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Salford Quays | |
---|---|
Salford Quays and Manchester Ship Canal (looking east) | |
Location within Greater Manchester | |
OS grid reference | SJ807972 |
Metropolitan borough | |
Metropolitan county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | SALFORD |
Postcode district | M5, M50 |
Post town | MANCHESTER |
Postcode district | M16, M17 |
Dialling code | 0161 |
Police | Greater Manchester |
Fire | Greater Manchester |
Ambulance | North West |
UK Parliament | |
Salford Quays is an area of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. Previously the site of Manchester Docks, it faces Trafford across the canal.
Built by the Manchester Ship Canal Company, Salford Docks was the larger of two that made up Manchester Docks, the other being Pomona Docks to the east, which opened in 1903. [1] They were opened in 1894 by Queen Victoria [2] and spanned 120 acres (49 ha) of water and 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land. [1] At their height, the Manchester Docks was the third-busiest port in Britain, but after containerisation and the limit placed on vessel size on the Manchester Ship Canal, the docks declined in the 1970s. [1] They closed in 1982, resulting in the loss of 3,000 jobs. [2]
In 1983, Salford City Council acquired parts of the docks covering 220 acres (90 ha) from the Manchester Ship Canal Company with the aid of a derelict land grant. [3] The area was rebranded as Salford Quays and redevelopment by Urban Waterside began in 1985 under the Salford Quays Development Plan. [1] Faced with major pollution issues from the quality of the water in the ship canal, dams were built to isolate the docks, after which water quality was improved by aerating it using a compressed air mixing system. Within two years the quality was sufficient to introduce 12,000 coarse fish, which have thrived in the environment. Water quality is monitored fortnightly by scientists from APEM, the Manchester University Aquatic Pollution and Environmental Monitoring Unit, and the improved habitat has been recognised by the Angling Foundation and the Institute of Fisheries Management. [3]
Between 1986 and 1990, the infrastructure of the docks was modified to create an internal waterway network. Roads and bridges were built and a promenade along the waterfront constructed and landscaped. Moorings and watersports facilities were provided and a railway swing bridge moved to cross Dock 9. A hotel, cinema, housing, offices were built on Piers 5 and 6 followed by more developments on Pier 7. Public funding and private investment totalled around £280 million by the early 1990s. [2]
Early in the planning stages for redevelopment of Salford Quays in 1988, potential was recognised for a landmark arts venue, the Salford Quays Centre for the Performing Arts, which became known as the Lowry Project in 1994. It had secured £64 million in funding by 22 February 1996. [2]
The Lowry stands at the end of Pier 8, largely surrounded by the waters of the Manchester Ship Canal. Designed by James Stirling and Michael Wilford, it opened on 28 April 2000 and houses the 1,730 seat Lyric theatre, the 466 seat Quays theatre, studio spaces and 17,330 sq ft (1,610 m2) of gallery space. [4] There are cafes, bars and a restaurant at the south-western end of the building. The centre is associated with L. S. Lowry, and houses a collection of his work.
The Imperial War Museum North (IWM North), on Trafford Wharf Road in Trafford Park, overlooks the Manchester Ship Canal on the opposite bank to the Lowry and MediaCityUK. The area was heavily bombed during the Manchester Blitz in December 1940. The museum, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, opened in July 2002. Its structure was designed to be a metaphor for a world shattered by war with sloping walls and ceilings. Three areas, the Air, Earth and Water Shards house exhibition and gallery space, public areas and restaurants.[ citation needed ]
The museum has an extensive collection of historical artefacts, primarily from the wars occurring during the 20th century, the museum also has an exhibition house with theme changes on a regular basis. As of 2021, the exhibition is dedicated to aid workers throughout the world, predominantly the Middle East and North Africa. [5] The museum also has a large section of twisted and rusted steelwork from the collapsed World Trade Center. [6]
MediaCityUK is a 200 acres (81 ha) mixed-use property development on Pier 9 of the Quays with a focus on creative industries. It was developed by the Peel Group. Its principal tenants are media organisations including the BBC. The brownfield site occupied by the development was part of the Port of Manchester. [7]
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The Quayside Mall contains outlet stores of well-known high-street businesses, including Cadbury, Marks & Spencer and Gap. The mall contains coffee shops and convenience food chains, and a multi-screen cinema operated by Vue. Outside the mall, a bar and several restaurants overlook the Lowry plaza. [8]
The head office of the UK arm of Communicorp is situated in Laser House on Salford Quays, with the company's flagship stations 100.4 Smooth Radio and XS Manchester broadcasting from studios there. Standing at the head of Erie Basin (Dock 9), Anchorage is a complex of buildings, which will shortly begin a partial redevelopment in to a residential complex alongside the existing office accommodation. [9] To the north side of Erie Basin stand the Victoria and Alexandra buildings home to Haelo (Salford's Innovation and Improvement Science Centre).
To the south east, the former Colgate-Palmolive factory underwent a £25m renovation project known as Soapworks and is now the home of TalkTalk.[ citation needed ]
Quays Reach has which is located between the Langworthy and MediaCityUK tram stops, houses numerous businesses such NSPCC and Datacentreplus. The Salford City College FutureSkills building is also situated on the same road.[ citation needed ]
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Some of the first developments in Salford Quays were residential, [10] initial builds consisting of traditional low-rise flats and town houses in Grain Wharf and Merchants Quay. As the area prospered, more high-rise buildings were constructed to increase housing density on the limited pier space. Because of the premium on space, flats have been constructed on the opposite side of Trafford Road to the Quays.
Merchants Quay was one of the area's earliest residential developments, constructed in the mid-to-late 1980s. It consists of 100 residential units including terraced houses, mews properties, and four low rise apartment blocks. It is situated on East Wharf South, between South Bay (Dock 6) to the south and the St Francis, St Louis, and St Peter basins (Dock 7) to the north. Properties on the western edge of the pier overlook the Imperial War Museum North and Lowry Bridge over the Quays turning circle; the largest expanse of water at Salford Quays. The development is linked to Pier 7, the business-orientated Waterfront Quay on the north side of the basins on East Wharf North. Many of the paths are derelict and have litter problems because neither the local councils (Salford, or Trafford on the opposite side of the water) nor the private owners or businesses accept responsibility for maintenance.[ citation needed ]
Located at the centre of the Quays, it consists of three matching developments: Winnipeg Quay and Vancouver Quay to the west of Mariners Canal, and St. Lawrence Quay to the east. Its name derives from the land's previous use, when imported grain was delivered by ship and transferred to the railway network that ran the length of Pier 8 (Central Wharf). [11] Built between 1985 and 1995, Grain Wharf consists of a combination of two and three bedroom town houses and apartments, none exceeding four storeys in height. Many properties have views over Huron and Erie Basin (Dock 9) and Mariners Canal, with a number of town houses in Winnipeg and Vancouver Quay facing a landscaped garden square. The development is noted for its distinctly symmetrical layout. Mariners Canal was added to link the cleaned water of Ontario Basin to the south and Erie Basin to the north for water sports; the watersports centre is opposite Vancouver Quay. Vancouver and St. Lawrence Quays are linked by a footbridge over the canal, and by the Quays road.
These five three-storey apartment blocks at the far end of Erie Basin were completed in 2003. Accessed via the St. Lawrence Quay cul-de-sac, the buildings are inconspicuous due to the waterside tree planting and their location behind both The Lighthouse offices and Anchorage buildings. Two buildings face directly onto the water of Erie Basin, while the others are angled around communal gardens.
This was the first of the high-rise residential buildings on the Quays: a 16-storey tower built alongside the Quayside Mall on Pier 8 (Central Wharf) in 2001. [12] Finished in sand-coloured cladding with grey and steel finishes to the roof, service cores and balconies, the lower levels are integrated into the mall.
This sister building of Imperial Point is located towards the rear of the Quayside Mall. Completed in 2005, its 20 storeys are residential, except for some commercial units at ground level, including Sovereign Food and Wine, the Quays' first grocery store. The tower's design was controversial and regarded as having a poor aesthetic on all but the water-facing elevation and is in stark relief to the neighbouring low-rise Winnipeg Quay.
Designed by Broadway Maylan and completed between 2004 and 2005, the development consists of three 18-storey residential towers, each 180 ft (55 m) in height. Costing £36 million, they stand in a line overlooking Huron Basin from the waterside of Pier 9 (North Wharf), their curved frontages are designed to represent sails. [13] At night, the buildings are illuminated by green lights atop curved poles, and green flood light to either side. The Type 3 apartment in the NV Buildings won gold for "Best Apartment" in 2004 "What House?" awards. [14]
Construction began in 2005 and completed in late 2007. The development consists of two linked towers: one 9 storeys, the other 19 storeys. They are on land adjacent to the bund carrying the Quays road, which separates the Manchester Ship Canal from the cleaned water of the Salford Quays basins. The apartments' interior design was by Conran & Partners. Interest in the development was limited, due to the slump in the housing market, and in July 2008, City Lofts was forced to place all its unsold apartments, including many at Salford Quays, into receivership. [15]
Completed in 2010, The Heart and NumberOne are both 22-storey blocks.
X1 Media City is the tallest development on the Quays. As of 2023, Towers A, B and D are completed, Tower C is yet to start construction. [16] Once complete, the development will be the largest residential scheme in the north west, comprising 1,100 apartments. [17]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(March 2023) |
This section needs to be updated.(March 2023) |
In 2003, Salford Quays was the venue for the first International Triathlon Union World Cup event to be held in the UK. It has since become an annual event held at the end of July each year, although the 2008 event was cancelled because of a clash with the Beijing Olympics. [18] In September 2010 and May 2011, the site hosted the Great Salford Swim, a mass participation open water swim event. The event has been re-branded as the Great Manchester Swim since 2012.
Salford Watersports Centre opened in 2001, in Ontario Basin, a closed off area created for it providing a range of watersports and outdoor activities including Royal Yachting Association recognised training in sailing and British Canoe Union recognised training in kayaking and canoeing. Agecroft Rowing Club currently operates from Salford Quays.
In 2012 the Salford Quays were rejuvenated for the London Olympic Games, in which they were used for swimming and diving. Six gold medallists swam at the Quays.
In 2013, the triathlon returned on 18 August.
In 2015, East Cheshire Sub Aqua Club installed a 2-metre x 3 metre scuba diving training platform in St Peter's basin further extending the use of the Salford Quays for watersports, allowing scuba divers to safely conduct training, away from the silt in the basin.
Salford Quays is part of a joint tourism initiative between Salford and Trafford councils supported by private sector partners including the Lowry, the Imperial War Museum North, Manchester United F.C., Lancashire County Cricket Club, the Quayside Mall and the Golden Tulip and Copthorne Hotels; working in partnership with Marketing Manchester. Salford Quays forms one part of the area known as the Quays, which also includes Trafford Wharf and Old Trafford, on the Trafford side of the ship canal. [19]
Salford Quays is connected to Manchester city centre by the Eccles Line of the Manchester Metrolink. This connection opened in 1999 and was extended onward to Eccles in 2000. The section of the Eccles Line from Pomona to MediaCityUK serves the Salford Quays area. Trams operate every 6 minutes throughout the day (except MediaCityUK tram stop which is every 12 minutes) and every 12 minutes on Sundays. MediaCityUK Metrolink tram stop opened in summer 2010 to serve the MediaCityUK complex.
The Metrolink Trafford Park Line opened in March 2020. It includes two stations close to Salford Quays: Wharfside and Imperial War Museum.
Frequent bus services are provided from the Quays by Go North West's Orbits 53 providing links to Oxford Road, Etihad Campus, Salford Shopping Centre and Cheetham Hill and Stagecoach Manchester's 50 linking MediaCityUK to East Didsbury, Manchester Piccadilly bus station, Salford Central and Salford Crescent railway stations, the University of Salford and Salford Shopping Centre. A number of lower frequency routes are operated by Diamond Bus North West linking Boothstown, Worsley and Stretford with the area.
Salford Quays and the Trafford Wharf area are accessible from the M602 motorway and major arterial routes from the Trafford Centre, Manchester city centre, Salford and Old Trafford. Many main routes around the Quays are high-quality dual carriageway routes, built after the closure of Salford Docks.
London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port of London, at one time the world's largest port. After the docks closed, the area had become derelict and poverty-ridden by the 1980s. The Docklands' regeneration began later that decade; it has been redeveloped principally for commercial and residential use. The name "London Docklands" was used for the first time in a government report on redevelopment plans in 1971 and has since been almost universally adopted. The redevelopment created wealth, but also led to some conflict between the new and old communities in the area.
The Manchester Ship Canal is a 36 mi-long (58 km) inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift vessels about 60 ft (18 m) to the canal's terminus in Manchester. Landmarks along its route include the Barton Swing Aqueduct, the world's only swing aqueduct, and Trafford Park, the world's first planned industrial estate and still the largest in Europe.
Castlefield is an inner-city conservation area in Manchester, North West England. The conservation area which bears its name is bounded by the River Irwell, Quay Street, Deansgate and Chester Road. It was the site of the Roman era fort of Mamucium or Mancunium which gave its name to Manchester. It was the terminus of the Bridgewater Canal, the world's first industrial canal, built in 1764; the oldest canal warehouse opened in 1779. The world's first passenger railway terminated here in 1830, at Liverpool Road railway station and the first railway warehouse opened here in 1831.
St Katharine Docks is a former dock and now a mixed-used district in Central London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and within the East End. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, immediately downstream of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. From 1828 to 1968, it was one of the commercial docks that made up the Port of London. It is in the redevelopment zone known as Docklands and is now a popular housing and leisure complex.
The West India Docks are a series of three docks, quaysides, and warehouses built to import goods from, and export goods and occasionally passengers to the British West Indies. Located on the Isle of Dogs in London, the first dock opened in 1802. Following their commercial closure in 1980, the Canary Wharf development was built around the wet docks by narrowing some of their broadest tracts.
Greenland Dock is the oldest of London's riverside wet docks, located in Rotherhithe in the area of the city now known as Docklands. It used to be part of the Surrey Commercial Docks, most of which have by now been filled in. Greenland Dock is now used purely for recreational purposes; it is one of only two functioning enclosed docks on the south bank of the River Thames, along with the smaller South Dock, to which it is connected by a channel now known as Greenland Cut.
Salford, also known as the City of Salford, is a metropolitan borough with city status in Greater Manchester, England. The borough is named after its main settlement, Salford, but covers a larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton, Walkden and Pendlebury. The borough had a population of 278,064 in 2022, and is administered from the Salford Civic Centre in Swinton.
Manchester docks were nine docks in Salford, Stretford and Manchester, at the eastern end of the Manchester Ship Canal in North West England, which formed part of the Port of Manchester from 1894 until their closure in 1982. They marked the upper reaches of the ship canal, and were a destination for both coastal and ocean-bound vessels carrying cargo and passengers, often travelling to and from Canada.
The River Irwell is a tributary of the River Mersey in north-west England. It rises at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately 1+1⁄2 miles north of Bacup and flows southwards for 39 mi (63 km) to meet the Mersey near Irlam. The Irwell marks the boundary between Manchester and Salford, and its lower reaches have been canalised and now form part of the Manchester Ship Canal.
Shadwell Basin is a housing and leisure complex built around a disused dock in Wapping, London. The old dock was formerly part of the London Docks, a group of docks built by the London Dock Company at Shadwell and Wapping as part of the wider docks of the Port of London.
The Lowry is a theatre and gallery complex at Salford Quays, Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It is named after the early 20th-century painter L. S. Lowry, known for his paintings of industrial scenes in North West England. The complex opened on 28 April 2000 and was officially opened on 12 October 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II.
The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to 13 million square feet (1.2 km2) of buildings, and over 33,000 acres (13,000 ha) of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes in its former ports business and MediaCityUK.
Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, opposite Salford Quays on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) southwest of Manchester city centre and 1.3 miles (2.1 km) north of Stretford. Until the late 19th century, it was the ancestral home of the Trafford family, who sold it to financier Ernest Terah Hooley in 1896. Occupying an area of 4.7 square miles (12 km2), it was the first planned industrial estate in the world, and remains the largest in Europe well over a century later.
MediaCityUK is a 200-acre (81 ha) mixed-use property development on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The project was developed by Peel Media; its principal tenants are media organisations and the Quayside MediaCityUK shopping centre. The land occupied by the development was part of the Port of Manchester and Manchester docks.
The Salford Quays lift bridge, also known as the Salford Quays Millennium footbridge or the Lowry bridge, is a 91.2-metre (299 ft) long vertical lift bridge spanning the Manchester Ship Canal between Salford and Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. The pedestrian bridge, which was completed in 2000, is near the terminus of the ship canal at the old Manchester Docks. It is sited beside The Lowry theatre and gallery and links Salford Quays and MediaCityUK to Trafford Wharf and the Imperial War Museum North. It has a lift of 18 metres (59 ft), allowing large watercraft to pass beneath.
MediaCityUK tram stop is a stop on the Manchester Metrolink light rail system. It is located in MediaCityUK, in Salford. The stop serves MediaCityUK, The Lowry, the Imperial War Museum North and other parts of Salford Quays. It is at the end of a short spur from the Eccles Line.
Atlantic Gateway, sometimes referred to as Ocean Gateway, is a proposed redevelopment strategy for North West England, centering on the corridor between Greater Manchester and Merseyside. The proposal is for development backed by £50 billion of investment over 50 years, making it one of the most expensive and expansive development projects in UK history.
The Media City Footbridge is a swing-mechanism footbridge over the Manchester Ship Canal near MediaCityUK. It is an asymmetric cable-stayed swing bridge and was completed in 2011. It was designed by Gifford and WilkinsonEyre.