Modernist Delights

Bradford Magistrates’ Court, 2025

Check out the tiling at the bottom of the first picture, as well as the funky geometric pattern on the wall in the second picture.

Rear of Wardley House, Bradford, 2025

Bradford Telephone Exchange, 2024

A tall, white, modernist building with large, wavy rows of windows stands beside a street under a cloudy sky. A white wall and metal fence border the building, and a smaller brick building adjoins it on the right.

A tall, gray, modern building facade features a central cylindrical stairwell with vertically ribbed concrete and zigzagging tinted windows, flanked by flat walls with rectangular windows and louvered vents, all under a cloudy sky.

A tall, white, rectangular building with many small, square windows and a rounded corner stands on a street corner. The sky is cloudy, and a few cars are parked nearby. The building appears old and weathered, with some stains on its exterior.

Stockport Exchange Station Car Park, 2024

A multi-level parking garage at night is brightly lit, with rows of parked cars visible through open sides. Streetlights illuminate the foreground, where a person walks near several parked vehicles. The surrounding area appears quiet and clean.

Not modernist, but I like how this one turned out.

Retro signage beneath a fragile roof, Ancoats, Manchester, 2025

A faded painted sign on a red brick wall reads Entwistle & Pearson Plywood Supplies beside a silhouette of a worker carrying wood. Nearby are warning signs, a street sign for Naval St, and a blue metal container with plants growing behind it.

Retro signage in Ancoats, Manchester, 2025

An old brick building with multiple barred windows. Faded sign reads “CHELSEA FASHIONS,” mentioning manufacturers, exporters, and ladies’ and children’s wear. Smaller sign for SAM Knitwear Ltd. visible, with Henry St. street sign on left.

Sun-dappled car fortress in the Northern Quarter, Manchester, 2025

A red brick multi-storey car park stands on a street corner under a clear blue sky. Several yellow P parking signs are mounted on the building. A person walks past the entrance, and sunlight casts strong shadows on the walls.

A brick building with three floors, each featuring rectangular, open window spaces without glass. The lower level has barred windows and graffiti on the right. The façade is sunlit with shadows, and the roof has black lamps. Sky above is clear and blue.

This doesn’t qualify as modernist, or even really as a delight, but it made me laugh how something so thoroughly modern and utilitarian masquerades itself amongst the Northern Quarter’s Victorian mills and factories with the use of red brick. A concept long forgotten in Manchester’s development-mania, of course, with everything now built out of steel, concrete, glass, and cladding.

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