Unite unveil plans for 600-room tower on New Wakefield Street
Looks like another of Manchester’s music venues is to be gobbled up by Manchester’s ravenous property market.
Sound Control – formerly the famous A1 music shop, where Johnny Marr and Noel Gallagher bought their gear, and where in 1984, drummer Alan ‘Reni’ Wren answered an ad to join a new band called the Stone Roses – is set to go the way of the Hacienda, the Twisted Wheel and the Boardwalk, and make way for a modern new residential scheme.
Student accommodation firm Unite this week revealed plans to build a 35-storey tower on the site at 1-5 New Wakefield Street, providing 600 more bedrooms just off Manchester’s University corridor, Oxford Road.
Designed by Beetham Tower architects, SimpsonHaugh, the bold, four-tiered scheme will sit close to the world’s tallest purpose built student accommodation block, the 37-storey Liberty Heights (aka 17 New Wakefield Street) on Great Marlborough Street.
Should planning permission be granted, both Sound Control and a derelict property next door will be demolished. You can have your say on the plans here.
The venue, however, remains upbeat, releasing this statement via Twitter on Wednesday:
‘Tons of rumours flying around, we aren’t shut, we’re still open for business as usual… As it stands, all events in 2017 will not be affected. IF the planning goes ahead, it’ll be into 2018… This isn’t the end of Sound Control, we’ve got some plans too…’
The plight of the music venue draws into question the future of this historic cobble-stoned city quarter - dubbed ‘Little Ireland’ in the early nineteenth century due to the thousands of Irish immigrants who settled there.
Plans to extend the nearby Oxford Road Station as part of the Northern Hub rail project, as well as (as yet unannounced) plans by property group Bruntwood to redevelop the area into a modern, high-rise neighbourhood threaten to see iconic buildings such as Cornerhouse and The Salisbury levelled.
As Confidential’s Jonathan Schofield wrote in March last year:
‘City planners need to think about the husbandry of the city along with the need to keep the economy moving. Given the range of older buildings in the city we can have the best of both worlds if we choose. But that means sometimes turning down redevelopment, stopping the machine from rolling. In such an instance we might hold on to the physical character of the city while also gaining buildings and public areas that we can be proud of. Much has been lost needlessly, much can be saved, if there's the will and a plan and an appreciation of what makes cities interesting.’
Consultation for the new tower will run until the end of June.
