New luxury apartment buildings
In recent years, many new city centre
District names were created: the northern quarter, the central retail district, petersfield, the millennium quarter and the medieval quarter.
I decided to make up one of my own: North City - that's the area to the north of the city centre at the bottom of Oldham Rd, Rochdale Road and Cheetham Hill Road. Right now we are looking from the top of Shudehill car park just down from North City, so let's go back down to street level and head north. New Cross is the area around Great Ancoats Street and Oldham Road, once a scene of industry and poverty, today new luxury apartment buildings are changing the character of this district
That's the Crown and Kettle pub on the corner, one of Manchester's best. Opposite Wing Yip Chinese supermarket and Victoria Square Dwellings, an entire block seems to be experiencing a building boom. It's next door to the remains of the old Goulden police station, which was damaged by fire in 2002 as documented on my old Eyewitness site. A sign points to deliveries to the Oldham Road project and the Bendix Street project.
Between them is Broadside is a community of rental apartments with many extras, including a pet-friendly environment. Next door are two new developments: Mulbury City, that's M-U-L-B-U-R-Y: The signs say stunningly timeless architecture, a space for key workers, a place to make your mark, 144 stylish apartments for private rent. Just behind it is New Cross Central, the signs say: a new kind of neighbourhood, unique 1, 2 & 3 bedroom townhouses and one of a kind apartments for sale. The website continues: "Vibrant homes in a community full of personality and individuality. Unique homes that stand out from the crowd in a vibrant community " and so it goes on. It's built in red brick to match the industrial heritage around here, some of which is being demolished. Just across the street is an intriguing example of the industrial revolution era, one of the few buildings from those years in something like its original state. It looks to have been renovated previously, though the outer walls are bulging out slightly.
It's just a short walk now to Rochdale Road where two tall central cores are well advanced. This is on the site of an old redbrick industrial building on the corner, which was demolished. So this adds another tall building to this part of Rochdale Road. They're so close you could look into neighbouring apartments. It's getting like like New York, though I'm concerned that ironically these Greenwich. Village style terraces may be demolished. Let's walk north along Oldham Road, past Skyline Central, completed back in 2007. And on the corner site, another new residence is under construction: Ancoats Gardens, offering, as the sign tells us, hotel-style facilities with co-working spaces, roof gardens, a residents' lounge, a concierge and a commercial-sized duplex gym.
Seems like a new alternative to the old-style suburban semi is being created here, but is this a place to live it up for a few years or is it a long-term place of residence for families? And what about affordable housing? We walk past the Marble Arch brew pub, definitely recommended, especially their "Manchester" and "Pint" brands, and we take a look at this intriguing old tenement building standing on the corner of Sudell St, like a miniature Flatiron Building.
This residence once extended along Rochdale Road, only the triangular end section survived and now it's been renovated. The clock on a pole looks retro to me, or something you'd see in Germany and next to it, the radio transmitter tower quite a landmark around here. From the car park we look out over the Irk Valley, the crane signals new construction creeping outwards from the city centre. This was once an area of heavy industry. Steam engines once crossed Rochdale Road along here. And in the midst of it all St Michael's Flags, once a burial ground, now Angel Meadow Park. That's my photo on the information board showing the flags before they were removed.
Today it's surrounded by residential buildings but the Ragged School is still there. Just a few steps away and we have entered NOMA, the district created by the Co-operative. Group.
Construction is in progress all around.
That's the superb One Angel Square, one of Manchester's most impressive and eco-friendly new buildings. It was completed in 2013 and designed by 3DReid. It's 72.5 metres tall. The Cooperative Insurance Society have vacated the 118-metre CIS tower, built 1962, and it is now being renovated.
It will re-open as a commercial office building named 'Society'. Once old buildings are swept away, they're mostly forgotten. But AidanEyewitness never forgets. The Ducie Pub stood on this site but it was demolished to make way for the new building. It's captured here superbly in the illustration by Caroline Johnson. Should it have been incorporated into the new building, like they do in Ireland? I featured New Victoria in a previous article, now it's well advanced and climbing to a dizzy height. It is changing the look of the area around Victoria Station. Here it is seen above the façade and through the modern canopy of the station.
From Cheetham Hill Road let's take a look out over the railway tracks and imagine it 50 years ago, and in another 50. And as the light begins to fade, we can see the ventilation tower of Manchester's oldest designer development of bijou residential units, Strangeways, official name HMP Manchester, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, architect of the town hall completed 1869. And here's an interesting question. Are there planning laws that prevent the construction of tall residential buildings right next to a prison? If you can shed any light on this, please comment. So I hope you found this article interesting. Inspiring? Hmmm, not so sure about that, but hopefully informative.