.00am

Venue: Meet at the lattice Bridge on the Fallowfield Loop (just east of Broom Lane Bridge)

Free event. Bring your bike!

Teachers Workshop: Free one off session for teachers working in Foundation Stage, KS1 and KS2 offering practical skills and guidance on how you can plan and develop creative sessions for your summer term of teaching which link into other curriculum areas and use the local environment.

Date: 2nd April, 4.00pm-6.00pm

Venue: Levenshulme Baptist Church

For more information or to book your place please email Rachel Ramchurn at rachelclementine@gmail.com

More information about events: Please contact Rachel Ramchurn on 079606 13786 or email rachelclementine@gmail.com. For more sculptures see http://www.rachelramchurn.blogspot.com/. For information about Friends of the Fallowfield Loop please contact Dick Venes on 0161 224 3843 or check out: www.cycle-routes.org/fallowfieldloopline.

The Fallowfield Loop sculpture Project has been devised and led by Local Artist Rachel Ramchurn with generous support from Friends of the Fallowfield Loop and Sustrans. Funded by the National Lottery Through Awards For All.

[Photo courtesy of Rachel Ramchurn.]

Brightening up

I wish I could say that I'd noticed the new mural at the Beliz café as I drove onto the Moseley Road off the Kingsway roundabout, or the opposite way, but somehow I didn't. So it took an article in the South Manchester Reporter yesterday to jog my memory about Liz and Ben's very own art competition to brighten up their own little corner of Levenshulme. (Proof that even the outer edges of Levenshulme are proud to be part of what's going on. No jumping ship to Burnage or Fallowfield for these guys.)

So after topping up the supplies of lovelevenshulme postcards at the Village Stores and Isis Café, and chatting to the Library manager to see if they'd join the growing list of postcard outlets, I biked over there to check it out for myself. And absolutely gorgeous the mural is too. I'll have to wait until the Easter holidays to check out the food (Beliz is only open Monday to Friday) but until then we've got another Levenshulme landmark for our kids to look out for when we're out and about.

Appreciating the small details

Did you see the article on Sue-Ann and the Levenshulme Daily Photograph in last week's South Manchester Reporter? [Or the wonderful interview on Channel M which followed...?] Another example of local creativity and a conscious choice to see the positive, the beauty in the mundane. It kind of reminded me of the Harvey Keitel character in Paul Auster/Wayne Wang's movie Smoke, the way he photographed a view of the same street corner at the same time every day.

I'd stumbled across the blog back in January, a link via a link via a link, thought it was a great idea and sent a lovelevenshulme postcard pronto. Sue-Ann photographed the postcard (it being a small detail of everyday life - it's on her blog here). Susannah Wright at the South Manchester Reporter saw the blog and emailed me to ask if I was behind it (I put her straight on that score rightaway and got her in touch with Sue-Ann) and a couple of weeks later it's in print and I'm blogging about it...

On the lookout for In-spired designers

If lovelevenshulme's all about finding the positive stuff about living here and making a difference to how things turn out for this community in the future, then it's about time I mentioned the Levenshulme Inspire project on Stockport Road.

When I think about the way they're planning to revitalise the old United Reformed Church building, a building that was down on its knees and on the verge of collapse, I have to take my hat off, doff my cap, salute in a president-stepping-onto-the-tarmac kind of way and send them a postcard. I'm picturing it when it's finished: taking the kids to YASP's community café, maybe getting interviewed in community radio station ALLfm's new studio, wondering what inspired business ideas will hatch out of the incubator, or who the new neighbours are in the appartments upstairs. Lots of stuff going on under one roof, a £3 million revamp right in the heart of Levenshulme, creating what looks to be a very promising community space. Check out their website for the full business plan and latest news. [Go on, scroll down a bit later on and you'll see it in the BlogRoll on the right...]

Building work starts soon. Well, the demolition bit does, then the bricks and mortar. Hopefully the first of many projects to renew and restore our little stretch of the A6.

In the meantime, Ed Cox at Levenshulme Inspire tells me that the project is looking for local designers, artists, and all-round creative types to get involved in areas like graphic design, interior design of the building, a website revamp, publicity materials, even the design of five new stained glass windows. Lots of opportunities to make your mark, by the sound of it. You can email him at ed.cox@lev-inspire.org.uk or phone him on 07961 979 262