Gay Village, Manchester

It lies alongside the Rochdale Canal, and is actually called Canal Street. Its origins go back to the 1980s when the first gay bars and restaurants started opening here.

trying to capture the rainbows flags and the tree branches at the same time

Previously on Some Photoblog I have posted pictures of the Alan Turing Memorial, which is in Sackville Gardens, a small park in the same area. As you may know, Alan Turing was prosecuted for his sexuality, despite contributing enormously to the Allies’ victory in WW2 by cracking German military codes. The 2014 movie The Imitation Game tells this story, with the ever brilliant Benedict Cumberbatch in the main role.

Apparently, the street sign for Canal Street occasionally gets vandalised–they scratch off the letter C. It’s such a lame, tired joke, honestly. Like, you think a million people haven’t already tried that before you?

Anyway, pictures by smartphone, taken on my lunch break!

Alan Turing Memorial, Manchester

It’s in Sackville Gardens, a small park bordering Canal Street, aka the area in Manchester commonly known as Gay Village.

Alan Turing was a brilliant computer scientist and mathematician, who worked on first computers at the University of Manchester and during WW2 was part of a team at Bletchley Park, working for the Government Code and Cypher School, cracking Germany’s military codes. Unfortunately he was not treated very well and was prosecuted because of his sexuality. He was granted a posthumous pardon in 2013.

Essentially, Alan Turing is the godfather of all modern computers.