Mollie Simpson

1 week ago | manchestermill.co.uk | Mollie Simpson

In 2018, the John Rylands Library welcomed a new leader, whose arrival was said to herald an exciting new chapter for the city. Christopher Pressler, 46, was described as “an exceptional appointment for Manchester” by university registrar Patrick Hackett, who said that one of his key strengths was “leading innovation in the way in which students, researchers and the public access knowledge”.

1 month ago | manchestermill.co.uk | Mollie Simpson

It’s a warm spring evening, and I’m walking through Hulme towards NIAMOS, where tufts of weeds grow through the cracks in the concrete. The sign is missing an M, and there’s a door open: I step through and hear the Untold Orchestra rehearsing an arrangement of Ain’t Nobody. There’s a large common room, filled with mismatched sofas, a piano, buckets filled with cluttered dirty dishes from recent communal meals, alongside a note gently asking people to clean up after themselves.

1 month ago | manchestermill.co.uk | Mollie Simpson

Dear readers — from an outsider’s point of view, MediaCity is an extraordinary success story — 37 acres of film and TV studios, riverside restaurants, concert halls and a university. How did a former dockyard that once had water so filthy and polluted it occasionally caught fire attract millions of pounds of private and public funding, thousands of BBC executives and dozens of high rise apartment blocks? In today’s piece, we tell the other side of the story.

1 month ago | manchestermill.co.uk | Mollie Simpson

It was late August, just weeks before opening night, when key figures at the Royal Exchange realised their autumn production was in trouble. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was due to start its five-week run on 6 September, and as usual, a group of staff had gathered to watch a tech rehearsal, in which a show’s sound, costumes and lighting are given a run-through. The show was highly anticipated.

2 months ago | manchestermill.co.uk | Mollie Simpson |Joshi Herrmann

Editor’s note: Today’s story is the latest in our investigation into the University of Greater Manchester. Because it contains allegations of possible corruption involving senior figures at the university, we handed the details of what we are reporting to Greater Manchester Police on Monday evening. If you know anything that could help us, please get in touch.