ANCOATS URBAN VILLAGE!(a comprehensive guide!)

[Jongeman]

I've only just discovered this building (BSC Gt Ancoats Tower), and only recently found this forum! This has to be one of the best looking buildings I've seen so far, I love it. It complements the Express Building beautifully IMO.......cool

Gt Ancoats St is one of the few M/cr thoroughfares that has the potential to be a (kind of) true European boulevard. It needs wider pavements, with trees down it etc. Only problem is the volume of IRR traffic though.

My first post, hope I've done it right.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Jongeman

I've only just discovered this building (BSC Gt Ancoats Tower), and only recently found this forum! This has to be one of the best looking buildings I've seen so far, I love it. It complements the Express Building beautifully IMO.......cool

Gt Ancoats St is one of the few M/cr thoroughfares that has the potential to be a (kind of) true European boulevard. It needs wider pavements, with trees down it etc. Only problem is the volume of IRR traffic though.

My first post, hope I've done it right.

Welcome Jongeman you have certainly done it right. I agree with your point about the potential for Great Ancoats Street. The problem is that the City Council need to change how they view it. As the street is part of Mcr's inner ring road its seen as primarily a means of moving vehicles around the city centre.

[Jongeman]

Cheers Craig

As part of the IRR, there's no real alternative for Gt Ancoats St. However, roads in Paris for example take murderous amounts of traffic too. It'd help if they did what London did (I think) and ban artics and dumpers from central Manchester roads.

Certainly improve the environment and the feel of the place.

[dgnr8]

I see what you mean with the European boulebard thing. On my school trip to Paris, our coach decided to go through the red light district with all the hookers and strip clubs. Needless to say, this was greeted with great joy amongst the 15/16 year old school kids. But the road was lovely, a central reservation not dissimilar from Ancoats. With the right care and attention, we could do the same thing with Ancoats, if Central Retail Park dissapeared. One thing Leeds is lucky to have is the Headrow. You only get a good feeling for about half the distance of the short road, but it's very similar to these "European boulevards" you speak of and it's something that would be really decent in Manc.

[caw123]

Oh aye.

I walked down some massive avenues in the 'Clichy' area of Paris. Lovely big trees, nice central reservation you can walk down. Just ignore the sex clubs and the passed out bums and you have a fantastic ambience.

[Jongeman]

Gt Ancoats St is also in the perfect place to be a service centre and suburb within the city, if you know what I mean. On one side, Northern Quarter residents, on the other Ancoats/Little Italy, New Islington etc. It's already developing a really interesting mix of residential and commercial properties.

Add the boulevard thing with trees, a Tesco metro, a small Halifax branch etc, a few bars, a florist and it could be really cool, in a very urban sort of a way. Also, I don't think that heavy traffic always has to detract from an area. It can make a place feel alive.

Central Park should be relocated - there's an enormous brownfield site between Ashton Old Rd and Hyde Rd (around Ardwick Station). How good would a park be here? Framed by mills on redhill st, new islington and the converted vulcan works on pollard st.

[SleepyOne]

You're dead right. Grt Ancoats Street has such great potential. Why oh why can our wonderous city council not see it?

Extending the blight of the central retail park across the road into Piccadilly Basin is simply unforgivable. On a prime spot next to the canal too! Utter stupidity.








Lets put these bad thought away for a second. Here's an interesting article on some of the recent progress at Ancoats including a mention of that mill that was destroyed by fire recently. Looks like its destined for a Leach Rhodes Walker designed scheme which Im looking forward to seeing. They have a massive portfolio going back years and are behind buildings such as Jefferson Place at Green Quarter and Liverpool's new Malmaison for example.

Also nice to see MBLC one of my favourite Manchester archietcts has such a heavy presence in the AUV.

Pace of development heats up in Ancoats
September 2005


The huge blaze at the heart of Ancoats last month has, if anything, accelerated the pace of change in the area rather than slowed it down. Although it took 60 firefighters the whole of the night of 13 July 2005 to put out the blaze at the five-storey mill on Bengal Street, they managed to prevent it spreading to the adjacent Beehive Mill, in which the legendary club Sankeys Soap is located. Although 47 Bengal Street was Grade B listed, according to Stefan Brzozowski, development manager at Ancoats Urban Village, it was actually planned for demolition.

“We did originally come forward for schemes for re-using the mill, but structural surveys put the kibosh on it. The development company Nikal Investments sent their engineers round and they returned to say that the place was too far gone. Obviously we couldn’t go on their diagnosis so we contacted English Heritage and they sent their engineers. Although their report didn’t concur – they aren’t going to advocate demolition – the subtext was the same. The subsequent interventions that would have been required were such as to make it impossible for the place to stack up as a development,” he said.

Leach Rhodes Walker are now looking at a new build scheme for the site, on behalf of Nikal Investments. In the same block, Richard Murphy Architects have just put in for planning permission and listed building consent for the first of three phases for the Burrell Company’s Murray Mills block. “We’ve put in a detailed request for the first residential phase of 112 residential units, which also includes some office space and live work space in the basement and ground floors. We’ve also provided a masterplan. At one end of this residential block, we have plans for a textile research centre and a new build hotel at the other,” said Matt Brennan, of Richard Murphy Architects.

In a joint venture with developers City Park South, the architectural firm MBLC have purchased land on the site to the immediate south of the blaze and have plans for a new office on the basement with parking on the ground floor. The new build (shown below) is on a sliver of land 11m x 60m and will also include 48 residential units. According to George Mills, partner at MBLC, a major factor in relocating to the area was the further development. “We were responsible for the early masterplanning in Hulme and located there at the same time. If you are adjacent, you develop links with other agencies. We’ve been involved in 18 projects in the area, because we were there from its early days,” said Mills.

“On Ancoats there are now 192 apartments that are now occupied. There’s 580 under construction and 450 that are approved or committed to,” said Brzozowski.

[highriser]

very interesting article there Sleepy,a friend of mine as just bought a apartment in Ovale, im going for a nosey next week

[SleepyOne]

Low and behold, Richard Murphy Architects' website contains a wealth of information on their proposals for hte Murray's Mills complex (not to be confused with the equally significant Royal Mills complex, itself currently subject to a £65m regeneration scheme).

Murrays Mills, Ancoats Urban Village - Manchester

This complex of buildings arranged in a quadrangle was built between the years 1798 and 1806 in Ancoats, an historic industrial suburb of Manchester. It currently consists of the Old/Decker Mill and the New Mill with their associated Engine Houses and the former administration building on Murray Street.


Ancoats Buildings Preservation Trust were the client for the shell-repair and conservation works began on site in September 2004. Our client, The Burrell Company / Inpartnership Ltd., has commissioned us to design proposals for the development of these important buildings.


Our scheme, which was identified as the preferred development scheme (won in competition in September 2004) proposes a mixed use for the site consisting 112 apartments and 1700m2 of office space within the mill buildings and engine houses; a Textile Resource Centre / Fashion Centre of Excellence within the Murray Street building; and a 60-bedroom new-build 'boutique' hotel on the currently vacant eastern side of the quad. The proposal will also reinstate the canal basin at the centre of the quad.


The architectural vision for the re-inhabitation of Murray's Mills is to create an enclosed central space, and to make new architecture which clearly differentiates between the restored historic buildings and new insertions. Externally, the new elements consist of corten-steel staircase/lift towers to the Old Mill and the Old Mill Engine House (echoing the form of the existing staircase); new external staircases to the first floor flats in the New Mill; and a glazed lift to one side of the Old Mill's existing brick staircase. The rebuilding of the top two stories of the Murray Street building would clearly present the contemporary exterior of the versatile new internal space of the Fashion Centre of Excellence.


Each mill has been developed with very differing residential strategies, neither utilizing the usual repetitive internal corridor solution with its inevitable single aspect flats. Instead, we wanted to consider alternative options to establish through-aspect flats so that the width and structural rhythm of the original warehouse could be appreciated.


New Mill: Taking our inspiration from the famous Unite d'Habitation in Marseilles by Le Corbusier, the top three floors have been provided with a central corridor down the middle (third) floor, the corridor giving access to a of a variety of flats on all three levels. The corridor itself is accessed using the existing Mill staircase and new liftshaft. This strategy has the advantage of ensuring the maximum number of possible through-aspect flats and therefore allowing a better reading of the original scale and structural rhythm of the building from within.


Old Mill: The strategy has been to externalise the circulation using three cores, one being the existing staircase and the other two being new corten-steel staircases and glazed lift towers. This approach allows us to make the incisions required for apartment access in a forensic manner, i.e. in lieu of new lift and stair cores within the historic structure. The flats have been planned so as to provide as many as possible through-aspect and, in a number of cases, through-space layouts which would give views of both the courtyard and the canal from the main living spaces.


Planning & Listed Building Consent Applications will be submitted in the Summer of 2005 with an expected site start for the development of the apartments and offices in the Summer of 2006.

What an excellent scheme this promises to be! I love the reinstated canal basin in the courtyard of the development.

[frozenmusic]

Wow, Murrays Mills looks very, very nice.

just spotted this on Pollard street in Ancoats, can't remember if i've seen it here or not

[Craig]

Originally Posted by SleepyOne

Extending the blight of the central retail park across the road into Piccadilly Basin is simply unforgivable. On a prime spot next to the canal too! Utter stupidity.

Spot on Sleepyone - talk about storing up problems for the future.

By the way where is the article on AUV from?

[markydeedrop]

I've managed to find this article today, but not the images mentioned:

Artisan Ship Canal Developments has released images of the next phase of its £100m Lower Eastside Valley scheme in Ancoats, Manchester.

Phases two and three of the development, on which construction began this week, include 242 apartments, 90% of which have been sold off-plan.

The scheme, on a 6.7-acre site, is part of the New East Manchester regeneration zone, which is supported by Manchester city council.

The development involves an extension to the existing Ashton canal to provide a waterside frontage.
It was designed by Artisan's in-house architecture team, Arconia.

The current phases are due to be complete by 2007 and are marketed by the in-house Artisan Property Warehouse.

Artisan Ship Canal Developments is a joint venture between Peel Holdings and Carol Ainscow's Artisan.

[EarlyBird]

A few piccies from Royal Mills today...

This guy was hanging onto the bars like a prisoner until I pulled the camera out and he hurriedly started acting busy...


This place is huge, but they really need to sort out the awful sheds next door


The crane swung right over my head and scared the crap out of me with the rattling from the chain

[vertigosufferer]

Great pics again, EB. Tell you what, I wouldn't mind one of those apartments when they get refurbished. Great Ancoats could become a very desireable place to live.

[jrb]

Taken yesterday!

Ancoats, New Islington, Looking from Ancoats towards the City Centre, Ovale!

Lots of work still to be done!















Mad! Love them Street lamps! News Islington! Can't wait for this Rocky Horror Show area to be completed!

[Farsight]

I do hope Ancoats turns out looking good in the end, but I'm a little concerned it won't. Are those lamp posts waiting to be painted? Or are they supposed to have the rustbelt look? Whilst I'm normally keen on refurbs, I do think some of these old mills are irredeemable and need to go. I can't understand why they're so valued by the likes of English Heritage, and I can quite understand if they er, accidentally burn down.

The development company Nikal Investments sent their engineers round and they returned to say that the place was too far gone. Obviously we couldn’t go on their diagnosis so we contacted English Heritage and they sent their engineers. Although their report didn’t concur – they aren’t going to advocate demolition...

[Mez]

Is anything specifically planned for the site on JRB's third pic?

ps, thanks for the pics jrb.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Farsight

I do hope Ancoats turns out looking good in the end, but I'm a little concerned it won't. Are those lamp posts waiting to be painted? Or are they supposed to have the rustbelt look? Whilst I'm normally keen on refurbs, I do think some of these old mills are irredeemable and need to go. I can't understand why they're so valued by the likes of English Heritage, and I can quite understand if they er, accidentally burn down.

The lamp posts are meant to be rusty - its Core 10 as in Angel of the North, B of the Bang and Gormley's other sculptures on Crosby sands.

As far as the mills go EH wouldn't be doing their job if they were in favour of letting our old cotton mills be dropped. In fact the overwhelming opinion from most people is for retention. Some of the mill buildings are pretty basic and some are listed not because of architectural quality but because of historical significance (although parts of Royal Mills for instance are quite ornate. Manchester became wealthy and grew because of the cotton industry and if we've got anytrhing to brag about its the fact that it was the world's first modern industrial city. I don't think its unreasonbale to retain and refurbish some of the mills (don't forget hundreds have been lost and qiuite right too) as part of a vibrant new part of the city and with good quality new build in amongst the older buildings. Its about being comfortable and proud of our past but not turning the city into a museum/industrial age theme park.

[Jongeman]

Craig...

My thoughts exactly. Some of those mills can be said to be amongst the world's very first industrial buildings.

I don't think what happened in Ancoats is fully appreciated now, but it will be in 50 or 100 years time, especially if World Heritage Status is achieved. Before these mills, there was no modern world, as we know it.

[SleepyOne]

Spot on Sleepyone - talk about storing up problems for the future.

By the way where is the article on AUV from?

Apologies. The article came from September's edition of Prospect Magazine.