ART GALLERIES, LIBRARIES & STEAK AND KIDNEY PIES

Today, The Stones and The Grandma have started to visit Manchester. They have decided to visit some specific places and they have talked about which of them and when.

IN THE MORNING, the family has visited the John Rylands Library.

Daniel Stone was very interested in this place because he loves old music books and ancient scores. This visit has been a great opportunity to contemplate some of them. The library is an amazing and wonderful place.

The John Rylands Library is a late-Victorian neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England.

The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded by Enriqueta Augustina Rylands in memory of her husband, John Rylands.

The John Rylands Library and the library of the University of Manchester merged in July 1972 into the John Rylands University Library of Manchester; today it is part of The University of Manchester Library.

Special collections built up by both libraries were progressively concentrated in the Deansgate building. The special collections, believed to be among the largest in the United Kingdom, include medieval illuminated manuscripts and examples of early European printing, including a Gutenberg Bible, the second largest collection of printing by William Caxton, and the most extensive collection of the editions of the Aldine Press of Venice.

The Rylands Library Papyrus P52 has a claim to be the earliest extant New Testament text. The library holds personal papers and letters of notable figures, among them Elizabeth Gaskell and John Dalton.

The architectural style is primarily neo-Gothic with elements of Arts and Crafts Movement in the ornate and imposing gatehouse facing Deansgate which dominates the surrounding streetscape. The library, granted Grade I listed status in 1994, is maintained by the University of Manchester and open for library readers and visitors.

Enriqueta Rylands purchased a site on Deansgate for her memorial library in 1889 and commissioned a design from architect Basil Champneys. Rylands commissioned the Manchester academic Alice Cooke to index the vast library of the 2nd Earl Spencer which she had purchased and another collection of autographs.

Mrs Rylands intended the library to be principally theological, and the building, which is a fine example of Victorian Gothic, has the appearance of a church, although the concept was of an Oxford college library on a larger scale. Champneys presented plans to Mrs Rylands within a week of gaining the commission. Thereafter frequent disagreements arose and Mrs Rylands selected decorative elements, window glass and statues against his wishes.

By the nineteenth century Manchester was a prosperous industrial town and the demands of cotton manufacturing stimulated the growth of engineering and chemical industries.

More information: John Rylands Library

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

IN THE AFTERNOON, The Stones have lunched in one of the most popular places of the city, Mr Thomas's Chop House, a wonderful place to eat and drink the best specialities of the city.

Juan Stone has insisted in tasting good expensive wine and steak and kidney pie, a typical local dish. Juan is a synesthesic person and he transforms everything in art using the wonderful world of senses.

Mr Thomas's Chop House is a grade II listed building which first opened as a public house in 1870.

It's cast iron frame building and terracotta block displaying Art Nouveau motifs is a local institution in Manchester and one of the jewels in Manchester's crown. The managers and staff are committed to keeping Mr Thomas's at the forefront of Manchester life with fine food, fine wines, good beer and great company.

Steak and kidney pie is a representative dish of British cuisine. Steak and kidney pie is a savoury pie that is filled principally with a mixture of diced beef, diced kidney (often of beef, lamb, or pork), fried onion, and brown gravy.

The gravy typically consists of salted beef broth flavoured with Worcestershire sauce and black pepper, and thickened with refined flour, beurre manié, or corn starch. The gravy may also contain ale or stout. Hot water crust pastry, puff pastry, and shortcrust pastry are among the pastry crusts prepared for steak and kidney pie.

Among the various vernacular rhyming slang names for steak and kidney pie are Kate and Sidney pie, snake and kiddy pie, and snake and pygmy pie.

More information: BBC

Oh, don’t poo poo a nickle, Lisa. A nickle will buy you a steak and kidney pie,a cup of coffee, a slice of cheesecake, and a newsreel,with enough change left over to ride the trolleyfrom Battery Park to the Polo Grounds.

C.M. Burns

IN THE EVENING, the family has visited the Whitworth Art Gallery, a beautiful cultural place that belongs to the University of Manchester.

Mireia Stone, who is a fan of modern art, has been very happy with this visit and has become the best guide for the rest of the family. She has been very interested in the last Lego art pieces.

The Whitworth is an art gallery in Manchester, England, containing about 55,000 items in its collection. The gallery is located in Whitworth Park and is part of the University of Manchester.

In 2015, the Whitworth reopened after it was transformed by a £15 million capital redevelopment that doubled its exhibition spaces, restored period features and opened itself up to its surrounding park. The gallery received more than 440,000 visitors in its first year and was awarded the Art Fund's Museum of the Year prize in 2015.

The gallery was founded in 1889 by Robert Dukinfield Darbishire with a donation from Sir Joseph Whitworth, as The Whitworth Institute and Park. The first building was completed in 1908. In 1958 the gallery became part of the University of Manchester.

In October 1995 the mezzanine court in the centre of the building was opened. The new gallery, designed chiefly for the display of sculpture, won a RIBA regional award.

In 2010 the art gallery received 172,000 visitors, making it one of Greater Manchester's ten most-visited tourist attractions.

In February 2015, the Whitworth reopened after a £15 million capital redevelopment and received over 440,000 visitors in its first reopening year. It was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize and won the Art Fund's Museum of the Year in 2015.

The Whitworth has notable collections of watercolours, sculptures, wallpapers and textiles.

The gallery focuses on modern artists, and the art collections include works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ford Madox Brown, Eduardo Paolozzi, Francis Bacon, William Blake, David Hockney, L. S. Lowry, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, and a fine collection of works by J. M. W. Turner. One of its most famous works is the marble sculpture Genesis (1929–31) by Sir Jacob Epstein. It also houses the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection.

More information: Whitworth Art Gallery

Art is inspiring. Walking into a gallery, or when the lights go up on a stage; that thrill of getting something that has nothing to do with acquisition.

 Sadie Jones