Property Will Eat Itself

By: Robert Barry

The transformation of industrial spaces into clubs and then into flats in cities like Manchester has created a strange ouroboros of self-consuming development.

Clubbers at The Haçienda nightclub, Manchester, circa 1995. (Photo by Clive Hunte/Redferns/Getty Images)

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When the techno DJ Jeff Mills pulled up in his cab to play at Sankeys Soap in Manchester in the mid-1990s, he said, ‘Oh my god, this is just like Detroit.’ At that time, Emma Warren of the club’s promoters Bugged Out confirms, ‘There was nothing around — just some cabbies, an old pub and cafe. […]

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When the techno DJ Jeff Mills pulled up in his cab to play at Sankeys Soap in Manchester in the mid-1990s, he said, ‘Oh my god, this is just like Detroit.’ At that time, Emma Warren of the club’s promoters Bugged Out confirms, ‘There was nothing around — just some cabbies, an old pub and cafe. […]

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When the techno DJ Jeff Mills pulled up in his cab to play at Sankeys Soap in Manchester in the mid-1990s, he said, ‘Oh my god, this is just like Detroit.’ At that time, Emma Warren of the club’s promoters Bugged Out confirms, ‘There was nothing around — just some cabbies, an old pub and cafe. […]

When the techno DJ Jeff Mills pulled up in his cab to play at Sankeys Soap in Manchester in the mid-1990s, he said, ‘Oh my god, this is just like Detroit.’ At that time, Emma Warren of the club’s promoters Bugged Out confirms, ‘There was nothing around — just some cabbies, an old pub and cafe. […]

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