Manchester Tourism Blog & Videos
For an MA assignment, I created a collection of content to promote Manchester as a tourist destination during lockdown, designed to be used for a tourist board campaign encouraging people to explore their city safely, as a way to boost wellbeing, and contribute to the struggling tourist trade. There are three videos created for social media, and a blog post about the history of the new Mayfield development.
Video Tour of Manchester’s Local Parks
In this video, I take viewers on a tour of some of Manchester’s best green spaces.
Video - Instagram Stories
This series of Instagram stories takes people through different parts of Manchester city centre, to encourage them to get outside and explore the city in lockdown - in a socially distanced manner, of course.
Video - Too Good To Go App Influencer Promo
In this piece, I act as a fictional influencer road-testing the Too Good To Go app - a platform where people can order good quality leftovers from local restaurants at low prices - a socially distanced way to try out new restaurants in the city!
Blog post
From Riches to Rags…to Riches Again
How Mayfield railway depot came back on the map as Manchester’s hottest new arts, food, and culture spot...
How Mayfield railway depot came back on the map as Manchester’s hottest new arts, food, and culture spot...
Manchester really knows how to turn something old and tired into a new kind of cool. And the abandoned station behind Piccadilly might just be about to beat the Northern Quarter in the Hipster Olympics…
In 2016 the site, with its ramshackle buildings and old railway platforms, was targeted by developers looking to kick-start a regeneration project worth over a billion pounds. Their aim is to weave the original features into the restoration of the buildings, to showcase the twists and turns of its journey through Manchester’s history.
The developers’ long-term vision for the place is immense - and it includes a public park as the centerpiece of a green oasis, along with office, retail and leisure complexes. But since its reopening in 2017, the depot has become a thriving hub of cultural experiences, great food, and a place for authentic creativity, community and inspiration to happen.
Here are just a few of the great things the venue has hosted:
Manchester International Festival – the biannual festival of culture, music and art from across the world brought the depot alive in 2018.
Grub MCR - a world class display of everything that makes street food awesome, from craft beer, to tasty vegan meals, all accompanied by music from up-and-coming artists.
Escape to Freight Island – just before lockdown, this forward-thinking hybrid between a music festival, a food festival and an immersive art experience took over the depot and its surrounding urban landscape. Just the thing we need to bring people together during tough times.
A developer’s dream for the future meets an entrepreneurial past
Mayfield had a life before trains...
Rewind to 1782 when entrepreneur-developer Thomas Hoyle, bought the land where a stately home used to be, and built his baby, the Mayfield Print Works.
This was ideally located next to the river Medlock, which would come in handy for powering the machinery.
Back in the day, purple dye was rare and precious, so only the super-rich could wear it. Mayfield is where Hoyle and his business partners discovered a way to mass produce it at low prices, meaning it was accessible to more people.
As you can expect, purple fabric flew off the shelves, making the business highly prosperous. At this time, Manchester was the epicenter of the industrial revolution – the Silicon Valley of its day.
As business declined for Hoyle due to cheaper imports, the building was replaced by a new train station about 110 years ago. Its purpose was to provide relief to an overwhelmed Piccadilly station.
After Mayfield was bombed in WWII, it functioned as a parcel warehouse for a while, before being abandoned until 2016 when it was brought back to life...
