Love goes to building on fire

I feel like a tourist in my old home town. I moved back and forth from Manchester through childhood, teens and twenties, finally leaving in 1987. I continued to shop and socialise in Manchester, and made sure my children, two of whom were born there, knew their way around. Working there is fascinating - not just the work itself but the personal memories and associations that are sparking up because of it. I reckon I could walk a different route from Piccadilly Station to the GMRO every day for the next year, weaving my way through the Northern Quarter with its strange mix of fashionable bars, vintage shops, vinyl exchanges and the rest. Old warehouses, nineteenth century terraced houses, remains of the rag trade heritage, main roads and rat runs. Derelict sites turned into all day parking lots, the skeletons of the old Smithfield markets, alongside fancy flats and apartments. Some stand out buildings like the ones at Piccadilly basin and the chrome and glass of the old Daily Express offices. Band on the Wall is across the road, and there are still lots of pubs that were once part of the market traders and porters daily round. No licensing laws for those who started work at 2am back in their heyday. My dad had tales of Band On the Wall in his youth - the band literally played on platforms that kept them out of trouble and off the dance floor, and at the end of the night you fought on the side of the room where you found yourself standing!I once won an Olivia Newton John look alike competition with Jimmy Hibbert when the film Grease first came out!Tib Street is part of my favourite route - memories of childhood weekend trips there with my dad, my sister and I loved the pet shops, and he went record shopping. Last week one of the buildings on Oldham Street, once Dobkins department store, specialising in coats and raincoats, set on fire, around 6pm in the evening. Part of the road is still shut, and the building is being demolished.Seeing the fire engines and the smoke and flames pouring from the windows was slightly surreal, like watching a film set. Speaking of which, I was told last week that this area of Manchester is sometimes used for New York by film makers, as the architectural mix looks so authentic.It's not just the music then.