In Manchester's magnificent art gallery there is a painting dated 1954. Dog walkers, office workers, and a mother pushing a pram mingle next to immaculate lawns and flower beds which feature a fountain.
The Rylands building stands forlornly empty after the Debenhams department store it housed closed in 2021. Lawns still survive in the now cramped, untidy, unloved looking "gardens". A man is mowing one triangle of grass. Raised platforms cover large parts of the location - one for tables and chairs for, police insist, a well managed, an outdoor beer bar. Elsewhere there are wooden food stalls, and the unresolved blight of half of the infamous Piccadilly wall which remains standing.
Now Vulcan's clout is being deployed in Piccadilly Gardens. "For quite a long time the area has been in decline," Det Supt Blackwood says. "There has been a regeneration, it was refurbished in 2002, but...there is drug dealing there - quite blatant, open air approaches to people. It is a robbery and theft from the person hotspot for the force.
"There is really good vulnerability work going on," he says. "The problem they have had is a lack of staffing to be able to properly concentrate on that area. For a long time it has not had the right number of officers for that city centre space, that has been resolved. Lessons from Counterfeit Street The foundation stone for the approach will, like Strangeways, be the Home Office pilot tactic and mantra: "clear, hold, build' as used in Strangeways. It means clearing away crime, keeping control afterwards, and then changing physical infrastructure.
Asked if the stark remnant of the wall amplified problems for police, Det Supt Blackwood said: "If it was a stand-alone wall it wouldn't be an issue. The difficulty it has created is the dark nooks and crannies where people feel free to commit their criminality. The same would apply to a cut through on backstreets, or alleyway, it creates that dark dank place where criminals prosper.
"There is an operation to engage with the hotels around potential child sexual exploitation risk - a middle aged man coming into a hotel with a 14 year old who is not related to them and paying cash for a room - they are being educated to think that is not okay and they should be alerting the authorities. My officers have retraining around vulnerability, specifically for this."
Getting down to the nitty gritty - cans of beer can be seized - but the operation is about engagement - making it clear the location is not the place to get wasted. But Vulcan officers are also working closely with charities, like Mustard Tree, to help people get support and treatment if they are homeless, alcoholic, or drug addicted.
He concedes that just displacing Piccadilly's criminal elements to somewhere else is a risk. "We may, with Piccadilly, push them into the backstreets, but we have a plan for that too. If you do push them to the backstreets they will be dispersed, which is better than this melting pot we have at the moment - which allows the children to find them easily, or the vulnerable to be preyed on easily.
Councillor Luthfur Rahman, deputy leader of Manchester City Council, said: “We welcome this operation, with the police focusing resources on Piccadilly Gardens and acting on concerns raised by the community, the Council and others. The Council will support the operation whether through services to improve the appearance of the area as anti-social behaviour is reduced, or by aiding vulnerable people who need support – for example drug and alcohol treatment or safeguarding.