Does anybody know the exact regulations regarding when a listed can & cannot be knocked down.

The only reason I'm asking is that I was speaking to a friend of mine who is post grad at MMU at Aytoun Street, who told me that MMU plan to sell the site to developers (in a few years time) who will develop what areas of the site they can and wait for the listed buildings to become "Beyond Repair" at which point they will knock them down and develop that land.

Does an owner not have an obligation to keep a building in safe & working order?

:? :?

From my days at Manchester Poly (as it was), the only building I can remember on Aytoun St was that shabby tower, can't see that having any form of listing. Mind you there are a lot of things I can't remember from that period!

Yes what buildings on the MMU Aytoun campus are listed exactly? The only old one I can think of seems to house the North West film archive.

I reckon the rest of the site could easily be developed while keeping the film archive building.

Beetham is being built on the site of a Grade 2 listed railway arch, as will Eastgate.

MMU plan to sell the site to developers (in a few years time) who will develop what areas of the site they can and wait for the listed buildings to become "Beyond Repair" at which point they will knock them down and develop that land.


I thought I'd heard that they had already sold the site.

It doesn't really matter unless it's "grade 1" listed. And then that's debateable. You'll be in trouble if you just demolish, but buildings accidentally fall down, if you know what I mean. Especially old ones. ;)

http://www.heritage.co.uk/apavilions/glstb.html

Aerial of MMU Aytoun Street:
http://www.webbaviation.co.uk/manchester/photos/dc11.jpg

Does anyone think this is a suitable site for a 150m+ tower? Considering it's opposite the UMIST Main building and the Shena Simon(now City College?) Building on Chorlton Street. Both being historic.

Aerial of MMU Aytoun Street:
http://www.webbaviation.co.uk/manchester/photos/dc11.jpg

Does anyone think this is a suitable site for a 150m+ tower? Considering it's opposite the UMIST Main building and the Shena Simon(now City College?) Building on Chorlton Street. Both being historic.

Any tower would have two motherf*ckingly huge neighbours for company. But I'm not sure it's quite the right place

I'd rather see a proper public space to replace what's lost at Piccadilly Place. A gorgeous bit of greenery and trees and somewhere to sit, hell, even a grassy knoll and white fence, it'd be a lovely place to sit down on your lunch.

Isn't Sackville Park good enough for that?

It's more of a secret garden than a public space though. You'd only see that if you were at CC/MMU/UMIST etc. You bung a garden on the MMU spot behind their library, it's remarkably opened up. Cars and trams will pass it on the way to Piccadilly (thus people will actually see the bloody thing) and people in Picc Gardens will know there's a very nice bit of greenery just down the road which will offer some quite spectacular views. Crown Building, Eastgate, PP tower, Sarah Tower and 111 Piccadilly, all will look immense sat there and unobstructed (virtually). Sat in Sackville, you're more hemmed in, completely cut off from the City.

Which is excellent. We need places like that. But look at Exchange Square and how popular this is. It's not just a wee bit to sit down and eat on your lunch. There's tons of shite to keep you interested from Urbis, Corn Exchange, Printworks, Arndale tower and everything in the Deansgate area. It's like a seated viewing area. We could do the very same with the MMU site on Aytoun Street.