Greater Manchester’s collective history: Linda Carver, Save Ancoats Dispensary

Linda Carver was a member of the Ancoats Dispensary Trust, a local organisation set up to save the dispensary building from demolition and redevelop it into a cultural hub. While the original plans did not proceed, the building was saved.

We met in March to discuss the importance of Greater Manchester’s architectural heritage and her work to save a significant Victorian-era building.

This story is part of our generative inquiry into Greater Manchester’s shared heritage.

Deliveroo Drivers: Mobile workers with a Mobile Union

Covid 19: face masks, boredom, Deliveroo and Zoom were some of the key features of that mundane, samey yet scary period. The use of face masks may have waned, but the popularity of food delivery services such as Deliveroo and Just Eat hasn’t. Food delivery riders are now a more common sight than postal workers; both professions carry a heavy load and involve long, hard hours but the main difference between them is that one workforce is supported by a large, established, wealthy union, the CWU. The other isn’t.

Manchester Five – is justice in a wig and gown or in orange paint?

On Friday 21 February 2025, Just Stop Oil protestors Daniel Knorr, Margaret Reid, Indigo Rumbelow and Ella Ward all were found guilty of the crime of ‘conspiracy to commit a public nuisance’. Noah Crane, just 19 years old, held in prison since August 2024 on this charge, was acquitted since there was no evidence specifically tying him to the crime on the day of the planned action.