NORTH CITY MANCHESTER BUILDING BOOM + some intriguing relics of the industrial age
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
- #Manchesterapartments #Manchesterconstruction
In this video we take a walk around the area to the north of Manchester city centre to look at a small building boom that's taking place. New apartments to rent and buy stand next to old relics of the industrial revolution era. How is this part of the city changing?
00:00 Introduction
00:45 Oldham Rd & Rochdale Rd
01:09 Goulden St police station
01:25 Broadside
01:40 Mulbury City
01:54 New Cross Central
02:23 Old industrial building Chadderton St
03:14 Ancoats Gardens
03:42 Sudell Street tenements
04:19 Misty view Collyhurst +Angel Meadow
04:44 NOMA district Co-operative buildings
05:22 Demolished Ducie pub
05:32 New Victoria
06:05 Strangeways Prison
At the end I refer to Manchester's Strangeways prison and ask a question I've been wondering about: Are there planning laws that prevent a tall building from being constructed right next to a prison?
The music in the video is by Unicorn Heads and the name of the track is URL Melt. Selected from the UA-cam Audio Library.
It's really quite amazing whats happening in Manchester I hope they can incorporate some of the old buildings into these developments what a change in the city in recent decades
Yes, I remember the 80s in Manchester when there was very little new construction and still lots of dereliction across the city. On the plus side, the music scene and nightlife were great, the Hacienda was considered the most famous night club in the world. Today the Hacienda building is long gone, along with many other interesting buildings. Too many older buildings are being lost. Many thanks for your comment. :)
Thanks for putting this video together CIS moved out never thought that would happen a sign of the times plus all these sky scaper buildings. Well done
That’s very kind. Actually, I feel compelled to make these videos as I’ve been interested in architecture and city development since I was a child. I was fascinated with the CIS tower since it was completed and a few years ago had the privilege of using the board room as my classroom! The views are great!
@@AidanEyewitness Retired now but did look after the air-conditioning plant that was the main computer room for CIS . The main frames were IBM .
I’ve just discovered this channel & as a Mancunian who’s been living in New Zealand for the past 5 years I’m very happy to hear the triangular building just past the Marble Arch has been saved. I always dreamed of buying that myself someday!
That's great thanks! I think that triangular building has been seen by many thousands of people on buses going up and down Oldham Road. It looks very good now that it has been cleaned and modernised. The block used to stretch much further along Rochdale Road and the rear side along Sudell Street, but at some point it was partially demolished, leaving only the triangular bit! Many thanks for commenting!
One area you should look at Aidan, is Miles Platting around Butler street. In my almost 60 years on this Earth the changes around there over the last 20 years are miraculous. Butler street is now an area with half million pound townhouses, river walks with Swans and other Waterfowl and is unrecognisable from my childhood in the 70s, when it was just derelict. It is the extension from Ancoats but this is the remarkable renaissance of Manchester, urban decay to sought after communities. I can’t wait for Collyhurst and the exciting plans to create a garden city with a population the size of Lancaster.
Sorry I didn’t reply to your great comment before now. Butler Street is not far from Victoria Mill. I have not looked at that area and so many thanks for your tip. It certainly is remarkable, the transformation. I was watching A Taste of Honey and there are some scenes by the canal shot around that area. It is like another world, but that’s the world we grew up in and the one I remember from my earliest childhood. I’ll keep an eye on Collyhurst.
@@AidanEyewitness I presume eventually it will be residential areas to Alan Turing Way.
@@paulwild3676 Yes it looks that way.
I left Manchester in 1994... so much has changed. Often used to walk back to my student digs past Strangeways on Cheetham Hill Road at 2.00 AM!!
Some interesting buildings... and some awful ones. But if you want to see brutal architecture you should visit Coventry! A concrete jungle strangled by an elevated ringroad.
Yes, well I once lived in one of the high rise blocks in Salford near the University and often walked home around that time - including one time when I got punched in the face during a brawl in a pub on Dale Street! As for Coventry, that is an amazing co-incidence as I am planning a day trip there in the next few weeks for a video. That's a great description. "A concrete jungle strangled by an elevated ring road" I'd like quote it if it's okay with you!
wonderful video once again!
Thank you very much, glad you liked it!
"Aidan Eyewitness never forgets" - love it!
It's true! I take photographs, which capture the world as it changes, including all the buildings in Manchester that have been needlessly demolished. I am the memory cells of the city!
Thank you always for sharing. Always enjoy & very informative:)
Many thanks for the positive feedback! Very much appreciated!
Another bunch of new high-rise luxury apartment buildings in Manchester, another set of old buildings demolished, but is it a better city now? And what about affordable housing? Please post a comment and I will try to respond straight away. If not, then soon!
Thanks again for this update Aidan. Rail, rail, rail. As said before, Manchester needs to make its rail network maps more user friendly and integrated in that map with the tram network. It needs huge investment (that it won't get anytime soon, clearly) but in absence of that, to be competing with Hamburg, and in the distant future, Munich for example, it needs to make its transport maps much more user friendly and invite prospects to settle in the city and invest. Right now, as a person from London, you look at the map and apart from trams the rail network doesn't make sense. It is hard to navigate. I know they require a city tunnel or second crossing on the Oxford corridor to make things exciting in terms of services, but there is no excuse for the poor way the rail network is expressed. A foreign visitor will have no clue as to frequency, reliability, what line goes where. it's all one colour, one operator or two and destinations. There's no contactless technology and electrification needs much further increase to Buxton and Southeast as well as the Cheshire Lines. It's all far too slow and some of that is now greater Manchester's fault. Manchester deserves better management. Instead of virtue signalling, they'd be better of getting on with the day job which is lacking right now. The public realm also needs vast improvement. Right now it's too patchy. The competition is not hanging around. Some of those councillors need to do some travelling. Manchester can have a great future, but it can win much more attractively than it currently is.
I agree with everything you say, very well expressed. The rail map is a good point. In my opinion, the London Underground is a masterpiece of branding and the maps are superb. Berlin also has a great network and great rail maps - I've followed the changes over the years. I think Manchester is too inward looking. The rail network has been starved of funding for years and bad planning is everywhere, for instance the Ordsall link between Oxford Road and Victoria - a potentially excellent addition - but only one train uses it per hour, in each direction. They never upgraded the lines leading up to it, as was planned a few years ago. I have a feeling Manchester will never get it right. Hamburg and Berlin will always be ahead. Many thanks for your great comment!
How is that achievable without government investment? Britain’s great regional cities are starved of funds. We are still waiting for a new platform to support the Ordsall chord. We do not have a Metrolink line connecting the outer boroughs. That investment comes from Westminster and as you are aware most of that goes into the South East to support London. If 1 billion pounds is spent on upgrading Bond Street underground station, there isn’t going to be much left for us, or anywhere else is there.
@@paulwild3676 I agree with you, it isn't. The city regions need autonomy to compete properly. I would say if London gets investment, it can only be attached to similar investment into projects in Manchester or wider North. Manchester needs and deserves better. Without the transport sorted out, Manchester will not attract what it otherwise could. However, Manchester government does itself no favours when it calls tram projects 'ambitious'!! No, a new metro line is ambitious or a city tunnel from Trafford Park and Peel's development to east of Ardwick or something similar. They have a very poor view and vision for Manchester. If anyone says 'active travel' again I'll kill them. Since when was me walking a gift from government?! They pretend they've done something! I agree with everything you say. Manchester's should is better than that, they are doers and with investment they would make it all happen. Of course the latest let down is Piccadilly HS2 station. A dead end terminus that will cause conflicts and lack of capacity. Manchester needs the long-term investment and thinking. What is good for London it seems is not good for Manchester. It isn't fair and it is stifling GDP growth and national pride.
@@richardwills-woodward5340 It isn’t possible without investment. Burnham can only ask, it is up to Truss or Sunak, or Starmer, whether he gets or not. Lack of ambition is not the issue, receiving the money to implement it is. It is a joke in 2023 that the second economic hub of the 5th biggest economy in the world does not have an Underground. It is beyond laughable that the fastest growing tech economy in Europe has to go to London to get 300 million quid for a few miles of tram track to Stockport or Middleton. Imagine living in Hampstead and having to go to Oxford Circus before you can go to Highgate. That is the equivalent of what people in Bury have to do to get to Rochdale unless they use a slow bus. I don’t think people in London and the South East realise how angry people in the North are about Crossrail. A modern fast train linking all those places, already linked, with Central London and we are using trains to go 30 miles to Leeds, which take over an hour because the tracks are not able to take fast trains. This Crossrail for the North which does not start in Liverpool and doesn’t finish in Leeds, is basically a commuter train from Warrington to Manchester. Why is it stopping in Marsden? That is the equivalent of a fast train between London and Oxford, stopping in a village 15 miles from Oxford and people then getting on replacement buses for ten years whilst they doll up the existing line. It makes no difference and doesn’t tackle the years of neglect. There is just a complete inability to give people in the North the same level of transport need which people in the South have had for 200 years. We were promised a fast train between Manchester and Leeds, not happening. Leeds was promised HS2, not happening. Leeds has been offered a tram as a conciliation prize. Could these people be any more patronising if they tried. A tram will take ten years to even start. The dead end terminus if it was Underground would go to pick up HS3. It is what other countries do.
There is also a divide and conquer approach going on now too. “Manchester, gets everything.” Is what you hear from other Northern cities. The oldest trick in the book. 1 billion pounds was spent on refurbishing London Bridge station. George Osborne wanted to make Manchester the centre of a huge economic area, with Leeds and Liverpool at either end with the great Lancashire and Yorkshire towns linked via a fast train, so you could live in Huddersfield and be in Leeds or Manchester in ten minutes. Instead we have a booming Manchester which none of the surrounding towns can reach easily. As ever in this country, done on the cheap.
Manchester city centre has changed so much in the last 20 years. Pretty awesome I think.
And maybe the more flats that are built then the cheaper they will be for buyers. ( supply and demand and all that)
That could well be. I often wonder who is going to come along and live in all these apartments. We have been living in economically positive, optimistic times in recent years. Lets hope it stays that way. Many thanks for your comment
Another interesting video. Far too much in Manchester to see in one visit. I have to say that most of these apartment buildings are bland boxes that I don't think will age well. However, I agree with you that One Angel Square, is superb. I always say the quality of a design is best evaluated years after the building is built. One Angel Square is almost 10 years old but still looks fresh and beautiful. I wish that all modern architecture could be this creative. They must have had a generous budget for the building.
I think the Co-operative Group like to be trendsetters with their architecture, as they were in the late fifties when they commissioned the CIS tower, still one of my favourite buildings in Manchester. Unfortunately not all architecture can be like One Angel Square. I don't think the situation is any different in other cities. I am planning a visit to Berlin in September, I will be interested to see how things are going there. Many thanks as ever for your comments!
I believe that Ancoats Gardens is a dead project awaiting revival. I am very happy that we didn't lose the triangle as I have been passing it for years.
Yes, I think I first photographed it on film in around 1997 and I've seen old photographs in which it extends for quite a distance along Rochdale Road. I'm glad to see it's been saved and looks renovated. I wasn't aware Ancoats Gardens is a dead project. I had a look and couldn't find any information, apart from the usual developer PR stuff. I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks for flagging this up.
I remember seeing the IRA bombing in the Arndale centre on tv back in 1996. This pretty much kickstarted the regeneration of the city centre that we see today
I would say regeneration was already in progress but it accelerated the process as a lot of rebuilding and new construction was needed in a short space of time.
@@AidanEyewitness Yes maybe regeneration had been going on since the 80s when Manchester was bidding for the future Olympic games.Sydney was also bidding at this time and I remember the Aussies making fun of Manchester comparing its blue skies to Manc's grey skies, and being the city that brought the world drab Coronation Street.
Most mancunians would be furious with this and would make them even more determined to improve and regenerate - if only to shove these comments back in their faces
@@retronostalgic Well, Manchester got the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and that was a fantastic event. I would much prefer to live in Manchester than Sydney and one of the reasons is the weather!
I prefer these gleaming new skyscrapers any day to dereliction and ruins which no one wants to look at and look so drab and depressing.
I visited Manchester for the first time recently mostly to see the new tall buildings and I spent money there as a tourist. The more tourism and visitors and students, the better.
Having said that more office towers and green spaces in the centre would be very welcome.
I guess the only way to have these is to increase the size of the city centre, which I believe the council is gradually doing.
Thanks, I think most agree the city is in a much better physical condition than before. If you were to wind the clock back to the Manchester of the eighties, and go for a walk around, you’d find it a lot scruffier and run down, but you’d also find a lot of interesting buildings that have since disappeared, as well as an exciting, groundbreaking music scene and a special mood and atmosphere.
@@AidanEyewitness Yes it was nothing special back in the 80s. Which makes it all the more baffling that in 1986 Manchester was bidding to host the Olympic
games! The delegates were taken on a tour of the city.
I remember seeing it on tv. Naturally they didnt get it back then and didn't stand much chance. But nowadays it could well be a different story...
They seem to be building Willy nilly on any bit of spare land. Not very imaginative some designs like little boxes on the hillside( sounds like a song) Enjoy your videos would be nice to see how The Town Hall is coming along, or London Road fire station. Regards
Many thanks as ever for your comments. Yes, I saw a feature in the Manchester Evening News about the renovation. I'll see what I can do. And likewise for London Rd fire station. I've passed it quite a few times recently. The exterior looks good, though not 'just-built-pristine'. Some of the grime in the tiles is permanent! Best wishes.
I don't know why they're still referring to Birmingham as the second city, Manchester has so much more going for it, from the financial district to the Airport, from the infrastructure that is going on to the metrolink and not forgetting the football clubs, it is a shame that the Ducie Bridge pub was demolished, but that's progress I suppose
The Ducie Bridge Pub appears again in my next video, 'Manchester Construction Then and Now'. I prefer not to use the term 'second city' as it gives a higher status to London. Another commenter remarked that Manchester is becoming like London. There's some truth in that, though I'm not sure if I like the sound of it! I once nearly got into a fight with a colleague from Birmingham. I was being diplomatic, I said both cities have a claim to being called 'second city' but he wasn't having it! There was only one and that was Birmingham. On the other hand I've heard of people from Birmingham who think Manchester is much better! Many thanks for your comment.
I know that the colourful cladding added to many of these buildings is meant to add personality but I'm not really sure it's a great idea. I think it may look a bit tacky.
But if you don't add any colourful cladding, people will say the building is plain and uninteresting. Architects can't win! As a child I wanted to be an architect but I didn't have the confidence as I had a difficulty with Maths. I'm not sure I'd like to be an architect today. I don't think I'd react well if one of my buildings was given the 'Carbuncle Cup'!
Enjoyed that roundup thanks for doing and posting. Btw are you a.k.a. 'Berlin Manc'?
I’m not known as Berlin Manc though I lived in Berlin and still love the city. I’ll be featuring it again soon.
@@AidanEyewitness check out the last post on this forum thread
@@speedtriplerider7853 Can you post the link? That’s very interesting as I can’t tell who has posted my videos on forums. Many thanks
@@AidanEyewitness sorry d'oh forget to paste it www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/manchester-construction-skyline-photos.1901884/page-50
@@AidanEyewitness have you done a video between U.K. and Germany in general? I’ve seen your manc berlin comparison.
A good friend lives in Berlin and has essentially disowned the U.K.
I would love to get your thoughts on the differences in culture.
It seems like certain aspects of Germany show how the U.K. could have been if certain things were done in the past though I’m not sure.
Love your vids Aiden. It seems like Manchester is the most up and coming city in the U.K. and is England’s 2nd city. What would you consider to be 3rd in line?
Birmingham is England’s second city,and Leeds is 3rd. Leeds is almost twice the size of Manchester. It’s Greater Manchester that is bigger than Leeds,but that includes Bolton, Stockport, Bury, Ashton, Salford, etc etc which are separate city/Towns on their own. Would be like a Greater Leeds that included Wakefield, Bradford etc.
I don't like to think in terms of 'second' as that would mean second to London. But in the 19th century, Manchester was a place of firsts and that continued into the 20th. I don't like hierarchies or keeping score. There are smaller cities than Manchester that are also great, like Leeds. Size is not everything. I still believe in the idea of a string of cities from Liverpool to Newcastle that form a kind of megalopolis, working together rather than competing against each other. and acting as a counterbalance to London and the south east. So that's my view. Thanks very much for the compliment, I'm very flattered! :) (Oh, and it's Aidan with two A's! No problem lots of people gets it wrong!
@@philipslade6810 yeah I’ve always heard that Birmingham is our 2nd city but it seems like Manchester is tbh. It’s importance now, it’s growth and investment etc. I should have put something like national significance or something like that. I don’t mean how large it is by population of geography but more it’s influence and progress.
I prefer Leeds to Manchester but I must say that being in central Manchester feels more similar to London than Leeds does in terms of growth, hustle and bustle, significance. Maybe that’s misplaced though?
@@AidanEyewitness yes I like the idea of that. I’ve moved to York from the south east as London is too much for me to even consider living in. I much prefer Yorkshire and the idea of these northern cities working together.
Let’s hope the railways are improved to help with the connections between these great northern cities.
@@philipslade6810 depends how you are measuring. If it’s culture or number of city centre residents or amount of inward investment then Manchester is very easily the second city. These are the only measures most people care about. Nobody cares about who empties the bins.
O how I wish we had planners with an eye for beauty and have foresight and power hold to account lots of the unimaginative schemes being passed - particularly in Manchester. There are some good things but in the main there are too many underwhelming developments. Sorry….
I think that's very true. But is there any city on earth which has wall to wall impressive and beautiful contemporary architecture? If so I'd like to visit and make a video about it. Any recommendations?
@@AidanEyewitness
Hello Aidan - thinking they’ve done a lot of fabulous work in Bilbao Spain…with some stunning architecture.. an industrial city that suffered like our cities in the North of England but has reinvented itself apparently ? Albeit, I’ve never visited to see for myself.
Regards !
@@Roddersville I will keep that recommendation in mind! Many thanks!