The idea of pocket parks is bringing some greenery to central Manchester in the midst of rising skyscrapers and other huge urban developments such as NOMA and the Co-op’s shiny new headquarters.
In the Northern Quarter, a new “pocket park” has been created as part of Manchester’s Garden City Initiative. This beautiful little spot has been created by Northern Quarter residents, local business, Manchester City Council, and CityCo, the company which manages Manchester City Centre.
As Manchester’s Metrolink network expands both into South Manchester, East Manchester, the Airport, Ashton, Oldham and Rochdale, the bottleneck through central Manchester is getting tighter and new capacity is planned in the form of a second city crossing, which will see trams gliding along Princess Street and Cross Street, and through Exchange Square to Victoria, which will be pretty cool when it happens, but I expect there will also be quite a lot of disruption in the meantime. Still, progress never really comes without some discomfort, and the change needs to happen.
Check out this video of an artist’s impression of how the new second city crossing will look. It certainly looks very impressive – work is due to begin in 2013, let’s hope it goes as smoothly as the trams in the video!
For more information on Manchester’s Metrolink second city crossing see:
The taking down of the Manchester Wheel was one of the first features on this Manchester blog, and it seems it is happening again. The news is out that the Manchester Wheel will be dismantled to make way for something to do with the Olympics. In case anyone didn’t know, the Olympics are in London, not Manchester. Manchester bid for the Olympics twice and was snubbed completely.
Of course we do have events in Manchester, such as the football, which will see an influx of tourists, who might even come up from London to visit Manchester. But no “Manchester Eye” for them to use, just a bit more space for people to watch Olympics on the big screen? And hey, the National Football Museum will be opening, with the wheel currently right in front of it, in walking distance. But let’s make sure any tourists visiting the National Football Museum don’t stay in Manchester a little bit longer, say by walking over to the big wheel and going on it. That would be ludicrous of course, let’s just remove the wheel!
Manchester making way for London… Why? Guess we may need to change the saying “What Manchester does today, London does tomorrow” to “When London shouts Sh*t, Manchester jumps on the shovel!”
Just found this really interesting tool for those who like exploring historical maps of Manchester – is interesting to see Manchester’s growth from a mere village to the city it is today! If you want to explore maps of Manchester past and present, you can view a current map and overlay one of many historical maps over the top to see how Manchester has changed! You can zoom in or out and also change the opacity of the maps!
Meanwhile, speaking of the changing face of Manchester, the 17 New Wakefield Street Tower is taking shape on the skyline! Here’s a shot of it growing, a brother or sister for the Beetham Tower
Manchester Central Reference Library is undergoing a serious transformation, and it is fascinating to observe the progress of one of Manchester’s landmark buildings. The Central Library, construction of which was completed in 1934, is benefiting from a multimillion pound refurbishment to restore it in a way that meets 21st century needs while preserving the sense of history that the building evokes. Housing millions of books, many old and rare, the Manchester Central library has for many years been a place for people to meet, play and study, with its own theatre, the echoing main reading hall, cafe and galleries.
The Central Library has always seemed a huge place inside, but in fact only 30% of the building was accessible to the public. When the restoration is complete, the redevelopment will mean that 70% of this glorious building is viewable, with vast internal vistas, modern lifts, so the building can once again act as a scholarly haven and a grand meeting place.
It’s a shame it takes so long – closed in 2010, the library will not re-open until 2014, and in fact it took the same length of time to build the Manchester Central Library from scratch back in the 1930s. The redevelopment is perhaps more complex though as care needs to be taken to mingle the old and new, to preserve the past while interfacing with the the present and future. The entire interior of the building has been ripped out and much of it will be rebuilt from scratch inside, including an underground connection to the Manchester Town Hall Extension.
Here are some links to pictures of the redevelopment, as well as pictures of Manchester Central Library in days gone by, and the time lapse video of Manchester Central Reference Library redevelopment gives a glimpse into the true scale of the restoration and refurbishment of this grand Manchester landmark:
The Beetham Tower has been living up to one of its nicknames – The Tuning Fork – as high winds gust across Manchester at the start of 2012. The building, designed to sway in the wind, creates an acoustic resonance which produces an eerie howling, humming noise which can be heard for miles around. The Beetham Tower in Manchester in this video looks like some apocalyptic monolith, an alien chunk of something which has embedded itself in the earth and now spits out its message of doom as the cars below attempt to escape and the police sirens wail in futile cacophony.
Check out this video of the Beetham Tower Manchester humming in the wind, as the gales blow around, under and over it creating that spooky humming din! I wonder what it was like for those in the hotel and residential apartments within the building? I wonder what it’s like living in the Beetham Tower when it sways in high winds?!
Just found this video of central Manchester views from the Beetham Tower in Manchester. The videos show panoramic sweeps of the buildings and transport networks with views out into the distance. The Beetham tower is the tallest skyscraper in Manchester standing at 168 metres, it is one of the most slender skyscrapers in the world and consists of Hilton hotel and residential use, being the tallest residential skyscraper in the Uk. Locals affectionately call it the Hilton (due to the Hilton hotel logo on the side),and the big mobile phone (due to its striking cantilevered top heaviness!), All looks pretty cool to me!
Been out at the I Love Manchester day all day today and have a few videos and photos to sift through, will post some here in time, but for now here are some quick snapshots rather hastily selected and uploaded!
A full day of events and celebration of Manchester is planned, 09:00 – 18:00 Friday 26th of August 2011. For more details visit the official Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/WeLoveMCR
