You are here: Manchester Confidential › Sleuth.
SleuthSleuth is a sideways glance at the city every week, it's the truth, but Sleuth's truth. He's several people all at once. We give £25 for every story/rumour and piece of absurdity you find for us to publish. Sleuth sometimes even gets serious. We ask for the money back if any legal action follows. Follow Sleuth on twitter @mcrsleuth
Concept 'New York' Pizza Parlour Pounces
Sleuth hears that Crazy Pedro’s Part-Time Pizza Parlour is soon to open on Motor Street in the Square With No Name. It will be ‘a New York style pizza joint selling the thin based classic Italian American style pizza’ plus ‘a selection of Tequila and Mezcal’. It comes from the team behind the Liars Club and Cane & Grain and will occupy the site above Liars that was formerly a Starbucks and, years before, George Best's Edwardia Boutique.
Liars Club head honcho Lyndon Higginson says ‘Crazy Pedro’s is a Part-Time Pizza Parlour because we originally planned to open the venue for just six months but the more we developed the concept we decided that it should be a permanent fixture rather than a pop-up.’
Sleuth hears it will open until 4am and no doubt conform to the Liars Club rule: if you’re in the place you should have gone home hours ago so what the hell, you might as well carry on.
You will be late home
Sleuth’s Sweetest Clip Ever taken
George Best was the United player who climbed off the back pages to make front page headlines. His clothes boutique was part of that. Another sixties and seventies main man was Manchester writer Jack Rosenthal. This is a clip from his TV series The Lovers. It's utterly charming and starts off with the view from Manchester House.
Ex-Monsoon In King Street To Get A Burger Bar
Sleuth is massively excited. He's read about burgers, seen pictures, but because they are almost unknown in Manchester he's never ever eaten one. Or he can't remember if he has. So he's almost passing out with joy that the glorious ex-Monsoon unit on King Street, a lovely black and white 19th century building, is to be a burger bar. He's chasing up which one at present but that hardly matters, at last Sleuth will be able to enjoy a burger.
Monsoon when it was all blouses but soon it'll be burgers
Ball And Wood In The City
The editor tells Sleuth he took out Victoria Wood and Michael Ball for the documentary that will accompany the TV dramatisation of Wood’s Manchester International Festival 2011’s That Day We Sang (main pic above on Deansgate). Victoria Wood was a gracious, polite lady, fascinated to learn about the history and stories of the city. Michael Ball was gloriously silly. “I grew up in Rochdale,” said Schofield, “and Victoria in Bury. Where do you call home?” “I spent of a lot my young life on Dartmoor,” said Ball, before pausing and quipping, “It made visiting my dad easier.” Ewan McColl from Salford was mentioned on the tour. "He wrote the best love song ever written in my opinion, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," said Ball. "I sing it looking in the mirror," he added and started belting out the song to the astonishment of passersbys.
Filming on Bridge Street
Sleuth, Anthony Burgess, James Bond, Food
Sleuth was with these people on the Anthony Burgess and Literary Tour of Manchester on 11 October. They're in the Burgess Foundation archive room and one of the guests is holding up Burgess's own copy of Clockwork Orange, the cover of which Burgess defaced. Will Carr, manager of the Foundation, is far right. He had some funny stories. Apparently Burgess was asked to write a Bond screenplay for The Spy Who Loved Me. None of his script was used apart from giving the villain an undersea base. Carr said: "I think the main problem was Burgess replaced the traditional shoot-em-up scene at the climax of the movie with a food-eating contest between Bond and the evil Karl Stromberg. Weirdly he still got his writer's fee."
Bond and books in the International Anthony Burgess Foundation
Sleuth's Howard Jacobson Memory-Slip Moment Of The Week
Sleuth was at the excellent, penultimate event of the Manchester Literature Festival on Sunday, with Man Booker prize-winner and Mancunian Howard Jacobson when he overheard this conversation. Matthew Frost, friend of Confidential was chit-chatting just before Howard was interviewed by John McAuliffe on stage at the Burgess Foundation.
Matthew Frost (MF) – We met about four years ago...
Howard Jacobson (HJ) – We did?
MF – Yes, I interviewed you.
HJ – Ah... What book was that?
MF – Err, oh God, I've forgotten. The one with the graphic novelist.
HJ – That was eight years ago!
MF – It was the paperback launch.
HJ – We'll compromise on seven years. Where was it?
MF – The Friends Meeting House?
HJ – The Quaker house behind Central Library? I've just walked past there and said to my wife, "I've always wanted to go and have a look inside."
MF – That was the first thing you said on stage in the interview at the Friends Meeting House, seven years ago.
Sleuth is pleased to report that Howard was exceptionally articulate during the interview about his new novel.
Bins Sneak Up On Man On Bench
Sleuth spotted this gent in Lincoln Square a few weeks ago. "They're behind you," warned Sleuth. "And underneath you."
If I sit on this bench I'll hide the bins
That City Centre Transport Policy In Full
Sleuth has finally obtained the full plan of how Manchester City Council envisage city centre transport circulation by 2016. This is it.
Sleuth's Forgotton But Rediscovered Garden Of The Week
This is Marie Louise Garden in Didsbury created in commemoration of an only child who died young by her parents, the Silkenstadt family, originally from Bremen in Germany, who became Manchester textile barons. Go now as the leaves are changing colour: it's beautiful with almost a Japanese quality. It also has the largest population of squirrels Sleuth has ever seen, so guard your nuts.
Like what you see? Enter your email to sign up for our newsletters which are chock-a-block with more great reviews, news, deals and savings.
33 comments so far, continue the conversation, write a comment.
Looks like Daisy Mill in Longsight is for the chop too. This time MCC own the building and are…
Read moreThe initial plan, by all concerned, was always to save & redevelop Ancoats Dispensary though wasn't…
Read moreThat's perfectly true, but for various reasons not relevant to the original point. I'm happy to…
Read moreI'll try again..of course it won't, it's not listed so it will go. The fact that it is elegant,…
Read more© Mark Garner t/a Confidential Direct 2021
Privacy | Careers | Website by: Planet Code | SEO by The eWord
Thanks for sharing "The Lovers" clip Sleuth - that's made my morning !
Best of MCR; Gardens coming soon...Marie Louise is a treasure.
Best of Manchester City centre gardens and parks would be a short article
I hope the burger place will be Meat Liquor, the old Lounge Ten site on Tib Lane will be a burger place too.
Yes please to Meat Liquor!
So more pizza and burger joints to join the rest because Manchester just doesnt have enough of these already! Let me guess, the burgers are "dirty" because that's a new concept isnt it?
You are all so boring, everybody loves burgers and I bet you will be the first sat down
Everybody likes burgers? I don't for one. Nasty unpleasant things that you're not sure what is in them...
It's mincemeat Tom, made from beef.
It's not the public that loves burgers, its the restaurants that love the high profit margins on burgers.
It's mince but the jury is out on the meat content...
You better ask Frosty
Can we have an acronym please as more of them than YAFIs. ABBB perhaps- another Bloody Burger Bar!
Wasn't King Street once the most upmarket shopping street in Manchester and the North West?Ruined by the council taking away all the benches to sit,unimaginative and clueless landlords and their Manchester agents and Spinningfields subsidised rents on that Avenue taking away shops,most of whom have closed in the end anyways .Now it's a sorry mess,with no sense of identity anymore.You can see the contrast with enlightened thinking if you see Carnaby Street in London,with a vibrant mix of retail and not lots empty units.
Aren't burgers upmarket now? Once the food of the proletariat and now enjoyed by the pseudo affluent. I thought hings became unfashionable once the masses get hold of it, but now it seems to be the opposite.
Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and New Cathedral Street are surely the main reasons? Which upmarket stores did King Street used to have? It's actually more upmarket than it used to be, there was previously a next and virgin megastore, hardly upmarket shops. Also, not one shop that re-located from King Street to Spinningfields has closed, get your facts right, it's embarrassing.
In all fairness to Carnaby St...although it has 'sold out' to overpriced supposed trendy c**p, it's actual quite uniformed. The buildings along the street are of similar architecture and of the same size. Manchester is a huge mess. It's a very convenient city, but one with no identifiable characteristic apart from being a 'weekend party city'.
I know what you mean about King St. It does need some attention to turn it around, but when you consider Market St, which I'm led to believe is the second busiest street in the country for shoppers after Oxford St, London, is now seems full of banks, discount cd shops and loon's spouting religious rubbish then I don't hold out much hope. And the empty units in the Barton Arcade always make me wish more was made of it. Do we have a department or person who is responsible for shopping and what we want to achieve in certain areas of the city? Is there a long term goal in place?
I used to work in a shop on King Street not too long ago. People liked the shop but the most common complaint was that it was too far from the arndale and the buses, trains etc. some people would even say it was too far from town or ask why we didn't open in town. The shops are very small for the rents and the footfall is so much lower than near the arndale.
Plus Carnaby Street has had plenty of empty shops over the last ten years.
It does not have many empty shops now.It has its own website,has regularly shopping events and has gone out of its way to have a diverse range of shop and eating place aimed at the young affluent trendy market its aiming it.In contrast Manchester has no idea about promoting diverse shopping,it's empty units are filled with either more banks or food outlets.As a shopping destination its increasingly losing brands and becoming one big high street of the same old names you can find in any large town.
Which brands has it lost? Which brands should it have that you don't see elsewhere?
Manchester both the city and some of the people are a little Keeping Up With The Joneses. In Spinningfields they dress up like Towie extras and in NQ every bloke has a beard and tattoos. Textbook clichés.
That did not used to be the case.At one time the City led in music and if not high fashion,at least in street fashion.But You are right now it's totally bland and totally lacking in originality.
True. I think even though it was a lot rougher round the edges it had character like Liverpool and Newcastle.
I prefer ABBA - Another Burger Bar Ahhhhhhhhhhh!
Crazy Pedros sounds ridiculous, people with money but no clue ruining the city centre, one ridiculous bar after another and it's depressing to see that beautiful building will be used for a burger bar, hopefully it'll be short lived. Good to see the Anthony Burgess foundation getting a mention though...
Can we have list parks and green spaces in the city centre or close by?
Manchester hates parks.Like home owners who flag gardens so not be troubled cutting grass or looking after flowers,the council likes flagged squares preferable with a fancy mountain that will stop working after a few months .
Burger me.
Naughty Sleuth, major transport works are going to deliver huge benefits in the city centre and beyond!
Wasn't the Coop development,that the councils money and planning helped greatly, going to deliver a huge benefit to the city?.But you don't want to talk about that anymore Kevin or brag about being a Coop supported council member.You are everything thats wrong with Labour in this city,you like to give the appearance of listening to the people,but you follow the leadership like a typical careerist politician.You pretend to be accountable because you appear here,but you avoid any accountability for your past actions,nobody can get you to comment on what you think of the Coop now for instance.
Weren't you the guy who wanted all the bars in the village to close at 2am?!