Manchester Uni with an Instagram filter

The Taj-Mahal. Sydney Opera House. The Great Pyramid of Giza. Stonehenge. Notre Dame. Sistine Chapel. University of Manchester. Actually, scratch that last one.

Manchester isn’t exactly renowned for its natural beauty. But with the age of Instagram anyone with an iPhone can pretend that they have the makings of a great photographer. The Tab decided to put this to the test. AKA, we Instagrammed the crap out of campus. Ground-breaking journalism happening right here people, and you know, it’s not like I’ve got a dissertation to write or anything…

John Rylands Library

Oh you beautiful, brick…thing. Who am I kidding? Without even the saving grace of being beautiful on the inside, John Rylands doesn’t exactly scream at students “Hey, come work here!”, and with the age of Ali G, Johnny-boy’s got a lot of catching up to do (read: more sodding plug points).

Relegated to the dark ages.

Sam Alex

One of the prettiest buildings on campus. Which, to be honest, isn’t exactly a tough competition to win anyway. Perfect artsy-Instagram potential.

Straight out of Ancient Greece. Bar the scaffolding in the background, the fencing and any signs of modern technology. And the fact that it’s not.

Ali G

Not a building that could be described as ‘pretty’ by any stretch of the imagination, but being the newest building in town, it certainly has potential.

Potential space station from the future? Another person wasting their life on Instagram?

Students Union

Not going to lie, looks more like that secondary school you hated wasting many waking moments in throughout your teen years than the only supposedly ‘fun’ building on campus.

Beautiful. Bar the election posters. And the bus stop. And all other signs of modern living. So not really. But the election campaign posters give it a certain je ne sais quoi, non? No. Or, I just made it all blurry so you can’t tell how ugly it is anymore. Standard.

University Place

Never has a building looked more like a tin can, than a tin can itself.

With an orange glow, at least now you can nail it down as a tin of baked beans.

The Tower

Epitomizes 60s architecture. Practical and pretty bloody ugly. Also, the layout of Owens Park was apparently modelled on that of prisons. Make of that what you will.

So ugly even Instagram can’t help it. I tried guys. I’m sorry. I tried.