Promenade Park Makes A Difference

Confidentials 4 September 2012

SO strolling round The Quays on Sunday we came across Promenade Park.

This is not so much a park as a really well designed bit of urban enhancement.

The point about Promenade Park is that it makes The Quays better.

There's a climbing frame, slide and landscape features that all combine with existing sculptures to provide a lovely dawdling point on the prom.

It's clever, handsome and useful.

It's on a par with Cathedral Gardens but less filled with goths and emos. It's far better than Piccadilly Gardens.

It's the sort of thing that if the City were minded to do so could be spread through Castlefield to make the most useful and intensively used urban gardens in Britain outside the London Royal Parks.

It's the sort of thing that expanded and curated creatively in Castlefield would be better for the City than any number of First Street developments and the banishment of Cornerhouse/Library Theatre beyond the viaduct.

I'm with Phil Griffin over First Street. As he wrote in this wonderful article: 'Hiking Cornerhouse into a back street car park and surrounding it with three star hotels does not hold great prospects for visual arts in the city.'

As a city region we need to make the most of what we've got, because what we've got is special.

Castlefield in particular is a star and is steadily improving with the help of the residents, local businesses and the Council. But it could be so much more. I wish the money going into First Street was being spent on Castlefield instead with proper beautification.

Promenade Park shows that a little work goes a long way and sings a song with the landscaping now in place further west along the Ship Canal at the Imperial War Museum North.

When I asked Trafford Council who'd designed the new features they said: 'Promenade Park was designed by Trafford Council's landscape architects and is being maintained as part of the normal council budget.'

Maintenance is key. So many good things have been built over the last twenty years or so and then let slide. Most of the Irwell Sculpture Trail for example.

Promenade Park makes The Quays better.

It delights the eye and gives kids something to climb on.

It's an example for those who manage other public spaces in Greater Manchester.

You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter here @JonathSchofield