I'VE ALWAYS thought that we need a Manchester Imagined exhibition in terms of architecture and planning.
This city has been dreamed about in so many different ways for two hundred years. It'd be fun and instructive to view the models, graphics and visualisations artists, architects, planners and cranks have imagined over the decades.
There's some excellent material.
For instance there was a plan for elegant terraces of townhouses around Piccadilly Gardens, similar to those near Regent's Park in London, in the early nineteenth century, and there was a plan for a huge Anglican Cathedral again in Piccadilly to be built during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Carpenter's proposed Piccadilly Anglican Cathedral - using the human figure as a measure, the central tower would have been more than 200ft high
The most comprehensive fantasies of Manchester came with the 1945 Manchester Plan. This would have razed many of our landmarks such as the Town Hall in favour of boulevards, concrete and a rationalised brave new world.
The 1945 Manchester Plan's proposed arts centre at All Saints, a sort of proto Cornerhouse/Library Theatre scheme
More recently in the early nineties there was a scheme to redevelop Victoria Station as a shopping centre, arena, station and skyscraper combo. You can still see the model in the Great Northern interpretation centre off Peter Street, where Confidential goes underground on its tunnel tours. Only the arena happened so Manchester's first really tall building since City Tower in the sixties had to wait for the arrival of Beetham Tower a decade later.
Vector Arena
Architectural practice BDP have now posted a video, which is self-explanatory, about how to make the city a greener and more fun place. Of course the sun is always shining in these visualisations, articulated by Gavin Elliott and some geese, but there's something so wonderfully optimistic about the ideas you can't help but love them.
And it seems with the help of Cityco, the city centre management company, and local area bodies such as the Castlefield Forum, that some of these may actually happen, with pocket gardens and the like in the Northern Quarter, Piccadilly Basin, and Castlefield. There's still much work to be done, but if these ideas are taken seriously the city would benefit immeasurably.
Let's hope it all works out, but if not at least we have a fine new addition to the Manchester Imagined Exhibition.
Does any gallery out there want to host this by the way? Confidential's ready and raring to go with curating it.
