Foundry Lane, Northern Quarter, Manchester

Foundry Lane was mostly an empty street at 7.15 am. I walked past a pair of black Pierre Cardin boxer shorts on the way to taking this picture. They lay neatly on the pavement, next to a pizza box, as if someone had just stepped out of them.

The red brick houses to the left of the picture are the Smithfield Gardens housing estate, built in the 1970s, and the first modern residential development in the Northern Quarter. There’s a large puff of vapour coming from the houses, as if everyone on the estate was exhaling an e-cigarette at the same time. In the background is the latest addition, a block of flats, which my friend has nicknamed the BatCaves, because of the black, grey, yellow and white of the exterior.

The street was quiet enough for birdsong to be heard easily above the slow…