Manchester city centre’s first open air cinema

Posted on August 3, 2009 by admin

SCREENFIELDS – Manchester city centre’s first open air cinema

www.spinningfieldsonline.com

Spinningfields, Off Deansgate

Last chance to view the open air cinema this summer

Event listings for September are:

3rd September – The Rocky Horror Picture Show

10th September – The Reader

Spinningfields, situated off Deansgate, is ideally located close to the city’s main shopping areas and offers an array of quality family eateries including Giraffe, Nando’s, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Carluccio’s, Strada, Wagamama and Samsi. For more information on Spinningfields and to sign up for a free Spinningfields yellow card offering a variety of discounts, visit the website above.

Posted in Manchester Press Release | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Band On The Wall Opens Its Doors!

Posted on August 3, 2009 by admin

BAND ON THE WALL OPENS ITS DOORS!

www.bandonthewall.org

Northern Quarter

Band on the Wall is a not-for-profit venue run by registered charity Inner City Music. They exist to present the best music from around the world and support our main stage events with a dynamic education programme which operates throughout the year -  both in the venue, in the community and at local schools.

Band on the Wall and its adjacent Picturehouse, are buildings with a rich cultural history. There are deep connections with the old markets and nearby former textile mills at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. There is a long tradition of diverse music-making at Band on the Wall, as well as a lesser-known history of early 20th century movie shows in the Picturehouse.

25th September is the opening night with Mica Paris and Julian Joseph

Visit their website for the full line-up, or contact 0161 834 1786

Posted in Manchester Music | Tagged | Leave a comment

Spinningfields Open for Business

Posted on August 5, 2007 by admin

The transformation of Spinningfields into a vibrant part of the City Centre becomes a reality this spring with the completion of several major developments.

The 8.9ha Spinningfields area is bounded by Deansgate, Bridge Street, Quay Street and the River Irwell and was originally home to the sprawling buildings of the Manchester College of Arts & Technology, outdated courts buildings and council offices at Cumberland House. With a need to replace the courts, Allied London was chosen to spearhead its redevelopment. The first phase of the development saw the construction of a new £5m business studies centre for Mancat on Quay Street. This was handed over to the college in April 2002 and paved the way for work to start on Westbury Homes Left Bank residential development overlooking the River Irwell. This £80m development includes a 16-storey tower and is due for completion in phases from the summer.

Work on the new City Magistrates Courts building, on the site of Cumberland House started early in 2002 after council staff had moved to new premises. The £30m building is being built by consortium G4CSG under the Private Finance Initiative and is a joint venture between Manchester City Council and the Lord Chancellor’s department.

The new court comprises 18 courtrooms, coroner’s court, waiting rooms, access areas and office space for 180 support staff, together with around 1,915 sq m of retail space. The court and office facilities are housed in separate buildings with a glazed atrium separating the blocks. The layout allows for operational changes within the judicial system over the life of the building, with the ability to let the office space separately. The building is due to be handed over in the next couple of months.

Also due for handover this spring are two new buildings for the Royal Bank of Scotland. On the Deansgate frontage is the customer facing element, 1 Spinningfields Square. This includes A1/A2/A3 uses at ground level, with seven floors of offices above. Glass-faced, the building reflects the adjacent Rylands Library.

To the rear, 1 Hardman Boulevard will operate as RBS’s back office in a 41,355 sq m, ten-storey centre. The building was designed by RHWL and again includes ground floor retail space – part of the plan to make Spinningfields attractive to pedestrians.

Yet to come in Spinningfields are more offices and a new Civil Justice Courts on Gartside Street. The latter will be housed in a 15-storey, 36,381 sq m, building designed by Australian architects Denton Corker Marshall. The 56 law courts in the building will deal with civil court cases and represents a consolidation of the civil court sites throughout the city. Work is due to start in the summer.

Two offices already have the benefit of planning permission. Number 2 Hardman Street will be a 14,000 sq m unit located directly to the rear of 1 Spinningfields. Guardian Media Group, which publishes the Manchester Evening News, Guardian and Observer, is to take four floors of the building in a deal which will see their existing offices on the Deansgate frontage made available for redevelopment. On the opposite side of Hardman Street, on land currently used for car parking, Allied London has permission for a further ten-storey building with 21,163 sq m offices above 790 sq m ground floor uses. Meanwhile Allied London has commis-sioned architect Lord Foster to design the 1.6ha site at the centre of Spinningfields. This should be submitted for planning consideration in the summer and includes a 35- storey office tower, 1 Hardman Square. This, together with a further three buildings surrounding a new public  square, will replace Quay House on Quay Street, together with the southern end of the courts site. This phase of the development will include 92,900 sq m of offices, a 6,503 sq m department store and a 250-bed hotel.

The design for Spinningfields also includes four major new or reconfigured public squares, a tree-lined boulevard and enhancement to existing streets and riverside walk-ways. Designed by Hyland Edgar Driver, the public realm works are due for completion at the culmination of the Spinningfields project in 2008. The £13m public realm works being carried out by Wrekin includes paving, ballustrading and street furniture.

Posted in Manchester Development | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ancoats boom time

Posted on January 5, 2007 by admin

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.

Posted in Manchester Development | Tagged | 1 Comment

City Springs into Conference Season

Posted on March 5, 2004 by admin

Manchester played host to the Labour Party 2004 Spring Conference over the weekend of 12-14 March, attracting over 3,000 visitors to the City. The Manchester International Convention Centre (MICC) hosted four concurrent conferences: Labour Party Local Government Conference, Labour Party European Conference, Labour Party Rural Conference and Labour Party Women’s Conference.

The spread of interest ensured the attendance of a wide spectrum of elected representatives, from local party delegates and local authority leaders and councillors to government ministers, MPs and MEPs. The Labour Party Spring Conferences also had a commercial dimension, with over 60 commercial exhibitors, numerous political and commercial lobbying companies, and sponsors of events and fringe meetings. Conference rooms at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Midland Hotel were also used for the event.

The conference was brought to Manchester through the efforts of Marketing Manchester’s conference team, supported by Manchester City Council. It is estimated that the event was worth £2.35m to the City, and placed it back at the centre of media attention, both nationally and inter-nationally. The success of the event should bode well in bidding for, and hosting, future high-profile political party events.

Manchester has a vast range of facilities available for conferences large and small. G-Mex and the MICC together have 12,500 sq m of exhibition space in three halls, an auditorium for 800, 12 breakout rooms and 15ancillary offices. The centre can also provide banqueting facilities for up to 5,000. Within G-Mex, the Windsor Hall provides 2,800 sq m column-free floorspace and the Central Hall 7,500 sq m. The Great Northern Hall within the MICC can cater for up to 1,600 people in its 1,900 sq m.

The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester’s International Concert Hall, on Lower Mosley Street includes an auditorium seating 1,875 and the Barbirolli Room, while Manchester Town Hall offers the elegance of the Great Hall.

Manchester’s UMIST and Victoria Universities are already two of the largest academic conference players in the North West and their merger this October will make the new Manchester University one of the biggest conference venues in the country. UMIST’s Manchester Conference Centre on Sackville Street consists of four purpose-built, adjacent buildings.

The Weston Building includes the 280- seat Weston Theatre and the 120-seat Manchester Evening News Theatre as well as meeting rooms and 500 sq m of exhibition space. The building also includes accommodation in the form of a 117-bed hotel and an adjacent 300 en-suite student bedrooms.

The recently refurbished Renold Building includes eight theatres from 140 seats to 500 seats, seminar rooms and 1,200 sq m exhibition space. The main building offers the 400-seat Great Hall, while the Staff House offers up to 13 seminar and syndicate rooms seating between four and 100. The Victoria University offers tiered lecture theatres, banqueting for up to 325,  exhibition space and meeting space at their main campus on Oxford Road.

The Rusholme Campus offers accommodation during the Easter and summer vacations and meeting rooms the whole year through. Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre provides dedicated year-round conference facilities with 75 bedrooms and meeting facilities for up to 100 people.

Manchester Metropolitan University and Royal Northern College of Music also offer facilities, while the Manchester Business School includes 116 en-suite bedrooms.

As well as the Midland, most major hotels in the City offer rooms for seminars. The Palace Hotel on Oxford Road includes a ballroom for up to 1,000 delegates. The Radisson Edwardian on Peter Street, due to

open in the summer includes 18 meeting rooms, suitable for eight to 80 people, situated on the first, third and fourth floors of the former Free Trade Hall. The Hallé Conference and Banqueting Suite on the second floor can be used as one major function room capable of hosting up to 425 people, with its own reception area, or as up to four individual suites for between 60 and 125 people. Other, quirkier, opportunities in the City include the Museum of Science and Industry and the Manchester Velodrome.

Posted in Manchester Press Release | Leave a comment

The New Manchester Arndale takes shape

Posted on December 5, 2003 by admin

The multi-million pound redevelopment of one of the City’s most famous landmarks finally got underway at the beginning of September with the start of construction work on site at Manchester Arndale.

A £150m investment by Arndale owner Prudential, the project will see the part of Manchester Arndale to the north of Cannon Street including the old bus station partially demolished and rebuilt over the next 36 months to form an extended and revitalised centre. The redevelopment will complete Manchester City Council’s Millennium Master Plan for the regeneration of central Manchester.

The extension, which is being managed on a design and build contract by Bovis Lend Lease, is due for completion in stages from October 2005. It will see the creation of 75 new shop units and will increase retail space in the Arndale by 27,870 sq m to reach a total of 130,000 sq m.

Fashion and homeware retailer Next will occupy a new anchor store facing Exchange Square, the home of Selfridges and Harvey Nichols. With four trading floors and a striking glass façade, the store will be the largest Next in the UK and is programmed to open in time for Christmas trading 2005.

A new glass and steel feature entrance from Exchange Square will provide a gateway to a new mixed-use covered mall, New Cannon Street. A glass roof and contemporary street style architecture will be used to give the mall a high street feel.

An additional five variety stores and a revitalised single level Market Hall will cement Manchester Arndale’s status as the City’s prime retail destination. The work has meant that all bus stops on Cannon Street closed at the end of August. These will eventually be superseded by the new interchange at Shudehill. In the meantime services will use the former Victoria Bus Station, Long Millgate/Corporation Street and Stevenson Square. The free Metroshuttle bus Route 2 has been re-routed to take account of this.

Meanwhile work is coming to fruition on the £10m refurbishment of the southern half of the centre. Yellow tiles have gone, replaced with panels of 140 million-year-old Jura Limestone, while internally a glass rooflight allows natural light into Halle Square for the first time since the centre opened in 1979.

The structure, which features 42 insulated glass panels, is almost 16 metres in diameter and sits 22 metres above the square.

Supported on steel trusses weighing up to 15 tonnes, each panel is strong enough to carry the weight of a person – enabling window cleaning to take place. A complementary lighting system has been installed toensure the square remains bright whatever the weather. To complete the transformation, a new feature staircase linking the square’s upper and lower malls has been installed.

Prudential development director, Jon Weymouth, said: “This is a key milestone in our programme for the redevelopment of the Manchester Arndale and one that has already significantly enhanced the look of the centre. We wanted to create a ‘wow’ factor among visitors to Manchester Arndale and with this spectacular glazed rooflight I think we’ve done that. But the remodelling of Halle Square is just the beginning of our plans and as the transformation of the Centre gathers pace, we hope to create plenty more wows along the way.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Victoria Baths wins £3m splash

Posted on December 5, 2003 by admin

Manchester’s Edwardian Water Palace beat off competition from nine other endangered buildings to secure funds for renovation in a public vote by viewers of the BBC television series Restoration in September. Victoria Baths, one of the most opulent public swimming pools ever built, will also receive £3m pledged by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Grade II listed baths opened in 1906 to serve the Longsight area of Manchester. Lavishly designed withstained-glass windows and ornate tiling, the building provided three pools, 64 wash baths as well as Turkish and Russian baths. Victoria Baths provided swimming and bathing facilities for nearly 90 years, closing in 1993 despite local protests.

Soon after the closure, the Victoria Baths Trust launched a campaign to bring it back into use as a £15m health and leisure centre. The money raised from the Restoration series will fund the first stage of the project – restoring the Turkish baths. In the final programme of the series more than two million votes were cast and more than 1.3 million phone votes during the ten programmes added £275,000 towards the Restoration prize, topped up with a £3m Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

The City Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and government conservation adviser English Heritage are commissioning a feasibility study to see how the rest of the building can be renewed. The inclusion of bars or a restaurant has been mooted. The building would cost £15m to open as a public swimming pool complex.

Gill Wright, spokesman for the Victoria Baths Trust, said: “The feasibility study will look at all the options. The best use for a listed building is always the original use and we know we got a lot of votes because people wanted it to be restored for use as a swimming pool.

“But a use where we could keep the pool spaces open, like a bar-restaurant where people could use the balconies, would be preferable to a residential conversion.”

Construction work on the first stage of the building’s restoration will begin in October next year and a further lottery bid submitted towards the cost of restoring the rest of the building.

The Victoria Baths Trust runs an arts programme, supported by the Arts Council, the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and Awards for All. There will be arts activities at Victoria Baths throughout next summer as well as regular public open days.

For more information about the Friends of Victoria Baths call 0161 224 2020, email victoriabaths@aol.com or visit the website at www.victoriabaths.org.uk

VICTORIA BATHS – 100 YEARS OF HISTORY

* The plan to provide baths to serve Longsight, St. Luke’s and Rusholme was first considered by the Baths & Wash-houses Committee of Manchester Corporation in 1897

* Original estimates for the construction of the baths were £57,000 in 1902, almost twice the usual cost of building public baths.

* By 1905 the cost of completing the building had climbed to over £59,000.

* When the baths opened in 1906 few people had a bathroom at home, so the slipper baths or wash-baths provided the first real bath for  many.

* Men and women bathers were segregated until 1924 when mixed bathing was introduced with great trepidation.

* Channel swimmer Sunny Lowry began her career at Victoria Baths. She successfully swam the channel in August 1933.

* Olympic swimmer John Besford also trained at the baths.

* In 1952 England’s first municipal aerotone therapeutic bath – a prototype jacuzzi – was installed.

* Victoria Baths closed in 1993. The Victoria Baths Trust carried out a £244,000 programme of emergency work in 2002 with funding from English Heritage and the A6 Partnership.

BUILDING ON SUCCESS

After Victoria Baths’ TV success, two more local landmarks are to be put under the spotlight in a new documentary which will exploit the new craze for old architecture. Historic Rose Hill in Northenden, which was built by Absalom Watkin and developed by his son Edward, has suffered years of dereliction and despair, but is now being transformed into apartments. The building will appear in a new Granada programme called Derelict Discoveries.

Also featured will be Hugh Mason House swimming baths in Ashton under Lyne. Mason, MP for Ashton in the 19th century, was a social reformer who regenerated the area and was the first to give workers weekends off.

Posted in Manchester Development | Tagged | Leave a comment

Countdown to the Games

Posted on March 5, 2000 by admin

New faces at the top

Manchester 2002 has two new chairmen and a new chief executive

Charles Allen, chief executive of the Granada Group and one of the UK’s most successful business leaders is chairman with international and national responsibilities. Mr Allen has held financial and management positions in several major companies before taking over the Granada Group. Accepting the appointment he said: “The Commonwealth Games is an international event that will be superb for the whole nation. I am delighted and excited to become chairman and look forward to working with the Government, Manchester 2002, the City Council and with everyone who will share in this vibrant experience.”

Rodger Pannone is Senior Partner of one of the country’s leading law firms, which has its headquarters in Manchester. His role will be to ensure the whole of the region is involved in the Games and will benefit from a lasting legacy from hosting the event. Mr Pannone was president of the Law Society in 1993-4 and adviser to the Lord Chancellor on the Civil Justice Review.

Frances Done, formerly chief executive and treasurer of Rochdale Council, is the new chief executive for the Games. She previously worked as an accountant for KPMG and was chair of Manchester

City Council’s Finance Committee in the 1980′s. Speaking about the appointment Frances Done said: “This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity and I am delighted to be taking it on. Manchester is known throughout the world for Manchester United, but I think the games will build on that and help put us and the North West on the global sports map. It will also leave a legacy of some excellent sports venues.”

Manchester 2002 team up with United Utilities

United Utilities, one of the North West’s leading companies, has given the Games a massive seal of approval after agreeing to back the 2002 event. As part of the sponsorship deal, which was signed at the Manchester Evening News Arena in January, United Utilities has bought 10,000 tickets for Games events. These will be given away to community groups to enable people across the region to experience this once-in-a-lifetime sporting festival.

John Roberts, chief executive of Warrington based United Utilities, the parent company of North West Water and Norweb, said: “This will be the biggest ever sporting event in the UK and the biggest in the world in 2002.

“It is fantastic that it is being held in the North West and our support falls neatly into line with the company’s policy of supporting local communities. I’m sure other North West and national businesses will follow suit in giving their support to an event that involves the whole country.”

The sponsorship deal also brings a range of other benefits to the Games organisers including the hosting of a major exhibition of sporting photography, the running of a series of information seminars for regional businesses and funding towards the Games Legacy Programme.

The Rt. Hon Ian McCartney has also brought the welcome news that the Government will provide substantial financial backing to underwrite the Opening and Closing Ceremonies in 2002. This will ensure Manchester can put on a show worthy of a global television audience, one that will demonstrate the very best of British creativity and style. Mr McCartney also confirmed that the Games will be the centrepiece of national celebrations for HM The Queen’s Golden Jubilee Year, which falls in 2002.

Progress on the venues

Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiled the foundation stone for the City of Manchester Stadium at Eastlands in December.

Groundworks on the site are now complete and piling works are underway. Laing is due to start above ground construction work on the 38,000-seat stadium shortly.

Detailed design work is currently being carried out on the Sports Institute, a critical component of the Sport City development, with a planning application due to be submitted later in the year. The Institute will include the Indoor Tennis Centre, the National Squash Centre and a permanent outdoor athletics track. Work is also progressing on the associated commercial and leisure developments planned on adjacent land.

The Manchester 50 Pools on Oxford Road, close to the University, is set to be completed this summer. The £32.2 million complex will be the venue for swimming, synchronised swimming and diving events during the Games. Manchester 50 Pools have been designed to be one of the country’s most comprehensive swimming facilities. There will be two 50-metre pools; one with eight lanes for competition and one with four lanes for training, a diving pool and a leisure pool with flumes, water slides and bubble pools. Permanent seating for 1,500 will be boosted to around 2,500 in 2002.

Planning permission has been granted for the creation of four flat bowling greens at Heaton Park, which will provide the venue for the Lawn Bowling event. Work is due to start on these at the end of May, with the turf to be laid in September. The greens should be available for use from July 2001.

On the starting blocks

Manchester 2002 has developed an innovative sporting programme, in close consultation with sport’s governing bodies, to optimise the success of the Games. Setting a new precedent, athletics will begin the programme, ensuring public attention is secured immediately with a very strong first weekend of sport. The pace will continue with a constant series of finals on a daily basis, the climax to the Games being the hugely popular Rugby Sevens competition. More than a million tickets in all will be available for events in the Games programme.

Posted in Manchester Sport | Tagged | Leave a comment

New face for Spinningfields

Posted on March 5, 2000 by admin

A masterplan has been unveiled by Manchester City Council and Allied London Properties which is set to transform part of Manchester City Centre and bring with it a massive jobs boost.

An exhibition of Spinningfields, held at Manchester Town Hall in February, laid down the blueprint for the renaissance of the area of Manchester bounded by Deansgate, Bridge Street, Quay Street and the River Irwell.

The 8.90 ha mixed use scheme features ten major office buildings, together with new City Magistrates Courts, two impressive luxury hotels, several residential apartment buildings, a new college for Manchester College of Arts and Technology and a unique array of shops, restaurants and bars.

A number of buildings in the area will be retained, including the Pumphouse Museum, Gartside Street multi-storey car park, the Opera House and other buildings fronting Quay Street. The existing Crown Courts will also be retained, but will be extended at the Hardman Street end, onto part of the area occupied by the existing Magistrates’ Court.

John Rylands Library, which houses one of the most spectacular collections of rare books and manuscripts in the world, will gain a new entrance building, replacing the current grey brick extension. The new building will include a wheelchair accessible lift along with catering and retailing facilities.

The area will be opened up with new direct links established between Deansgate and the River Irwell. These links will open up more public space, much of which will be along a pedestrian boulevard running from the side of the Opera House down to the Irwell, parallel with New Quay Street. This will pass through two new squares – Hardman Square and Irwell Square- before linking with a new pedestrian footbridge across the river.

Work on the first phase of the scheme should start within the next 12 months. This covers the construction of a new, 18,588 sq m Magistrates” Court on the site of Cumberland House, to the rear of John Rylands. A new City Centre facility for Manchester College of Arts and Technology will be built on part of the existing Mancat site on New Quay Street and a new riverside development built along the Irwell between the Pumphouse and New Quay Street. This is set to include new homes, restaurants, bars, retail units and gallery space.

Also in the first phase will be a five-star, 235-room hotel, on the site of Northcliffe House, situated at the corner of Hardman Street and Deansgate.

Later phases of the scheme will depend on commercial demand but could include a further hotel on part of the college site, ten office blocks with up to 65,058 sq m of high callibre space, further residential blocks, retail space and a multi-storey car park. These will utilise not only the remainder of the Mancat site, but also part of the sites of Cumberland House, the existing Magistrates’ Court and vacant land on Hardman Street. There is also a proposal to demolish the existing YHA shop and Manchester Evening News building and replace them with a major retail store

“The scheme will help consolidate Manchester”s standing as a modern, dynamic, international centre for major investment. Following the successful redevelopment of the bomb damaged area, the regeneration of this quarter will represent the next significant phase of investment in the City Centre.

“It will be an exciting place for people and families and will make a major contribution to our key policy objective of providing new job opportunities for Manchester residents.”
Richard Leese, Leader, Manchester City Council

“This is a sustainable development and can be delivered through our valuable partnership with Manchester City Council. These buildings and the public space around them will create a commercial area needed to enable Manchester to achieve it’s deserved international status.”
Michael Ingall, Managing Director, Allied London Properties

Posted in Manchester Development | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Metrolink extensions power forward

Posted on March 5, 2000 by admin

Manchester’s highly successful Metrolink is on the brink of massive expansion. The government could be giving as much as £250 million to allow work to begin on the ground-breaking system to Oldham, Rochdale, Manchester Airport and Ashton-under-Lyne.

Following the Chancellor’s budget announcement, Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon John Prescott MP, travelled to Manchester on March 22 to announce this major investment in Greater Manchester’s public transport network.

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority and Executive, the bodies responsible for planning the Metrolink network, have been engaged in detailed discussions with government since Tony Blair gave his support in principle to the further expansion of the network last December.

The Transport Executive submitted a bid to government last year asking it to consider funding and building the Oldham/Rochdale, Ashton and Manchester Airport extensions under a single contract. This contract would also include the Trafford Park extension, although the latter is to be funded solely by the private sector.

The single contract approach could reduce capital costs by more than £32 million and will optimise private sector funding for Metrolink. Although a shortfall of around £200 million is left after the government’s contribution, local officials are confident of raising the necessary private finance.

The original Metrolink line, running 31 km from Bury to Altrincham, via Manchester City Centre, was opened by The Queen in 1992. An extension to Salford Quays was opened at the end of 1999 and will continue on to Eccles when the second part of the extension opens later this year.

The success of Metrolink has been phenomenal from the outset, with the lines to Bury and Altrincham taking around 2.6 million cars a year off Greater Manchester roads. The line through Salford Quays to Eccles is expected to carry an annual six million passengers.

The three new lines involved in the ‘big bang’ contract will carry in the region of 45 million passengers a year and bring more than half the households in the county within two miles of a Metrolink stop. Together they will contribute to the regeneration of deprived areas and take 5.9 million car journeys a year off the road.

Work could start in a year’s time with all three completed within six years.

Oldham/Rochdale Line
This is the top priority scheme, powers for which were granted in 1994. The 24 km line will utilise the existing railway ‘loop’ line to Rochdale via Oldham, with a diversion taking it partly on-street through the centre of Oldham and an extension, again on-street, from Rochdale station into the centre of the town.

Ashton-under-Lyne
A 10km extension running from the existing Metrolink terminus at Piccadilly Station to Ashton-under-Lyne. The route will serve the stadium at Sports City and new developments in Ashton Moss.

South Manchester and Airport
Powers for this 22 km extension were granted in 1997. It will serve Wythenshawe hospital and help the airport to attain its commitment that by 2005 a quarter of all journeys to and from the airport will be made by public transport and other non-car modes.

Trafford Park
Powers are held for this 5km extension to serve Trafford Park and the recently opened Trafford Centre, but the line would need to be privately funded.

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority also holds powers to build a spur, from the Eccles via Salford Quays extension, to the Lowry Centre and for an extension to Didsbury. Public Consultation for extending the Didsbury line to Stockport took place late in 1999 and GMPTE are currently looking further at issues raised during this consultation.

GMPTA chairman Cllr Joe Clarke, said: “This is the biggest single investment in local transport in living memory outside London.”

Marketing Manchester

Posted in Manchester Transport | Tagged | Leave a comment