Mark Addy

We went to Manchester mid morning, and walked from the car park to the centre along the Irwell.

Following the Boxing day floods, the Mark Addy pub on the left of this picture is wrecked and looks very sad, with real doubt about whether it will ever re-open (a cost of £200,000 to repair it has been quoted in the press, and it is uninsurable). The water came up almost to the suspended footpath on the right of this picture,  below the People's History Museum, so much of the pub was under water.

Mark Addy was a local hero in the 19th century, rescuing more than 50 people from the then heavily polluted Irwell, for which he received all sorts of distinctions.

Further up, the area in front of the Lowry Hotel has been largely cleaned up (some very hard work I can imagine). But the Manchester Utd team staying there overnight, before their game against Swansea today, will have had a good view of all the litter trapped high in the trees and shrubs on the Manchester bank of the river. It looks a real mess. The MEN said the team looked very unhappy - that may not be to do with the unsightly view from the hotel, however.

Today is the perihelion - when the earth is closest in its orbit to the sun. Not that those in the northern hemisphere will notice !