Last Minute Presents

All the nostalgia for Woolworths’ closing down sale ignores the very simple fact that everything you can buy from there you’ll be able to buy from elsewhere. For those looking for something more unusual Manchester’s arts and culture sector offers lots of opportunities, both off and online. When was the last time you went to Craft Centre in the Northern Quarter for instance? This lovely building has a wide range of artists and craftspeople in residence – so not only can you buy their work, but see them doing it. It’s the kind of resource that you usually only expect in quaint hill villages, not two minutes from the Arndale!
Book lovers don’t have to expect Russell Grant or Dawn French in their Christmas stocking. I always like “small presses” as their books tend to be lovely, and the content more unusual. Manchester’s got a wide range of small publishers most of whom you can more easily find online rather than in a bookshop. Comma’s “Madinah” is described as “city stories from the middle east” whilst poetry specialist Carcanet has a “twelve days of Christmas” special, of which OuLiPo author Raymond Queneau particularly appeals.
Morrissey fans might be intrigued by Cornerhouse’s Linder Sterling set of postcards, one of many art books that our favourite art venue publishes or distributes.
Best of all perhaps, as well as selling items from its craft shop online, the Royal Exchange Theatre also offers “an amazing variety of costumes, and accessories from a wide range of historical periods” for you to hire.
I think over the next year or so we’ll see more of our arts venues becoming online souks, with everything from virtual gift vouchers, to downloads of concerts. That’s really the wonder of Woolworths closing down, there’s plenty of more interesting things to look for.