Have you ever had the urge to let out all your anger and emotions and to smash something after an awful day?
Then Temper Tank, a stress room where you are allowed to hit things with baseball bats and sledgehammers, might be the place to go. It’s the first of its kind in Manchester and offers a new way to deal with stress and anger.
The nonprofit organisation wants to tackle mental health problems and provides a space where people can let loose in different ways.
Interested people can book 15 or 30 minutes long group or individual smash sessions, depending on the package they choose.
The Temper Tank smash room.
Behind this idea of Temper Tank are André Lawsun, 32, and Ruginq Bibi, 26, who opened this place last year in August in New Islington next to Pollard Yard.
In the following interview, they talk a little bit about the concept behind Temper Tank and the place itself.
As Ruginq mentioned in the last part of the interview, the council rejects funding at the moment due to the belief that anger rooms make people even angrier. Consequently, André and Ruginq are trying to work against this stigma.
“Because the concept of smashing rooms is quite new, there is no study present that confirms that it helps or that it makes it worse. Not everyone wants to accept help, so we are currently working on the idea that it is person-centered,” Ruginq said.
The person-centered approach is a more positive one and is more directed as looking at a person as a whole. So for people that have build up tensions, want to feel immediate satisfaction or try out something new, they should give it a go.
Nevertheless, one should keep in mind that when dealing with severe mental health problems, it might still be worth seeking a counsellor or therapist for help.
Exciting news! Northernlights Home, the lovely plant store in Ancoats, will open its doors again this Friday!
Want to know about their upcoming plans and what else they’ll be selling along flowers? Then keep reading!
Even though the store was only open for three weeks before the lockdown, it was already a success with a huge positive response from people and completely selling out on Mother’s day.
No wonder people love it there, the black and white chess tiles, the decoration of the store and the selection of plants and flowers are simply beautiful!
Owner Leonard Hamilton set up the store with the right grasp for trends and spotted a gap in the market as there is no other flower store located in Ancoats with such a concept as they pursue.
Owner, Leonard Hamilton, set up the flower store after realising there were no other stores with the same concept in Ancoats. With his eye for trends, the concept of Northernlights Home was born.
“People want flowers in their house now. Things have changed and people don’t mind staying at home. They want to look at nice things. Plants are there to help you do stuff as well. Some of them breeze. Some of them make you feel good. Some of them are air purifiers. They all do different things,” he said.
Lockdown did not stop Leonard and his team from working behind the scenes and coming up with creative ways to continue to serve the costumer’s appetite for flowers.
Just to name one example: They organised a plant hunt in Ancoats with short video clues to the hidden locations.
But now let’s have a look at what you can expect soon. Some people might remember this right (still empty) corner of the store with the white wall tiles:
This area will become a space for lifestyle products, including gardening books, organic skincare, bamboo plates, cards, artwork and wine from the South of France.
Some products available will be from Birmingham brand honest, which makes organic skincare products and soy wax candles with eco-friendly cotton coated wicks.
To separate the flower and lifestyle area from one another, sliding doors were put in place. “The reason we are doing this is that we want people to feel like they are in two units. So people go from one shop to another shop. Everything we do is considered,” said owner Leonard.
Besides creating this additional lifestyle area, Northernlights Home plans to use the whole space for events such as wine tasting, poetry and open mic nights. “It is such a beautiful space it would be stupid not to use it in its full potential,” said Leonard.
He adds: “All we have do is cover the lifestyle stuff, open the sliding doors, put chairs in there or let people stand. It becomes a venue straightaway.”
They are also planning a launch party with someone specialising in wine and cheese once the coronavirus restrictions are eased again.
Leonard mentioned: “I want people to come in and think ‘wow’, chatting and blogging about it on their Instagram.”
We don’t know about you but we think these are some amazing plans and we are so excited to watch the business bloom!
As news about people emptying supermarket shelves, fighting over a package of pasta and hoarding toilet paper making the headlines, one could start losing faith in humanity.
But there is hope. Incredible stories of people stepping up to help the ones in need and growing together as a community outshine the bad news.
Facebook support groups, for example, are popping throughout the country to give people a chance to both ask for and offer help – especially to people self-isolating and at-risk groups.
Jayne Connor, living in one of the Milliners Wharf apartment blocks in Ancoats, is one of them. She is a single mum of a toddler who is registered as extremely vulnerable due to being asthmatic and is therefore self-isolating.
Being part of the Milliners Wharf coronavirus group enabled her to reach out to other residents who went shopping for her and picked up prescriptions.
She was really overwhelmed and thankful for all the help and offers she received. “I honestly don’t know how I would have coped with everything without people’s help. It has been a really difficult time,” Jayne said.
“People think people that live in the city centre don’t belong to a community, but this has proved different,” she adds.
Caroline Brazell was one of the people who volunteered for her. She went ‘out of her way’ to buy some nappies for her son without accepting any money.
Caroline told Ancoatsvibes that she found out about Jayne through their complex Facebook group and offered to get a delivery for her. They are still in touch.
“For me, I actually feel part of a community now, and I have made friends with people here that I may not have come across if it wasn’t for this situation,” said Caroline Brazell.
She has also helped another neighbour through the same group who was struggling to get medication and volunteers in the Manchester COVID19 – Support Group.
“We have always had this Facebook group, but now it seems that people are pulling together more. Sharing useful information and doing kind things. People are baking and giving treats to neighbours, and we have arranged to help clean shared areas as we no longer have contractors doing this,” said Caroline.
Another member of the Facebook group who helped Jayne as well is Ben Williams. “When I saw the message, I was working from home nearing the end of my notice period and wanted to do anything I could to help the community, which my partner and I are relatively new to,” he said.
Ben and his partner usually volunteer at Barnabus, a Christian Homeless Charity
To everyone who wants to help too he advises: “Stay engaged with local community groups and forums in your area on social media. There are lots of people who may need just a one-off which would mean a lot to them.”
If you don’t have a Facebook group of your building, check out the Facebook groups in your neighbourhood.
Some useful groups for people living around Ancoats are:
The New Wave Ramen shop located on Naval Street in Ancoats will start to deliver its first ramen box from the 24th of April.
The box will contain ingredients to make four generous bowls of two different styles of ramen and costs 35 pounds.
First up will be their namesake ‘Tokyo New Wave Shoe’ a light chicken broth with an umami packed Shoyu tare, some classic toppings and their Tokyo style noodles.
Second will be their modern ‘Red Miso Tori Paitan’ ramen, a richer, creamier chicken based soup, with pork, crispy onions, chilli, and chewier Sapporo style noodles.
The Funk and Soul Yoga studio is offering yoga sessions held on Zoom now every Monday (12:30 – 1:30 PM) and Tuesday (6:00 – 7:00 PM) for £5 per class.
Eryn Barber, who is the founder of Funk and Soul Yoga has been a yoga teacher for nearly two years now. In her yoga sessions, she focuses on Hatha and Power/Vinyasa yoga.
After only been open for a few months she had to close down her studio at Pollard Yard due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Eryn said: “I was only beginning to find my feet, and then suddenly this happened, which had a huge impact on the majority of small businesses. I am also a self-employed personal trainer, so both of my regular sources of income have been closed down until further notice. It was a hard pill to swallow. However, I believe that you have to make the best out of a bad situation. Everything happens for a reason and this is a chance to try and get creative with business.”
And Eryn did get creative: She started doing yoga sessions over Zoom and free Instagram live sessions every Saturday morning.
“At first, I was sceptical that it was something that people want. I wasn’t sure if people would like to follow me on a screen, but after great feedback doing Instagram live sessions, I thought I would give it a go.”
Even though she struggled with some minor technical issues on Zoom at the beginning, the feedback has been fantastic so far.
“Many people have been booking regular sessions now and they are even more popular than my regular sessions! It’s definitely making me think about how I can reach bigger audiences once this is over.
“It’s similar to doing a normal yoga class, however, I really miss having the interaction with people,” she said.
If you want to try out her Zoom classes yourself or join one of her Instagram live sessions, check out her Instagram or Facebook.
Ancoats is an area of Manchester that’s been transformed in the last decade. The story of this post-industrial phoenix has been told many times, even held up as a model or template for urban regeneration.
Anyone who knew the area before will be quick to tell you how unrecognisable some parts of it are now. Of course the pace and extent of change has been far from even across the wider area. But it’s these spaces where development has focused that most of us more familiar with the newer Ancoats now associate with the area.
Asked to think of Ancoats, the images that come to mind for most of us would be of somewhere like Cutting Room Square, with the buzz of its bars and restaurants. Or the enigmatic cobbled streets around here, dotted with cool cafes and co-working spaces. Perhaps the walk along Redhill Street, with the proud industrial façades of Murray’s Mill and its neighbours on one side and the canal on the other, spanned by the emblematic red arch of Bridge 89a. On the other side of the Rochdale Canal, the beautifully landscaped marina marks an area of Ancoats revived and transformed, now rebranded as New Islington.
But if you keep walking past Cutting Room Square, past Hallé St Peter’s to the Beehive Mill and on a bit, you get a very different picture of Ancoats. This area, to the east and north of Flint Glass Works, feels like a different place altogether. After Radium Street you leave the characteristic canyon feel of high buildings on either side. The height and density of buildings suddenly drops. You come across walled off, semi-abandoned industrial units and improvised car parks, the odd run-down alleyway allowing you through. At the far north and west of the area you reach Ancoats Green — an apologetic patch of green that looks like it could once have been a park. It all seems a bit … forgotten.
The Back of Ancoats (Poland Street Zone) – from the consultation website
This area – from the canal to the ring road (A62) on one side, Bengal Street to Miles Platting on the other – is what Manchester City Council have alluringly christened the ‘Back of Ancoats’, or the Poland Street Zone. The council is consulting on an update to the Ancoats and New Islington Neighbourhood Development Framework and want residents’ views on their vision and objectives for the future development of this area.
Given the stark contrast between this area and what they call the ’Front of Ancoats’ (New Islington and the area around Cutting Room Square), it’s clearly about time it got some attention.
Ancoats Green
A quick look through the objectives and a flick through the draft document is encouraging too. In amongst the usual planning jargon and abstract-looking figures, there’s talk of cycle lanes, increased public transport links and minimising resource waste and carbon emissions. Among the objectives there’s an ambition to create a mixed living and working neighbourhood, building on the area’s industrial heritage and creating a range of employment as well as places to live.
There’s at least a nod to the importance of social sustainability too, with mentions of affordable housing, public and green space. Finally, there’s some recognition of the need for a more natural transition in urban form through the area — from the dense brick and glass high mass on the western side to the low-rise suburban style housing and open space of Miles Platting.
Crucially, there’s also some recognition of how Ancoats as a whole fits in to the city, with emphasis on improving connectivity and movement through the area — maintaining and enhancing routes into the centre of the city. Ancoats was largely depopulated for a long time after its industrial heyday. The ‘Front of Ancoats’ is now becoming increasingly better known, drawing in new residents and businesses and coaxing more people out across the ring road. Even now though, it sometimes feels strangely quiet for an area so close to the Northern Quarter and the city centre. There’s a sense of anticipation, of potential still waiting to be realised.
Murray Street, reflection the quiet emptiness of Ancoats
Although written a couple of years ago, urban design consultant Lucy Sykes’ reflection on the quietness of Ancoats still brilliantly captures the eerie ambience of the streets. As the council starts to plan for extending and deepening regeneration in Ancoats the council could well consider some of her ideas for bringing back the buzz of urban life too:
“Walking through these spaces makes me long for Manchester to take a leap of faith. You can’t help but feel that this landscape was built to be remembered, yet with its silence it feels this vision is disserved. A more flexible and opportunistic approach to planning could entice a new generation of entrepreneurs into Ancoats again, people who see the mills as more than just private accommodation, but as an experimental canvas for the arts, pop-up shops or for non-commercial gain. The temporary lease of ground floor units would allow the streets to become alive, social capital to grow, and give reason for pedestrians to travel to the area. Noise would radiate the public realm as residents and visitors alike connect and compliment the area with sound of urban life
Lucy Sykes, ‘Ancoats and the Quiet Whispers of Change’, in STEPZ II: Between the Rollerama and the Junkyard (2016). Available here.
Clearly the redevelopment that’s taken place so far is far from complete. Around the edges of the new ‘urban village’ there are there are other parts of Ancoats crying out for investment. Some of the lessons of Jane Jacobs seem to have been forgotten here too: in particular that a diversity of uses at the street level supports social and community cohesion, as well as safety and the local economy.
As attention turns to the Poland Street Zone though the planners now seem to be thinking along the right lines, or at least asking the right questions. Now that the better-known parts of Ancoats are starting to take shape, what should the next phase look like? Who will come to this area? How can new architecture and urban design build on what was there before, while complementing the changes already underway on all sides? How can we ensure new communities are socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable?
Cutting Room Square and Halle St Peter’s, Ancoats
The plans are vague at this stage, but then I guess you’d expect that from a draft strategy. If anything it means that there’s more chance for residents to influence what things will look like here in the future.
Now that New Islington and the area around Cutting Room Square are starting to hum again, what will the next chapter in Ancoats’ journey to redefine itself look like?
You can read the objectives and the draft section of the NDF on the council’s consultation website. The Back of Ancoats public consultation is open until 15 May 2020.
Another area of Ancoats where development’s currently planned is the huge abandoned car park between New Islington Marina and Great Ancoats Street. Manchester City Council first proposed, imaginatively, to restore it to use as a car park, before dropping these plans in favour of a mixed use development. Local residents are campaigning for a real park on the site. Follow #TreesNotCars for updates and to get involve
By Ian Thompson
The Back of Ancoats (The Poland Street Zone)
Mural by a car park on corner of Poland Street and Naval StreetJersey Street, looking back towards New IslingtonAncoats GreenPortugal Street
We don’t know about you but we love the spring season! Even though we can’t experience spring this year as usual, the blooming spring flowers add more beauty to Ancoats in lockdown.
To lighten up your day, here is a collection of Ancoats spring pictures we found on Instagram. Enjoy!
Supermarkets like the Ancoats General Store and the Companio Bakery are still open as usual but take some precautionary measures in times of the outbreak:
Besides that, Ancoats Coffee Co. extended their online store selection with all their coffees, merch and vouchers. They also offer free shipping on all orders over £25 and include the option of local pickup.
The New Islington Marina, Ancoats lovely green space, is perfect for a walk, to relax and to gather new energy.
But the place known for its diverse wildlife is changing, and no cygnets hatched on the Marina in the last two years.
To protect and re-establish the wildlife Deana Millward, one of the boat dwellers on the Marina, set up NIMCIC, a community interest company.
“Last year the swans tried to lay eggs on the existing floating nests but they didn’t have enough nesting material due to the re-design of the Marina and eventually all the eggs felt straight through into the water. So we lost them all and we were really sad about that because we love the wildlife,” said the 55-year-old Deana.
According to her, the floating nests have been there for a long time but nobody has ever really maintained those and the current Marina managers have not done anything about it.
Therefore, the NIMCIC group that consists of the boat residents on the Marina tried to take matters into their own hands and stabilised the floating nests with wooden platforms.
Deana Millward and Dave Marshall.
Last weekend Deana and member Dave Marshall drove to a farm to get ten bales of straw as much needed nesting material for the swans. As soon as they put the straw on the floating platforms, the female swans went straight on it.
“It couldn’t have gone any better,” said Deana.
Another main reason why they set up NIMCIC is to manage the Marina on behalf of Manchester city council. The management of the Marina is currently out for tender and they want to give it a go and apply.
Deana said: “The current management is not good. They can’t look after the Marina as well as we can. It is our home. So we feel we are the best people to run it completely because we are always there. We want to do some other projects as well.”
Projects in the pipeline include building floating duck houses and integrating artwork in the space to brighten up the Marina. One of the boat dwellers is Mark Kennedy, a well known local artist known for making mosaics from broken ceramic tiles, who might contribute to this art project.
NIMCIC plans to put artwork on this island too.
Another idea they have in mind is to organise an annual canal festival to celebrate this place with the whole community around it.
Deana said: “We would also like to apply for Heritage Lottery Funding to enable us to unearth the rich history of the Manchester Canals. Particularly in the Ancoats area and work with local schools to educate and inform the younger generations about the canals and the Marina.”
At the moment, British Waterways Marinas manages the Marina and they might apply for this position again.
“They are only here for like an hour or two a week, which isn’t enough. They are more interested in making money for themselves whereas we are more interested in making money for the Marina, the area and the local residents and just make it a nice place to be.”
Co-op will return to Ancoats after 125 years and opens its doors this Friday on Blossom Street.
There will be a preview evening of the store today, starting from 5 pm where people can experience the shop for the first time.
Callum Sale, store Manager at the Coop, said: “There will be drinks and nibbles for everyone with members of my team and me to talk to just to kind of ease our way in.”
On Friday the main launch event will happen, with loads of activities organised by the Marketing team and giveaways for visitors.
“The local school will be in the store and some of our chosen charities we work with will be in attendance,” said Callum Sale.
Don’t think I can comprehend our excitement as a team to finally join the Ancoats team after 100 years after our first store in the area opened WE ARE BACK! Bigger better and more convenient looking after you and your every day needs. We officially open our doors on the 13th! 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/CNk4aHzTY2
The New Islington Marina in Ancoats is Manchester’s hidden oasis, allowing people to relax in one of the few open access green spaces in the city centre.
We asked people hanging out at the New Islington Marina what they like about this place:
It’s just a few minutes away from the Northern Quarter and makes you think you are in completely different surrounding, far away from the city’s bustle.
The park consists of a body of water, a three- metre-wide boardwalk, an ‘urban beach’ and distinctive islands where people can enjoy the peace and quiet of a wonderful park.
To help attracting more wildlife, a protective grove of Scots pines, wildflowers and reed bed were planted here.
ancoatsvibes.com 