OK, OK we said last week we weren't going to go on anymore about the Library Walk link aka Leese's Folly. But we did hint we had put in one last request concerning the building and gates designed by SimpsonHaugh and Partners.
The gates cost a remarkable £50,000. Are they gold, painted black?
We've now got the figures we requested.
The total cost for the link building was £3.57m. We thought it was going to be £3.5m but the final figure doesn't seem that far out if one ignores the fact that spending £3.57m on the thing in the first place seems pretty far out.
The fees for the designers were £161,952.
The gates cost a remarkable £50,000. Fifty thousand pounds. Are they gold, painted black?
For £50k you could buy three Mini hatch cars and ferry councillors around the city all day until evening when they could be parked across Library Walk where the gates are located. The city would then have a highly useful mobile barrier. There'd also be about £8,000 left over for a slap-up meal held in Leese's Folly with the planning committee, councillors, the architects and everybody else who agreed with the erection of the intrusion. That'd mean loads of dosh for champagne as nobody else agreed with the Library Walk link building aside from the planners, the architects and one or two councillors.
.Some of these 'Scream' gates...or 
...three of these and £8,000 of nosh and bubblyThe council also responded to our enquiry about the promised design competition for the gates in the original proposals.
They said: '"The idea of holding an art competition was a proposal included within the design and access statement, which was made at a time when we were considering incorporating a memorial to victims of the Peterloo massacre into the project.
"However, after consulting with the Peterloo Memorial Campaign, we chose to go ahead with their wishes of creating an entirely separate memorial. As has been widely reported, the Turner prize winning artist Jeremy Deller has now been invited to work on this memorial with members of the campaign."
Very odd this statement because a Peterloo Massacre element has been included in the link building. The names of the fifteen people who died at the 1819 event are highlighted in the centre of some of the Tudor Rose decorations. We like these but it seems somebody has failed to tell the council of their existence.
Finally, it should be noted that each year there is a prize run by BD magazine called the Carbuncle Cup for the least worthy new building in the UK. Unsurprisingly the Library Walk link building has been included alongside M by Moncalm Hotel and Northwich Memorial Court Leisure. Library Walk should win. Shame about those Mini cars though. If they'd bought them instead of the gates, the Manchester representatives could have driven to the awards in one of these fashionable little beauties.
Peterloo Massacre names inside the Tudor Roses :
As it was
