Victoria Arches - Manchester
In the 3 or so years I've been pratting about with my camera, I've had a couple of invites to what many consider
'the holy grail' of Manchester exploration, but despite walking past, over and around the arches on a daily basis I'd
never ventured inside. An invite from Ojay however, was not one I was going to turn down.
Excuses made for an early dart from work, and bag packed, I set off to meet up with Nickindroy, Snakeoil, ViralEye,
Kenny and our guides for the evening Ninjaboy and of course Ojay.
History
The Victoria Arches are a series of bricked-up arches built in an embankment of the River Irwell in Manchester.
They served as business premises, landing stages for Steam packet riverboats
and as Second World War air-raid shelters. They were accessed from wooden staircases that descended from Victoria Street.
Regular flooding resulted in the closure of the steam-packet services in the early 20th century, the arches were later used for general storage.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War they were converted into air raid shelters. They are now bricked up and inaccessible,
the staircases having been removed in the latter part of the 20th century.
Photos
I spent so much time just wandering about that I almost forgot to take any photo's, these are screen grabs from the No-Pro camera
[R] Ojay, Ninjaboy and Viraleye discuss the merits of the arches construction
With so much free space to wander about in, it would be rude not to get a few shameless selfies..here's the first
And possibly the most documented toilets in 28dl history, not sure whether Paul Powers had left any 'presents' for fellow explorers ?
Looking towards the a bricked off section back up towards street level
A few of the units were strewn with rubble, and remnants from construction work, but I was amazed to find so little damage,
presumably as the place is now pretty much inaccessible to all but a few brave explorers
Doors, steps and luminous graffiti and [R] blue lighting courtesy of Nickindroy...other colours of lighting are available
On the inside looking out towards the fountain steps, care was required as I almost took a swim in the Irwell
Looking down from the Cathedral steps, as just a few feet behind me, people went about their evenings business
Hanging around ladies toilets at 10 o'clock at night with a camera....what's the worst that could happen ?
An amazing explore, with massive thanks to Ojay and Ninjaboy for sorting the logistics. Those Kronies are still untouched btw
or some quality street wrappers for the pikey option
