RE-BRANDING IS a fraught business. Especially re-branding of key buildings and city districts.
The name was the result of a giddy desire to be new when all it needed was to be good.
Often it makes fools of those who risk it and we're left with laughably vague monikers that never embed in popular consciousness and soon become meaningless for those who created them.
In Manchester in the last fifteen years or so, Spinningfields has worked, City Tower for Sunley Tower is perfect, the Northern Quarter is now as well-known as Chinatown.
Why? Because the words resonate.
Spinningfields was a street in an anonymous district so there was no competing idea for the area, City Tower feels right for a noble sixties building in the heart of the centre, the Northern Quarter is clearly different in character from other parts of the city centre.
Ask people where Peters Fields, Corridor or the Millennium Quarter are and only planners, tour guides and SkyscraperCity people would know.
Anagrams, acronyms, abstract and 'on-trend' words fail time and time again. Yet time and time again designers and branders sell them at huge expense to councillors and business leaders who feel they are out of touch. The designers and branders emphasise how very bloody zeitgeist they are by referring to Barcelona a lot and with weasel words, flattery and subtle enticements get a change endorsed. £50k is pocketed.
You'd shiver for the Coop's NOMA if the area it's spreading through wasn't already completely devoid of identity. Existing name Angel Meadow would have been better.
Meanwhile titles such as The Triangle is a classic case of a smart branding idea without an ounce of local meaning made worse by the gulping down of a title for which many people had great affection: The Corn Exchange.
OK there was a change of emphasis from flea market and bazaar to upmarket retail in the building but you suspect the name change was the result of a giddy desire to be new when all it needed was to be good.
Despite the fact there is no produce still sold at the Corn Exchange, the name had weight and meaning. The renaming of Maxwell House as The Printworks over the road has worked because it refers to a former quality of that space that had weight and meaning.
As The Triangle failed to make any sort of impact on city centre retail, the management panicked, the council gave in, and a series of three metre high metal 'sculptures' pointing at the entrances were installed. These looked ludicrous, failed in their task and got in the way.
Thankfully now they've gone. Thankfully the Corn Exchange is back. Identity is restored after a dozen years.
The initial phase sees the introduction of new signage and according to the publicity, 'the restoration of the building’s proud Edwardian architecture'.
Michelle Atack, marketing manager at the Corn Exchange, has said: “We are thrilled to be going back to our historic name of the Corn Exchange. We’ve been trading as The Triangle Shopping Centre for 12 years, but it’s time to change and re-position ourselves as a dining and shopping destination in the heart of the city.”
Maybe she could have been more direct and said that the name The Triangle had been a waste of time from the start.
The Corn Exchange is in Exchange Square with a range of shopping outlets from fashion, beauty, food and jewellery. Website here: www.cornexchangemanchester.co.uk.
Background
The present Corn Exchange was begun in 1897 and is also, confusingly, dated 1903. In fact it's made up of component parts that were added over a thirteen year period. It's based on a Renaissance style and the main architects were Potts, Son & Pickup, although the Fennel Street parts were by Ball and Elce. The building became The Triangle after it was restored following the IRA terrorist attack in 1996.
Can you spot the big daft steel sculpture thingies? Now thankfully gone.
