The Mancunian Way: AI traffic lights

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To generations of Mancunians, the Curry Mile is an iconic part of the city.

A microcosm of modern Manchester, the people who moved here from across the globe have brought with them rich cultures and traditions.

In recent years it has changed dramatically from what was once a half-mile strip of Rusholme populated largely by South Asian restaurants, to an area peppered with Kurdish barber shops and Syrian shisha cafes nestled between the long-standing Indian sweet and clothes shops.

Photographers Michael Baker and Phil Portus recently captured the evolution. And Sax Arshad is one of those who has witnessed the changes first hand.

In the mid-90s, he and his brothers would throw water bombs at each other and the other kids along Wilmslow Road as their dad worked tirelessly behind the grill at Mughli. In-between each water fight, the kids would pop into one of the neighbouring shops or restaurants, fill their balloons back up with the nearest tap they could find and go for round two.

Today Sax says that those shops and the families behind them have all but gone - instead replaced by other families and business owners trying to make a name for themselves in the different Curry Mile that now exists.

“We don’t have that local community around here as much any more,” he says. “Due to being so close to Maine Road, football really helped this place - you’d have an early rush before a game and then a late rush when the game finished. The loss of that stadium really changed things for everyone here.”

Sax has been speaking to