Five years ago Ancoats was a picture of urban decay, its derelict mills and warehouses a blot on Manchester’s cityscape. But just half a decade later and the area is thriving, hailed as one of the North West’s newest property hotspots.
The 3,000 new homes that will be built over the next five years in the area that once powered Manchester’s role as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution will transform Ancoats as millions of pounds of public and private investment are pumped in.
Ancoats Urban Village lies just to the east of Manchester City Centre, covering an area of 20ha between the Rochdale Canal and Oldham Road. The world’s first industrial suburb, Ancoats still contains a unique collection of former mills and other historic buildings. With the original cotton spinning industry long gone, recent years have seen considerable dereliction and many of the listed industrial buildings remain vacant.
The Ancoats Urban Village Company, part of New East Manchester Ltd, is charged with co-ordinating development and regeneration in Ancoats, working with key partners the Northwest Development Agency, Ancoats Building Preservation Trust and Manchester City Council. The key aim is to create a new urban village of around 3,000 people with places to work and visit as well as to live, while safeguarding the heritage of the area. Although some regeneration work has already taken place in the Village, progress was limited: land owners were unwilling to be the first to invest in their land and property, which led to a stalemate as buildings decayed. However, with the approval of the Northwest Development Agency’s compulsory purchase order (CPO) in September 2002 the element of uncertainty was removed and development is now well underway.
The CPO was the second in the country to have been promoted by a regional development agency (narrowly pipped at the post by nearby Central Park) and its purpose was not to assemble sites for comprehensive redevelopment or infrastructure purposes, but rather to ensure high quality development takes place within a reasonable timescale.
The CPO puts the onus on developers to come forward with suitable plans for their land. If these are not forthcoming or do not meet certain design and use criteria the land/buildings can be offered to the market and a suitable developer selected. Once a development scheme has been agreed, key milestone targets are set out. This ensures each scheme is developed, providing certainty and confidence in the area.
For buildings and sites that currently do not have developers and schemes confirmed Ancoats Urban Village Company is in the process of selecting suitable developers. Three bands of scheme value will be offered to ensure that small, innovative, developers do not slip through the net. These will be for up to £2m, £2m to £10m, and for over £10m.
SCHEMES ALREADY COMPLETED
WAULK MILL
Waulk Mill at 51 Bengal Street was recently converted into commercial space, in a £2.8m development by Urban Splash. The RIBA-award-winning scheme by Total Architecture has created self-contained office accommodation across four floors. It is home to the Ancoats Urban Village Company.
EXPRESS NETWORKS
Artisan’s Express Networks scheme has seen the conversion of the former Express printing works between Oldham Street and George Leigh Street. The first phase, completed in 2001, involved the creation of over 2,000 sq m of commercial space and 22 apartments. The second phase has created 2,376 sq m commercial space and 46 apartments and continues the success of Phase 1, attracting small new media and IT companies to Ancoats. The company has also converted Virginia House on the Great Ancoats Street frontage into 1,022 sq m of commercial space with an art gallery at ground floor.
MM2
The MM2 scheme at the junction of Great Ancoats Street and Jersey Street, a joint venture between Gleeson and Persimmon Homes, has created retail and commercial space, together with 92 apartments and live/work units.
FLINT GLASS WORKS
Lever Street Properties’ conversion of this former industrial building at 64 Jersey Street was completed in 2003 creating 1,400 sq m of offices/light industrial space.
29-37 GREAT ANCOATS STREET
(Derros and Hudson Buildings)
The conversion by North British Housing Association/Manchester Methodist Housing Association of buildings at the junction of Great Ancoats Street and George Leigh Street has created 23 apartments with commercial uses at ground level and is nearing completion.
CURRENT PROJECTS
ROYAL MILLS
Work on the Royal Mills complex on Jersey Street is underway, with ING Real Estate, which redeveloped the Albert Dock in Liverpool, due to unveil its marketing suite shortly.
Phase 1 of the scheme will see the Old Sedgewick Mill converted into 122 flats with commercial uses at ground and first floor level as well as the construction of two new buildings providing a further 71 apartments. The total development will see the creation of 11,000 sq m of B1 space together with 283 apartments and is planned for completion in 2007. The Royal Mills scheme is backed by an £8.8m grant from the Northwest Development Agency.
ING is also to develop a site at the corner of Henry Street, Blossom Street and Cotton Street. The scheme is due to begin this summer and includes 670 sq m commercial space and 22 apartments, together with a much-needed 217 space multi-storey car park.
MURRAYS’ MILLS COMPLEX
The earliest remaining example of a textile mill built to use steam power to directly drive spinning machinery, the shell of Murrays’ Mill is currently being restored in a £12m project. This will include the under-pinning of the entire building – which was built without foundations – new windows and repairs to the roof. It is also planned to re-open the canal basin in the central court-yard, which linked to the Rochdale Canal. The basin was used to receive the coal needed to power the vast boilers of the cotton mill. Archaeologists working on the site have found moorings for the boats embedded in the paving slabs. Funding comes from a £7m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £5m from the Northwest Development Agency and is being carried out by the Ancoats Building Preservation Trust.
The brief for the future use of the building is wide, and the mixed-use scheme could include a museum. There is also the potential to build a new structure on the fourth side of the central courtyard, fronting Bengal Street, to replace a building that burned down in the 1990s. A carefully selected developer is currently being sought for this important mill complex.