Leisure Attractions In Greater Manchester

[dgnr8]

To be honest, I'd love a go of it. I just don't get why a seperate building needs to be constructed to house it. Could it not have just been incorporated into the chill factor plot? With all the seperate developments going on round there, it's turning into a real fancy dan retail park.

[Chogmook]

Skydiving simulator planned

A free fall parachute jump takes more than just guts. A plane is kind of useful. Some empty sky. A pylon-free field to land in. And lots of practice at falling. But a new simulator planned for Greater Manchester is about to do away with all that:


Falling upwards: in the simulator

Planning permission has been granted for a £5 million simulated skydiving centre next to the Chill Factore and close to the Trafford Centre.

What the developers Airkix plc claim is that, for beginners to pro-flyers, they can provide thrill of free fall without the stress of jumping out of plane.

Fear factor

So how does that work? Simon Ward, chief executive of Airkix explained.

"If you take something like a wind tunnel that would use for a Formula One car and and turn it on its end, then you have a 120mph of wind going through that tunnel."

Adding: "There is an opening in the side and all you do is you lean into the air and you’re flying. So there’s no plunging, plummeting, hurtling, leaping out of aeroplanes, or bad weather."

Mr Ward said that the the advantage of the wind tunnel was that it combined the heart-pumping elements of an extreme sport but in a controlled and safe environment:

"It actually feels just like free fall," he said. "The only thing that’s different is getting out of the plane and the fear factor. Anyone can do it. We say from 5 to 105."

Bigger

Airkix already operates a similar centre in Milton Keynes, but are promising a bigger skydiver simulator at their 20 metre (65 ft) tall Manchester flight centre.

This includes a 4.3 metre (14ft) diameter flight chamber with wind-speeds of up to 170mph (274 kph). And the total height of the flight chamber is 15 metres (48ft).

Skydiving is a hugely popular sport with thousands of people taking part every week. But with the famous British weather, many flights and jumps have to be cancelled.


How it might look: next to Chill Factore

Indoor skydiving may never really match the adrenaline rush of leaping out of an aeroplane and reaching terminal velocity. But it can offer skydiving practice, whatever the conditions.

Plans for the centre also include training rooms, a floor area to practise manoeuvres and formations, along with a large viewing gallery with café and bar.

Construction is expected to begin in 2009 with the centre due to open in early 2010.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/cont..._feature.shtml

[Sir Miles Platting]

A little drag on a joint stuffed with BC skunk does it for me.

It's a 'Canadian tradition'.

Try it and you'll know what flying is all about.

All from the comfort of ones garage.

[SteveC]

Planning details here.

Planning permission granted for a Legoland Discovery Centre in Barton Square.

[Savage Henry]

Originally Posted by Sir Miles Platting

A little drag on a joint stuffed with BC skunk does it for me.

It's a 'Canadian tradition'.

Try it and you'll know what flying is all about.

All from the comfort of ones garage.

Oh yes!

[flange]

Originally Posted by flange

Plans are online to turn the Argos Direct Warehouse in Trafford Park into a Museum, no mention on who will run the musuem yet though.



http://planning.trafford.gov.uk/MVM/...DAURI=PLANNING

Ship canal museum plan

David Skentelbery

7/ 1/2009

A NEW museum chronicling the history of the Manchester Ship Canal could be built.

Historic machinery used during the 105-year life of the canal - and its seven-year construction - could go on show in a converted warehouse in Trafford Park.

Items linked with the army of 16,000 `navvies' who built the canal would also be on display. The museum would be built in in Barton Dock Road, in what is now an Argos distribution depot.

Planners are recommending approval, subject to a £300,000 boost for public transport from the applicants, Peel Holdings, who own both the canal and the nearby Trafford Centre.

Special links could give shoppers access to the museum.

A Trafford council spokesman said: "The museum would occupy the full floor space of the warehouse. No external alterations are proposed but there would be parking for about 900 cars."

Work started on the canal in 1887, with distinguished civil engineer Thomas Walker in charge.

Wildly optimistic

He had previous experience of building the Severn Tunnel for the Great Western Railway company and estimated it would take four and-a-half years to complete the canal at a cost of £5.5m.

His estimate turned out to be wildly optimistic, because construction took seven years to complete and the eventual cost was more than £15m.

Walker was never to see his completed masterpiece, as he died before the contract ended.

Appalling weather and difficult ground conditions - including large areas of boggy land - contributed to the delays.

Despite the problems, the canal was a triumph for Victorian engineering, with the latest technology being used.

There were 100 steam-powered excavators, 124 steam cranes and seven earth dredgers as well as a fleet of steam locomotives and wagons - and items such as these could go on show at the museum.

Many relics have survived and need a permanent home, including machinery from the former Stockton Heath Forge, near Warrington, where spades and other tools used by the navvies were made.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....al_museum_plan

[GShutty]

Cue cynical response:

Being "~linked to the Trafford Centre" and with 900 car parking spaces (which is significantly more parking than say the IWMN, Lowry Centre and Lowry Outlet Mall combined)!

Could this simply be a means to an end to get through planning and build additional parking for TC which might otherwise be declined for congestion fears? The museum might later be 'deemed not viable' and either dramatically down-scaled or shelved altogether and the land used for other purposes.

As there would be no external alterations, interim expense incurred would be minimised.

[The Longford]

Originally Posted by GShutty

Cue cynical response:

Being "~linked to the Trafford Centre" and with 900 car parking spaces (which is significantly more parking than say the IWMN, Lowry Centre and Lowry Outlet Mall combined)!

Could this simply be a means to an end to get through planning and build additional parking for TC which might otherwise be declined for congestion fears? The museum might later be 'deemed not viable' and either dramatically down-scaled or shelved altogether and the land used for other purposes.

As there would be no external alterations, interim expense incurred would be minimised.

My thoughts entirely.

In the 1980s i think it was the v&a which ran an ad campaign along the lines of "Great gift shop with pretty good museum attached'.
I can see this turning into a tiny museum stuck in the corner with retail filling the vast majority of the space!

This, in my cynical opinion, is destined to be just an over flow carpark for Dumplington Precinct (900 spaces for a fucking museum?!?!?!?!? ), a tax dodge or a back door retail development.
Or all three.

[SleepyOne]

This proposal is so transparently a sham. Perhaps in the interim an attempt to increase the amount of parking to service the Trafford Centre, with a longer term view to converting to additional retail.

The transport impact assessment makes no attempt to justify the addition of the extra 335 parking spaces apart from to say the increase will make parking provision "ample" for the size of the building - despite admiting elsewhere in the document that not all of the space will necessarily be used by the "museum" - (you don't say)!

The sequential test is similarly cynical and lacking any depth.

There is no information on the content of the museum, why such a large amount of space is needed, who the operator is likely to be, no external alteration to the building (save for the extra parking) or improved access................................... and yet Trafford's planners are recommending it for approval.

[heatonparkincakes]

Personally if you to look for a revenue stream in place of the c charge, imagine a tax on free out of town car parking, with a clause to force yer Tescos, Peels and Ikeas to not pass the bill onto motorists.

work it out for the traffic centre

12,000x363x£1X30years.

could pay for a tram lines that one.

[jrb]

My first thoughts when I read this article in today's MEN.

900 CAR PARKING SPACES for a museum about the Manchester ship canal.

My second thought.

Peel are proposing two or three large offices blocks across the road/next to this Museum.

My third thought.

It all makes sense. (w******!)

[Sir Miles Platting]

Peel are taking the piss. We know they own the ship canal but a museum should be in the right place, ie the quays. Trafford wharf next to the war museum would be preferable to catch museum-goers, or even the odd BBC luvvie from over the proposed super space-age foot bridge.

Let's hope somebody can point out Peel's thinly disguised scam to SCC before it's too late.

I'm sure there's a few Peel haters knocking about in these parts.

[The Longford]

We've missed the deadline for making objections (sneeked it through over christmas?)
Not that it would make any difference - what with the Peel /Trafford planners relationship being what it is.

Anyway - cynicism aside i for one cant wait to wander round a fucking massive empty warehouse to look at some spades.

[SleepyOne]

Officers have recommended "minded to grant" permission presumably subject to a s106 payment for transport improvements as mentioned in the MEN article.

The application goes to committee TOMORROW, Thursday 8th Jan, 6:30 pm, Committee Suite, Trafford Town Hall for anyone interested in making representations.

http://www.trafford.gov.uk/cme/live/...6-13046F21DC36

[kids]

i might offer to do the exhibition for free.

[SleepyOne]

Originally Posted by SleepyOne

The application goes to committee TOMORROW, Thursday 8th Jan, 6:30 pm, Committee Suite, Trafford Town Hall for anyone interested in making representations.

Or to witness the deliberations of the committee and how different councillors respond to the application / applicant.

[spoonsbeatfish]

Paintball arena opens in Stockport


Three newbie entrepreneurs have set up an indoor paintball arena.

The creators of Asylum Paintball say they hope to fight back against the gloomy economic outlook by taking paintballing indoors to an all-year-round venue.

Raynie Thomson, Aaron Carson and Dale Smith, have converted a 31,000 sq ft area on one floor of the Victorian Pear Mill in Stockport.

Thomson, operations manager, said: “Running indoor paintball games obviously allows us to operate over much longer hours which makes commercial sense; however, the key differentiator here is we are not at the mercy of the great British weather, which can ruin an outdoor paintball experience.

She said the mill was “a huge blank canvas on which we have created incredibly realistic games zones, which are similar to that of a film set.”

Aaron Carson, co-director and set designer, has competed at international level in paintball and the third director, Dale Smith, served in Iraq with the Royal Military Police.

Thomson said: “Obviously we are aware this is a turbulent time to set up a business but we feel confident that that with the right model and a proactive approach to marketing, there are great opportunities

http://www.crainsmanchesterbusiness....s-in-stockport

[flange]

Urbis wows the crowds

Deborah Linton

20/ 1/2009

IT got off to a shaky start - but city centre museum Urbis has pulled in the crowds for a record breaking year.

It faced a storm of criticism over early exhibitions when it opened in 2002.

But now things are looking up for Urbis, Manchester's `museum of modern life', after the latest figures showed a huge increase in visitor numbers last year.

More than 260,000 people went through the doors in 2008 - an increase of 67 per cent since 2005.

Almost three quarters of visitors were under 35 and 60 per cent were repeat visitors.

Urbis, in Cathedral Gardens, came under fire when it emerged in 2003 that visitor numbers had slumped to just 200 a day.

Bosses took the radical step of scrapping the admissions charge - and its popularity soared.

Urbis boss Vaughan Allen said: "Because Urbis is young and had everything to prove when it first opened the team has been able to create a new kind of cultural organisation in the city, with the city and for the city.

"It is rewarding that the figures show that people in Manchester like what they see. We won't be resting on our laurels.

"In fact, 2009 will be our most ambitious yet as the increase in visitor numbers means that we have ever more people to please.

"We know that our visitors come back time and again. So we always have to follow the wow factor of the first visit with something equally lasting."

The museum has received acclaim for its ongoing exhibition about Emoury Douglas and the Black Panther Movement, as well as its work with the Reclaim youth project in Moss Side last year.

This year, the Reclaim project - which works to encourage youngsters to achieve and make a positive impact in their communities - will continue.

Exhibitions will include State of the Art: New York, in which 16 of the Big Apple's bright young artists have been invited to present their views of the modern world.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....ows_the_crowds

[flange]

New sculpture goes on show

27/ 1/2009

A SCULPTURE by Angel Of The North artist Antony Gormley has gone on public display for the first time in Manchester.

Filter, a life-sized male figure made of steel rings welded together, suspended in mid-air, was unveiled at Manchester Art Gallery.

Holes in the rings allow people to see inside the body, which contains a mass of steel balls representing a "heart".

Two abseilers were brought in to install the sculpture, which hangs by steel cables over a staircase in the gallery's glass-roofed extension.

The work, dating from 2002, was bought with an £80,000 grant from independent art charity The Art Fund.

Gormley is best known for the Angel, the huge metal-girder statue which overlooks the A1 in Gateshead, and the Another Place installation of statues on Crosby Beach in Merseyside.

The Filter figure is based on the artist's own body.

Orbit

"The work hangs in space as if in orbit, open to light and the elements. It is a meditation on the relationship between the core of the body and space at large," he said.

"It suggests that, while movement, freedom of choice and the exercising of will is one way in which life expresses itself, there is another axis: the relationship between emotion and spatial experience."

From a distance, the sculpture seems to be floating unsupported in mid-air, and Gormley, 58, said he was delighted with the location.

"It was important that it was light and clear, and that's exactly what I've got, but the added advantage is that you can see it from below, from the same level and from above," he said.

"There are not very many spaces where that kind of all-round visibility is offered.

"I'm hugely proud and pleased to have the work in the collection and in a space that isn't devoted entirely to other artworks.

"It's in a bridging space - people are on the move as they pass by it.

"It's a body that's in the space in very different terms to those of us having to walk up and down the stairs."

The artist said the sculpture was an attempt to re-examine the body and represent it not in action or as part of a narrative, but simply existing.

Interaction

"We think of the body as an interaction through which will is exercised but we know that 90% of the body's activities are not conscious," he said.

"Often we think it's the mind that constructs the experience of the body, and I'm trying to focus on the feeling of being."

The purchase was also funded by the Livingstone and Bloom Charitable Trusts, and Gormley said this kind of philanthropic support was essential for art to thrive.

David Barrie, director of the Art Fund, said he was delighted that the work had been bought for the public without any public money being spent.

"We put £80,000 in and the balance of the funding was provided by trusts, so the whole thing was funded privately," he said.

"The Art Fund has 80,000 members and we have, in effect, given £1 for each of them, showing that, cumulatively, even the smallest contributions can be enormously effective."

Virginia Tandy, the gallery's director, said she hoped similar funding packages could be arranged to acquire more works in the future.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....e_goes_on_show

[CDX]

Originally Posted by flange

New sculpture goes on show

27/ 1/2009

A SCULPTURE by Angel Of The North artist Antony Gormley has gone on public display for the first time in Manchester.

Filter, a life-sized male figure made of steel rings welded together, suspended in mid-air, was unveiled at Manchester Art Gallery.

Some shots of the installation from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign







More on the website.