Manchester Cathedral Gardens Subculture

Manchester's Cathedral Gardens, the area surrounding the city's Urbis museum, is often used as a hang out place for subcultural teenagers such as emo kids, goths, and moshers. The congregation is at its peak on Saturdays and during school holidays with several hundred. Recently Manchester City Council and local businesses (including the verger of the adjacent ) have sought a dispersal order to remove these young people, whom they accuse of anti-social behaviour. There is also an irony in the dispersal - It is part of the city's culture which Urbis celebrates in their idea of an Urban city.

A Meeting Place
Cathedral Gardens or Urbis (as it is commonly referred to amongst users) is a preferred social space for alternative young people from around Greater Manchester. A recent survey of 200 young people who use the space showed that most came there because they weren't safe in the streets where they live.

Safety in Numbers - 'Alternative Youth' V Chavs

The Alternative Youth feel they are the unwarranted targets for verbal abuse, from youths of a similar age who they describe as scallies. The sense of safety in numbers has been considered a driving force behind the large numbers of Alternative Youth, who congregate in Cathedral Gardens. Ironically, gangs, crime and bullying (which goes unchecked in their communities) have driven them into an area where they themselves are accused of anti-social behaviour.

Perceptions of Policing

The Alternative Youth feel they are targeted by uniformed and undercover police and 'Street Wardens' in a series of operations that have seen youths as young as twelve stopped and searched for drugs, fined for littering, prosecuted for skateboarding, frequently 'warned' for behaviour such as running and shouting, and having drink confiscated. Whether the perception is real in an academic article about the area it was noted that "...when a Police Motorcyclist rode past, they simply froze."

Youth Workers

Perceptions of heavy handed policing aside, 'alternative' young people are barred from the local shopping centre, The Triangle. This is an issue simply because though there are toilets within the Urbis building, young people are often barred from it. Also, there is nowhere for young people to go when it rains. Recently peer youth workers from amongst the young people have started to work in the Gardens in an attempt to change perception of the young people there and support their community. It should be noted that it has been observed that 32% of the space's users we under 13 years of age and only 9% teenagers.

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