There were four of us students in the room and one large detective. We were just into our twenties and in the second year of our studies at Manchester School of Art, and all four of us lived in a modest ‘flat’ on the first floor of a house in Chorlton Cum Hardy. Good friends, we shared two bedrooms, two in each room. Me and Dave, Bryan and Manfred ( real name Paul ). We’d acquired the flat through a letting agent and paid for the privilege, and once settled in, they demanded another hefty fee from us, as I recall. We ignored this new and what we thought ridiculous, illegal invoice and heard nothing until.

“There’s been two big blokes here looking for you, they’ve gone now, but said they’ll be back” It was my flatmate and good friend Manfred. I was at home with my parents and Manfred was phoning me with real fear in his voice.

My dad was in the Constabulary and I told him all about it. “I’ll have a word with the police in Manchester” he said. “Tell them”, meaning my flatmate friends, “not to worry”.

“You’ll need to come to the Central Police Station in Manchester” said the man on the phone to me, and bring the other people involved.

All four of us were seated in a room in the station with big dirty windows, it was institutionally painted in cream and green and we sat facing a large suited man at a desk holding a pen. He was almost as wide as two of us. Four art students and a very large detective.

He was writing silently in this echoing room with the four of us sitting in anticipation.

Bryan broke the silence by giving his opinion on the room where we were waiting. In his soft Oxford accent he said:

“This room has great spatial qualities, don’t you think?”

The other three of us looked at him with bewilderment whilst the detective just stopped writing and with his head down looking at his paperwork, then he lifted his head slowly and said:

“What did you say?”

Forcing Bryan to repeat his opinion, this time rather hesitantly.

…great spatial qualities” it trailed off to near silence.

Detective looked intently at him and just shook his head in puzzlement.

The rest of us did not break silence, but eyes were moving towards each other as there was a little tension in the spatial qualities.

I have no idea what happened next there, it was a long time ago. I do know we were not bothered any further by the thugs at the door.

Paul went on to become a very fine art director in advertising; Dave too, got to the very top in the business. Bryan ran highly successful design companies and is involved in dozens of projects in his home county of Oxfordshire, and I’m writing this.

I met Bryan for lunch just last week. “Spatial qualities” were not mentioned, but if they had been, we’d have been transported back nearly 60 years.

Spatial qualities refer to the physical, sensory, and functional characteristics that define how a room, building, or landscape is experienced and used by people