It not definite, nor ground breaking, but I think this one of the missing fractals that the Hive needed.

Good.

Church Street Carpark to receive Garden City makeover

28 November, 2011

CityCo is working with BDP, Manchester City Council and the Northern Quarter community to deliver Manchester’s fourth Garden City scheme around the carpark adjacent to Thomas St and John St.

The vision is to tranform the ditches and redundant spaces into a green, interactive, landscaped site that could bring business, residents and visitors together.

The scheme will be delivered in phases.

The first phase will see all trees pruned and thinned to increase sight lines and visibility; unwanted plant growth removed from the embankment to reduce the impact of discarded litter; raised beds removed of weeds; new turfing and grasses; and new Grow Boxes installed to encourage the growing of herbs and vegetables by the local community. New picnic table seating will also be a feature.

Future plans include further painting work, gravelling and lighting installations.

Landscaping starts this week, with the help of volunteers from facilities management firm Carillion.

Phase 1 works will be complete by Christmas.

Manchester Garden City is a joint initiative in support of a long-term strategy to make Manchester city centre greener.

http://www.cityco.com/news/2011/nov/28/church-street-carpark-receive-garden-city-makeover/

http://www.manchestergardencity.org.uk

^^ Nice to see them trying, but I wait for the day that this is dropped. The proposal with a ground floor market and multi-storey on top sounded ideal!

On another project, the Swan St. incubator units are well underway, with much of the glazing now in. I've taken a few pics, but they are all truly awful. I need some better luck with the lights on the morning commute!

This here 'Northern bloody Quarter' needs doing up as far as I'm concerned...



































:jk:

As suspected the new building on Swan Street aimed at small businesses has taken no time at all...

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn252/Cityplanner/DSC00141.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn252/Cityplanner/DSC00142.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn252/Cityplanner/DSC00143.jpg

Eastside story: How a creative revolution gave birth to the Northern Quarter in Manchester 20 years ago

Report by Deborah Linton

February 16, 2012

The Northern Quarter has come a long way. To generations of Manchester teens it has been a haven of cool; a breeding ground for the avant garde and a playground for creative minds, from Marx and Engels to Factory Records.

Today, students fill their spare time in the legion of trendy shops, cafes and bars that line streets which were once home to Smithfield market, the rag trade and the bustling pet shops of Tib Street.

But 20-years-ago it was an experiment in regeneration; a rundown, slightly seedy remnant of what had been before with aspirations of busy streets and a deli.

Behind the doors of dereliction, and beyond early settlers like Afflecks Palace, Night and Day, Dry Bar, Nicky Oliver hairdresser, Band on the Wall and the Market restaurant, a creative revolution was taking place.

It was 1992 when Liam Curtin answered a job advertisement seeking an artist in residence – an interface between the city and budding local entrepreneurs – tasked with capturing the buzz.

Liam, a potter by trade, had set up ceramics studio Majolica Works with Wendy Jones in 1986 inside the Craft and Design Centre - the Oak Street creative hub which, with fellow Northern Quarter institution Afflecks, celebrates its 30thanniversary this year.

“I went to see Dave Haslam (the DJ) when I got the job and asked for a lesson in youth culture,” remembers Liam, now 60. “What people didn't realise was a lot was going on behind the scenes. Places like Afflecks Palace were incubators. He told me things happened there that didn't at first meet the eye. Bands meeting, people meeting, that synergy where people come together in the day and perform a gig that night.”

The trailblazers who lived, worked and played in the area set up the Eastside Association – a name later dropped when they saw a council planning report referring to it as the Northern Quarter.

Liam was asked to conduct a study for the town hall. They expected recommendations for public art – but were given instructions.

“The council needed to clean up the area, invest in street lighting and poor pavements, but it also needed to relinquish some control and let what was already happening there flourish.”

They also had to deal with the homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse that blighted the neglected corner of the city and had created a client-base for some 36 charities based there in the early 90s.

Consultants were brought in at a cost of several thousand pounds to help shape a future. The association won a £20,000 grant from the city which allowed them to salary an administrator, Sarah Rowland, and commission temporary art. They started a radio station and newsletter, the Northern Quarter Bugle, and held regular meetings at the Craft Centre.

“We had people like Tony Wilson and Peter Hook come along,” recalls Liam. “We thought they were all very glamorous.

“People like that were courageous. Tony Wilson was one of those people who was not afraid of failure. They made Dry Bar that kind of industrial chic at a time when bars like that didn't exist here. The area was derelict. Nobody walked up Oldham Street because there was a perception it wasn't safe. They were pioneers.”

Urban Splash’s transformation of the old Smithfield Building was another leap of faith and gave the association their first home inside an un-let unit.

Michael Trainor, an Afflecks fledgling who founded Café Pop on Oldham Street, reflects: “I think there was a general feeling that there was something special about this area despite all the very blatant neglect. There was just something in the world that felt right about the place.

“Our first meeting as the association was at Band on the Wall. I remember a discussion about hanging baskets that lasted about 30 seconds. That was a pretty decisive moment in which way this was going.”

By the mid-nineties, there were Northern Quarter conferences - or ‘jam sessions’ - including the wittily tagged 'I never promised you a roof garden', which drew locals, from rag traders, to nightclub owners and architects, to be part of what was happening. There was a fact-finding mission to Temple Bar in Dublin with members of the council including leader incumbent Richard Leese. Michael says: “It was possibly a step beyond their imagination. But they had the practical job to do and we had the more visionary one. We had to marry the two.”

Money was invested in paving and street lighting and grants assisted some 150 building refurbishments, of which architect Dominic Sagar, who had opened his practice, Sagar Stevenson, on Tib Street in 1989, was involved in almost every one.

Now a lecturer at Manchester School of Architecture, Dominic, 51, remembers: “It was an area I had loved as a kid and was passionate about. When we started talking to other people there, everybody felt the same despite the fact buildings were held together by dry rot.

“It became a labour of love. I’d be out clubbing and talking about building grants. It was community architecture in practice and it was an amazing, exciting, bonkers time.”

The Big Issue moved in – after overcoming significant opposition. Festivals and public art followed: David Kemp’s Tib Street Horn; the Lemn Sissay poem that lines the pavement of Tib Street, Peter Freeman’s Light Tower and George Wylie’s Brush and Shovel on Thomas Street – reflective of the overarching desire to clean and smarten up the area.

By the turn of the millennium, the small scale of the area and its palpable edginess had allowed something exciting and appealing to grow out of the recession of a decade earlier. And it had a deli (Love Saves the Day) too.

The association ran for seven years. Liam remembers: “By 2000, we felt we’d done what we intended. People were beginning to ask what we were doing about the bins and that was never what we set out to be.

“What we achieved was about collaboration. It was about people and - I’m not one to praise the council much - but it was about a council that was prepared to stop and listen.

“About a year ago I walked around the whole area. I had it in my head that it had become too commercial so I went round every street and photographed every shop sign. Then I did the same on Market Street and realised I was wrong. I suddenly felt really proud of it. I thought it’s a good place. And at least it’s clean and tidy."

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1485663_eastside-story-how-a-creative-revolution-gave-birth-to-the-northern-quarter-in-manchester-20-years-ago

Someone came into work with a free MEN and thrust it into my hand and said "Read this, you'll like it."

I thought that's one to put on SSC, so thanks for doing the job for me, Flange.

The MEN back at it's former best.

A heart warming and encouraging article by Ms Linton.

And proof if it ever was needed that the community action of concerned citizens, supported by a benevolent but not interfering elected authority, works.

MEN.

The Northern Quarter has come a long way. To generations of Manchester teens it has been a haven of cool; a breeding ground for the avant garde and a playground for creative minds, from Marx and Engels to Factory Records.

Today, students fill their spare time in the legion of trendy shops, cafes and bars that line streets which were once home to Smithfield market, the rag trade and the bustling pet shops of Tib Street.

But 20-years-ago it was an experiment in regeneration; a rundown, slightly seedy remnant of what had been before with aspirations of busy streets and a deli.

Behind the doors of dereliction, and beyond early settlers like Afflecks Palace, Night and Day, Dry Bar, Nicky Oliver hairdresser, Band on the Wall and the Market restaurant, a creative revolution was taking place.

It was 1992 when Liam Curtin answered a job advertisement seeking an artist in residence – an interface between the city and budding local entrepreneurs – tasked with capturing the buzz.

Liam, a potter by trade, had set up ceramics studio Majolica Works with Wendy Jones in 1986 inside the Craft and Design Centre - the Oak Street creative hub which, with fellow Northern Quarter institution Afflecks, celebrates its 30thanniversary this year.

“I went to see Dave Haslam (the DJ) when I got the job and asked for a lesson in youth culture,” remembers Liam, now 60. “What people didn't realise was a lot was going on behind the scenes. Places like Afflecks Palace were incubators. He told me things happened there that didn't at first meet the eye. Bands meeting, people meeting, that synergy where people come together in the day and perform a gig that night.”

The trailblazers who lived, worked and played in the area set up the Eastside Association – a name later dropped when they saw a council planning report referring to it as the Northern Quarter.

Liam was asked to conduct a study for the town hall. They expected recommendations for public art – but were given instructions.

“The council needed to clean up the area, invest in street lighting and poor pavements, but it also needed to relinquish some control and let what was already happening there flourish.”

They also had to deal with the homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse that blighted the neglected corner of the city and had created a client-base for some 36 charities based there in the early 90s.

Consultants were brought in at a cost of several thousand pounds to help shape a future. The association won a £20,000 grant from the city which allowed them to salary an administrator, Sarah Rowland, and commission temporary art. They started a radio station and newsletter, the Northern Quarter Bugle, and held regular meetings at the Craft Centre.

“We had people like Tony Wilson and Peter Hook come along,” recalls Liam. “We thought they were all very glamorous.

“People like that were courageous. Tony Wilson was one of those people who was not afraid of failure. They made Dry Bar that kind of industrial chic at a time when bars like that didn't exist here. The area was derelict. Nobody walked up Oldham Street because there was a perception it wasn't safe. They were pioneers.”

Urban Splash’s transformation of the old Smithfield Building was another leap of faith and gave the association their first home inside an un-let unit.

Michael Trainor, an Afflecks fledgling who founded Café Pop on Oldham Street, reflects: “I think there was a general feeling that there was something special about this area despite all the very blatant neglect. There was just something in the world that felt right about the place.

“Our first meeting as the association was at Band on the Wall. I remember a discussion about hanging baskets that lasted about 30 seconds. That was a pretty decisive moment in which way this was going.”

By the mid-nineties, there were Northern Quarter conferences - or ‘jam sessions’ - including the wittily tagged 'I never promised you a roof garden', which drew locals, from rag traders, to nightclub owners and architects, to be part of what was happening. There was a fact-finding mission to Temple Bar in Dublin with members of the council including leader incumbent Richard Leese. Michael says: “It was possibly a step beyond their imagination. But they had the practical job to do and we had the more visionary one. We had to marry the two.”

Money was invested in paving and street lighting and grants assisted some 150 building refurbishments, of which architect Dominic Sagar, who had opened his practice, Sagar Stevenson, on Tib Street in 1989, was involved in almost every one.

Now a lecturer at Manchester School of Architecture, Dominic, 51, remembers: “It was an area I had loved as a kid and was passionate about. When we started talking to other people there, everybody felt the same despite the fact buildings were held together by dry rot.

“It became a labour of love. I’d be out clubbing and talking about building grants. It was community architecture in practice and it was an amazing, exciting, bonkers time.”

The Big Issue moved in – after overcoming significant opposition. Festivals and public art followed: David Kemp’s Tib Street Horn; the Lemn Sissay poem that lines the pavement of Tib Street, Peter Freeman’s Light Tower and George Wylie’s Brush and Shovel on Thomas Street – reflective of the overarching desire to clean and smarten up the area.

By the turn of the millennium, the small scale of the area and its palpable edginess had allowed something exciting and appealing to grow out of the recession of a decade earlier. And it had a deli (Love Saves the Day) too.

The association ran for seven years. Liam remembers: “By 2000, we felt we’d done what we intended. People were beginning to ask what we were doing about the bins and that was never what we set out to be.

“What we achieved was about collaboration. It was about people and - I’m not one to praise the council much - but it was about a council that was prepared to stop and listen.

“About a year ago I walked around the whole area. I had it in my head that it had become too commercial so I went round every street and photographed every shop sign. Then I did the same on Market Street and realised I was wrong. I suddenly felt really proud of it. I thought it’s a good place. And at least it’s clean and tidy.”

I claim my prize.

Jrb you either

A. Don't read the preceding posts especially Mr Flange's.
B. A zombie, emerging from the Bradford coal mine in February 2003 and have no conscious ability to read anything posted on SSC.

:lol:

I claim my prize.

Jrb you either

A. Don't read the preceding posts especially Mr Flange's.
B. A zombie, emerging from the Bradford coal mine in February 2003 and have no conscious ability to read anything posted on SSC.

My greatest failing HP.

I read nothing(in full) and post everything.

This is true of my life outside SSC as well. (sigh)

I have an attention span of a........

"JRB."
"What!"
"Look at your mouse, it's got a scroll wheel and a back button."
"Use them."
"Yes brain."

^^ The hoardings are still up but the scaffolding is down on the Swan St development. It's looking tidy!

^^

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x284/gshutty/IMAG06371.jpg

More of this around the Northern Quarter please. We need to bring more office space into the Northern Quarter alongside convenience shops for local people, restaurants and retail. No more cafes or bars.

This has been thrown up fast! It's good to see these new little work spaces replacing all the studios and workshops which have been turned into flats. I just hope they are affordable for the start ups and artists which need this space.

^^The ones near Dale St filled up very quickly, so I'm hopeful of similar success here.

They need to get to work on doing something with the old market building further along. Maybe converting it to something similar.

Or what about converted into a fresh food market like those jobbies in the likes of Barca?

^^ It's a good idea Alexios and I'm sure would be just as popular as the Carft Centre 'hidden away' on Oak St. It would be good if it was full of small, specialist food orientated stores, each with a small bar and 3/4 stores to sample the nibbles and a cold beer on

..... or digressing in to dream world somewhat (though why could this not happen?), there is a train station in Montevideo that was delivered to Uruguay, literally by accident about a century ago, when it should have been dropped off at Paraguay (no joke). Uruguay did not and still does not off memory, even have a rail network.

Anyway, not believing their luck they thought finders keepers, assembled the thing and so followed, a series of butchers and fish mongers set up in there, each with their own flaming barbecues serving the local dockers. It still exists to this day in a similar, if slightly sanitised version to that which would have served the dock workers, offering some amazing, simple cuisine, all of which can be washed down with a beer and to this day remains my single best culinary experience.

A terrifically friendly place, they serve all of the offal as well as the finest cuts. I tried a slice of fillet, some intestine (not recommended) a couple of other cuts, some sausages and even tried some of their local black pudding and red puddings. After chatting for a while and eating for an hour, they 'gave' my wife and I a bottle of locally produced white wine and we ended up eating and drinking for less than £20 between us.

Just wanted to share that wonderful experience with you all and think that if we could achieve similar to this albeit on a smaller scale, it would be truly worthy. The Mackie Mayor building with the new square at the back could almost be custom made for something akin.

..... or digressing in to dream world somewhat (though why could this not happen?), there is a train station in Montevideo that was delivered to Uruguay, literally by accident about a century ago, when it should have been dropped off at Paraguay (no joke). Uruguay did not and still does not off memory, even have a rail network.


I think they have had one for years? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estaci%C3%B3n_Central_General_Artigas

The market story is a folk tail from what wiki says http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercado_del_Puerto

The place looks great and I would live to see the old market turned into that. It would be a real destination.

There was talk of a 'Borough Market' style venue as part of the NOMA development, the implication being that one of the old Co-op buildings would be used for this purpose, probably the empty block on the back of the Hanover building.

They need to get to work on doing something with the old market building further along. Maybe converting it to something similar.

I know that an organisation tried to buy it about 6 years back, but it was taken off the market by the council as they fancied using it to hold the County Records Office. I guess that idea was shelved. At the time it was said to need £750,000 spending on it to make it watertight.

Website for Sevendale House, no real info on there though apart from this promo vid & 'coming soon'.

http://www.sevendale-offices.com

5Tj_gVFPYM0

http://i40.tinypic.com/ea093o.jpg

The Swan St development looks tidy. Appears as if architects have considered nearby architecture with the rectangular windows which reminds me of Murrays Mills down the road.

Nice artwork for NoHo in Stevenson Square

http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae129/neil081273/863974e3.jpg

Looks like work could be about to start on The Flatiron (http://theflatiron.co.uk/) scheme on Dale Street, with new planning applications online to vary conditions on previous applications.


33 Dale Street Manchester M1 2HE

Application to vary conditions 10 (Entrance Design), 11(Disabled Access) and 12 (Specified Drawings) imposed upon planning approval reference 086601/FO/2008/C2 under section 73 of the Town And Country Planning Act 1990 to allow ammendments to the approved drawings.

http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=LVDO4CBC01W00


Bradley House 33 Dale Street Manchester M1 2HE

Application to vary conditions 5 (Specified Drawings) and 4 (Entrance Design) imposed upon planning approval reference 086602/LO/2008/C2 under section 19 of the planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 to allow ammendments to the approved drawings.

http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=LRZCUFBC06N00

Had a look at that. Appears they started work on it without discharging the conditions, materials etc. Council told them to stop. Tut tut.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x284/gshutty/IMAG06371.jpg

The Swan St development looks tidy. Appears as if architects have considered nearby architecture with the rectangular windows which reminds me of Murrays Mills down the road.

Can you elaborate on why you believe the Swan street development to be “tidy?”


I’m not even seeing much architectural input at all, even less to the correlation to Murray Mills!!


As I understand it, this is a Design/Build project (architects selling out their profession) that was more likely conceived several years previously for “any” location.


It sits within the Smithfield Conservation area yet marries nothing of the colour themes, height or styles around (admittedly eclectic!); adjacent to the Victorian–era Band on the Wall and an unloved Art Deco-ish pet shop, both around 6storeys. This is effectively three storeys with rooftop box taking the middle to a fourth and is completely out of scale with the rest of the streetscape. Composed of this dull grey brick that Manchester seems to have a job-lot of and the ubiquitous cheap, wood cladding (demonstrably unsuited to urban environments as witnessed on numerous projects in the city), this is awful.


Yes to more arty workspaces, re-using of redundant warehouse space and building on car parks inside the IRR, especially the underdeveloped Northern Quarter but I don’t see much creativity being borne in spaces such as this; another planning anomaly in a supposed MCC "conservation area."


I think I would have preferred Hodder & Partners' dull and inappropriate 20storey tower proposal than this banality.


http://www.hodderandpartners.com/projects/swan-street-manchester