Victorian Railway Arch and Glass Towers, Manchester City Centre

8 October 2019 · Manchester

A Victorian sandstone railway arch — now a Q-Park car park — sits at street level while two glass curtain-wall towers climb behind it, one still topped by a construction crane. The low shooting angle compresses the gap between the eras: the arch reads as foundation, the towers as consequence. Manchester's urban regeneration has a habit of keeping the old structure and building the new one directly over it — here the sandstone and the curtain wall share a single frame, and neither looks temporary.