Strangeways Local Plan - Manchester City Council

Transcription

Strangeways Local Plan
Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5
4. Employment and economy . . . . . . 23
1.1 City Centre North Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1 Existing characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.2 Strangeways Employment Area . . . . . . . . . 7
4.2 Diversification of the current
employment base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.3 Role of the Local Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.4 Structure of the Local Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.3 Supporting existing businesses . . . . . . . . 25
4.4 Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2. Regeneration context . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 Policy framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 City-wide plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 Local Development Framework . . . . . . . . 12
2.5 North Manchester Strategic
Regeneration Framework (SRF) . . . . . . . . . 13
2.6 City Centre North Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.7 Cheetham Ward Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.8 Local Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.9 Lower Broughton
Development Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.5 Training and further education . . . . . . . . . 28
5. The physical environment . . . . . . . 29
5.1 Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.2 Creating a vibrant and sustainable
employment-led destination . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.3 Connecting communities
and opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.4 Distinct character and townscape . . . . . . 34
5.5 Improving the environment and
public realm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.6 Section 106 agreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.7 Neighbourhood management . . . . . . . . . 36
2.10 Irwell City Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.11 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3. Vision and strategy
for Strangeways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2 Economic Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.3 Baseline Analysis – What is Strangeways
like now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6. Neighbourhoods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6.2 City Fringe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.3 Riverside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.4 Cheetham Hill Corridor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.5 Workshop Village . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6.6 Warehouse District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.4 Major drivers for change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.7 Cheetham Fringe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.5 Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.8 Strangeways Prison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.6 Local Plan objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
7.
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
ChapTER 1
Introduction
Photograph: Ian Lawson
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Introduction
1.1 City Centre North Strategy
The Greater Manchester economy has been
growing strongly for the past ten years.
While the current economic conditions are very
challenging, the latest projections confirm that
higher than average economic and population
growth will be a continuing feature of the
subregional economy in the medium and
longer term.
Manchester City Centre is at the economic heart
of the Greater Manchester city region. Growth is
being driven by the expansion of employment
in the city centre within high-value sectors in
knowledge-based industries. These include
professional services, creative and media
industries. The transformation of Manchester’s
economy will reverse the historic trend
of decentralisation of employment and
population from the core of the city.
The current economic climate reinforces the
need to develop strategies for areas in proximity
to the city centre to expand the future cultural
and employment offer of the centre. The city
centre has reorientated itself towards Victoria
Station. This presents a major opportunity to
drive investment northwards, creating a new
regionally significant commercial quarter on
the periphery of the city centre.
Manchester and Salford City Councils and the
Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company
are working together to develop an area that
straddles the municipal boundaries immediately
north of the city centre core into a new
commercial quarter entitled City Centre North.
This area is rich in natural, historic and cultural
assets, but contains large areas of neglected and
underused land that has considerable potential
for development. Its prime location means that it
could become a highly accessible and attractive
commercial area within the city.
City Centre North is surrounded by residential
neighbourhoods facing some of the most severe
economic and social challenges in the country.
These include parts of Cheetham, Collyhurst
and Lower Broughton. The development of the
strategy for City Centre North needs to ensure
that residents in the adjoining neighbourhoods
are linked in to the opportunities being created.
Introduction
1.2 Strangeways
Employment Area
Strangeways is situated on the edge of
Manchester City Centre, immediately north
of Victoria Station. It contains two of the city’s
main arterial routes: Bury New Road and
Cheetham Hill Road. The area acts as a gateway
to both the city centre, and in the opposite
direction, to North Manchester. The area has
good access and communication links.
Victoria Station is within a five-minute walk, and
the area is sandwiched between the inner and
intermediate orbital routes.
Strangeways forms an important part of the
City Centre North Strategy.
While large-scale de-industrialisation has
occurred elsewhere in many of the city’s
traditional employment areas, Strangeways has
remained an important provider of employment
in Manchester and has the highest concentration
of businesses outside the city centre.
The adaptability of Strangeways can be
attributed to the entrepreneurship associated
with its historical development as a location for
immigrant communities since the 19th century.
The succession of immigrant families arriving at
Victoria Station, settling into the Cheetham area
and gradually moving northwards up Cheetham
Hill Road as communities have grown more
prosperous is known as ‘doing the hill’. The
sense of opportunity and ambition is still
tangible and provides a strong antidote to
the challenges of Strangeways today.
Towards the end of the 19th century the area
became increasingly commercial, with the
development of workshops, breweries and
factories replacing the residential areas as
communities moved outwards to Cheetham and
Broughton. Throughout the 20th century, the
area consolidated its role as an employment area
with the manufacture and distribution of textiles
being the key industry. As manufacturing
declined, the area has continued to focus on
textiles with more emphasis on distribution and
warehousing, supplying not only the city centre,
but also retailers across the United Kingdom
and Ireland.
The environment of Strangeways is characterised
by warehouses and depots with many
businesses occupying low-rise, predominantly
large, floorplate units within a strong grid street
pattern. The area provides flexibility with basic,
low-cost premises. Despite some limited
investment in recent years the environment
along the main arterial routes is relatively poor
compared with other arterial routes into the city
centre and could be improved. The environment
gives the impression of a ‘back door’ entrance to
the city centre. The design of the Manchester
Evening News Arena, which turns its back on
Strangeways, presents a physical barrier
discouraging investors and higher value
economic sectors related to the city centre
from spreading northwards into Strangeways.
The challenge is to maximise the potential for
Strangeways to contribute to the economy
of the city, building upon and diversifying
its current employment base and exploiting
its location on the edge of the city centre.
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Introduction
1.3 Role of the Local Plan
Manchester City Council is in the process
of preparing Local Plans in areas of the city
expected to undergo significant transformation
to guide change and investment.
The challenge is to revitalise Strangeways and
maximise its contribution to the economy of
the city by diversifying its employment base,
exploiting its location, physical and cultural
assets, while protecting and developing its
current employment function.
The Strangeways Local Plan seeks to address
the economic and physical issues of the area
across a 10–15 year period. The Local Plan seeks
to ensure that a comprehensive and holistic
regeneration strategy is set in place.
The role of the Local Plan is to:
• Provide a framework to guide physical change
and thereby encourage and maximise
investment
• Establish key objectives and priorities for
the area
• Encourage business and investor confidence
• Provide a framework for the co-ordination
and implementation of services.
The vision for Strangeways has been developed
through collaborative involvement with key
stakeholders and ward councillors and from
research into the needs and issues facing local
businesses in the area. The vision has also been
drawn from the aspirations of Manchester City
Council outlined in the Cheetham Ward Plan,
the North Manchester Strategic Regeneration
Framework (SRF) and the Community Strategy.
1.4 Structure of the Local Plan
The Plan has the following sections:
• Regeneration context: the wider policy
context within which the Strangeways
Local Plan sits.
• Vision and strategy: the key issues and
challenges that need to be addressed and
the overarching vision and strategy.
• The economy: interventions to strengthen
the economic base of the area.
• Employment: interventions to support local
residents access the jobs being created.
• The physical environment: outlines the
overarching spatial strategy.
• Neighbourhoods: the specific interventions
that will be delivered in each of the
neighbourhood areas.
ChapTER 2
Regeneration context
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2.1 Introduction
This section provides an overview of how
the Strangeways Local Plan will support the
delivery of wider regeneration initiatives in
North Manchester and for the city as a whole.
2.2 Policy framework
The Strangeways Local Plan sits within a
national, regional and local planning policy
framework. The policy framework encourages
the creation of sustainable communities,
together with significant improvement in
economic performance.
Inner urban areas, including Strangeways, are
highlighted as key to reducing disparities within
the sub-region through investment in growth
clusters and in the transport infrastructure.
These frameworks highlight the importance
of taking advantage of existing opportunities
as a key way of achieving accelerated economic
growth at the heart of the city region.
Additional land will be needed to meet the
needs of the growing economy. Strangeways
is well placed to aid economic growth and
accommodate the businesses that cannot
afford to locate in the city centre but could take
advantage of its public transport, accessibility,
business connections and latent potential.
Strangeways is surrounded by residential
neighbourhoods in Manchester and Salford,
which are undergoing or will undergo
regeneration and repopulation, including
Collyhurst and Broughton. These
neighbourhoods are within the Manchester
and Salford Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder
area and the Association of Greater Manchester
Authorities New Growth Point programme.
The Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder aims
to recreate neighbourhoods where people
choose to live by stabilising and reinvigorating
the housing market. The Growth Point
programme seeks to establish a platform for
accelerated development, once market conditions
improve, by removing barriers to development.
Possible interventions include developing the
open space network and public realm, flood risk
assessment, site investigations and remediation.
The Strangeways area should retain its status
predominantly as an employment area – an
area that creates better connections to the city
centre economy while improving connections
to neighbouring residential areas undergoing
population growth and housing market
renewal in accordance with the Regional
Spatial Strategy.
2.3 City-wide plans
The Manchester City Region Development
Programme (MCRDP) brings greater spatial
definition to the Northern Way strategy. The
programme sets out the need to increase
productivity and encourage entrepreneurship.
The Strangeways Local Plan sets out the policies
for this to be achieved.
For example, the provision of flexible
employment accommodation alongside
improved support services is vital to new
and fledgling businesses.
Another key theme is the need to tackle the
high number of people being out of work.
Given its proximity to neighbourhoods with a
high level of people being out of work and its
proximity to Victoria Station and the Metro
network, Strangeways is well placed to provide
job and training opportunities. Linking areas
of need with areas of opportunities is a key
element of the MCRDP, with a priority being to
locate growth in locations that minimise trips
to out-of-centre locations, increasing public
transport journeys as well as encouraging
shorter trips to be made by foot or bicycle.
The Community Strategy provides the strategic
framework and action plan for regeneration,
investment, development and service
improvement and reflects the key priorities
of residents and communities in Manchester.
In order to implement the Community Strategy
at a local level a Strategic Regeneration
Framework has been produced for North
Manchester, which establishes a comprehensive
approach to the regeneration of the district.
Knowledge Capital is a strategic partnership
that brings together a number of key partners
from across the conurbation. Its aim is to
develop creative and research-intensive
industries where the application of knowledge
is necessary for the creation of wealth and
ultimately for Manchester to become one
of the most innovative cities in Europe.
The partnership is made up of the four
Universities of Greater Manchester, the ten
metropolitan authorities and key public
agencies, including the Government Office
North West, North West Development Agency,
Manchester Inward Investment Agency, Greater
Manchester Learning and Skills Council, and the
Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority.
Current programmes of activity and innovation
led by Manchester Knowledge Capital include:
• The Science City initiative
• ‘Manchester is my planet’ programme
• The Innovation Investment Fund.
Strangeways will play a key role in providing
a broad range of accommodation to enable
enterprise to flourish.
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2.4 Local Development
Framework
The Manchester Unitary Development Plan
(UDP) forms the basis of the current Local
Development Framework. The Manchester
UDP is divided into two parts; the first sets out
general planning policies, and the second sets
out area specific policies.
Part 1 of the UDP identifies Strangeways as
an economic improvement area, that protects
employment uses while recognising its potential
for enhancement. The UDP recognises the
importance of having sites of an appropriate
size and location that support economic
development in and adjoining the city centre.
Policy 11.6 encourages the location of new
business developments on sites where they will
contribute to urban regeneration. Strangeways
is well placed for new business development to
contribute to the wider regeneration of North
Manchester, with policy 11.7 supporting the
upgrading of older industrial areas and estates
in the city.
Part 2 of the UDP locates Strangeways
within ‘Area 2‘ of the city. Area 2 extends
northwards from the city centre covering the
neighbourhoods of Cheetham and Crumpsall.
The Local Plan area is located at the
southern end of Area 2 and is recognised as a
neighbourhood that contains a dense mix of
manufacturing, wholesaling and cash and carry
companies, with a particular emphasis on the
clothing trade and fancy goods. The area is
estimated to provide up to 15,000 jobs and
is regarded as a major employment area for
the conurbation.
Policy ‘CC10’ encourages the continued high
level of economic activity in Strangeways,
recognising the particular needs of the
wholesale trades, which dominate these areas.
The policy’s supporting text underlines the
Council’s commitment to improve the efficiency
of existing businesses (notably wholesale cash
and carry and bulk distributive trades), by
environmental improvements and better
parking and servicing facilities.
The plan proposes mixed uses in new
developments and existing buildings alike,
ensuring that every opportunity is maximised
in order to achieve a positive mix of activity.
Gateway sites are recognised in policy ‘RC7’
as key locations for creating a sense of arrival
and therefore requiring high standards of
architectural treatment.
The Strangeways Local Plan, while looking
at responding to the policy in the UDP, also
reflects the need for this policy to evolve to
meet the requirements of the city.
2.5 North Manchester Strategic
Regeneration Framework (SRF)
The Strangeways employment area is
located on the south-western edge of North
Manchester and is recognised by the SRF as
a major source of employment for North
Manchester’s residents. The SRF seeks to highlight
the importance of Strangeways
by outlining the need for:
The North Manchester SRF covers the wards of
Higher Blackley, Charlestown, Moston, Crumpsall,
Cheetham and Harpurhey plus the Collyhurst
neighbourhood. The North Manchester SRF
outlines the need to develop the district
predominantly as a residential area providing
workers to support the economic growth of the
city. The vision for North Manchester is as a series
of high-quality neighbourhoods where people
choose to live. The SRF outlines a social, economic
and physical strategy to develop good
connections, high-quality services and housing
choice, education and employment opportunities.
• High levels of support for existing and
future businesses
• Protection of its employment function
• Enhancement of its image as a
business location
• Improving its legibility and security.
The SRF also recognises the significance
of Strangeways as a key gateway to North
Manchester that needs to be enhanced to drive
investment northwards, linking and connecting
the economic growth of the city centre with the
residential areas to the north.
North Manchester is undergoing a transformation
of its retail and service centres, schools, colleges,
and housing. In parts of North Manchester, where
major change is expected, local plans have been
produced. The North Manchester SRF, produced in
2004, is currently being revisited in order to take into
account the implications of the economic downturn.
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Salford City Council
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Figure 2.1: Regeneration context
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2.6 City Centre North Strategy
The current economic climate reinforces the
need for Manchester to develop strategies for
areas in proximity to the city centre in order to
expand the future cultural and employment
offer of the centre. The city centre has
reorientated itself towards Victoria Station.
This represents a major opportunity to drive
investment northwards and creating a new
regionally significant commercial quarter on
the periphery of the city centre.
Manchester and Salford City Councils and the
Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company
are working together to develop an area that
straddles the municipal boundaries immediately
north of the city centre core into a new
commercial quarter entitled City Centre North.
City Centre North covers over 71 hectares
of land immediately north of the retail and
commercial core of Manchester City Centre
with Victoria Station at its heart. It is home
to the Co-operative Group and a substantial
quantity of other sites and operations, which
together make this an important commercial
location. The area is rich in historic buildings,
cultural venues, natural assets (including the
River Irwell) and has all the ingredients to be
one of the most accessible, sustainable and
competitive areas of the city.
The southern part of Strangeways, including
the former Boddingtons brewery site, is within
the City Centre North strategy area. City Centre
North is a concept and vision of a defined
location with a range of complementary roles
and functions.
These include:
• a destination
• a gateway
• a strategic commercial location
• historic and cultural treasures
• a family-friendly role.
The Operational Spatial Framework sets out
the vision and priorities to deliver each of
these themes to maximise the economic
competitiveness through addressing key barriers
and investing in key public realm schemes. An
action plan setting out specific actions provides
the blueprint for public sector intervention to
support private sector investment.
2.7 Cheetham Ward Plan
Sitting beneath the Strategic Regeneration
Framework are ward plans, which outline the
strategy and service priorities for each ward.
Strangeways is in the Cheetham ward.
The Ward Plan for Cheetham sets a series of
objectives to be delivered at the local level.
Traditionally, Cheetham has been defined as
one of the main arrival points for migrants
moving in to Manchester. This has resulted in
Cheetham having a diverse cultural make-up.
This is seen as one of the area’s key strengths.
The Ward Plan recognises the unique
juxtaposition between residential housing
and the Strangeways area as well as the
positive impact on local employment and
retail provision provided by Manchester Fort
Retail Park.
The Ward Plan also highlights the key cultural
assets of The Jewish Museum, The Irish World
Heritage Centre and the Ukrainian Club.
The Ward Plan identifies a number of key issues
and challenges to be tackled, including:
• Reduction of crime and the fear of crime,
particularly business and vehicle crime
in Strangeways
• Improvements to the overall quality of
the environment
• Improvements to transport and connections
• Reduction in the number of people out of
work and the need to increase employment
opportunities.
Priorities for action include addressing physical
decline, achieving a balance of commercial,
retail and social use in the area through
targeted investment, increasing housing
choice and reducing the number of people
without employment.
There is a clear opportunity for Strangeways
to build on the strong communities and
established cultural facilities in the ward. There
is also a need to improve the quality of the
environment and improve the safety and
security of Strangeways while at a more
strategic level improving connections, and
in particular east–west connections to east
Manchester and Salford.
The principal challenge, however, is to increase
employment opportunities and make these
accessible to people out of work in surrounding
residential neighbourhoods.
2.8 Local Plans
The Strangeways Local Plan is one of a series of
Local Plans produced in North Manchester and
informed by the North Manchester SRF. The
Collyhurst Local Plan and the Irk Valley Local
Plan border the Strangeways Local Plan area
and are relevant to its ambitions.
The Collyhurst Local Plan
The Collyhurst Local Plan sets out a number
of important principles that will guide the
economic, social and physical transformation
of Collyhurst. It sets out to balance the needs
of the local communities with the potential
for major new development and investment,
utilising the proximity to the city centre and
potential of the Irk Valley as a major open
space network. The Local Plan seeks to create
a better balance of housing type and tenure,
encouraging the repopulation of the area
supported by improved community facilities
in defined community service clusters.
The Collyhurst Local Plan is made up of
seven neighbourhoods. The western most
neighbourhood is East Strangeways, which
is part of the wider employment area. The
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neighbourhood strategy is to retain and
enhance the employment uses within the
neighbourhood and improve connections
to the Collyhurst residential area.
The Irk Valley Local Plan
The Irk Valley Local Plan provides a detailed
study of the existing open space and associated
land uses within the Irk Valley. The Plan identifies
actions for transforming the Irk Valley into a
regional park system and outlines the physical,
policy and management changes that are
required to achieve this.
The North Manchester SRF identifies the
importance of the Irk Valley to the regeneration
of North Manchester, recognising the
opportunity to create an asset that will change
the perception of the district, improve the
quality of life for residents, and provide a
setting for new development.
The Irk Valley is integral to North Manchester’s
open space network, with all major parks,
(Heaton Park, Boggart Hole Clough, Broadhurst
and Queens Park), lying within or adjacent to
the Irk Valley.
2.9 Lower Broughton
Development Framework
Lower Broughton is a major regeneration area
located to the west of Strangeways, in Salford.
A strategic vision has been prepared and is
included within adopted Supplementary Planning
Guidance for the area. The vision for Lower
Broughton looks at reversing the area’s loss of
population by transforming the area into a highquality residential area for families with new retail
outlets, schools and other social infrastructure.
A key part of the ambition is a transformation of
the open space network, including the creation
of a riverside park that forms part of the much
larger Irwell City Park project, creating better
links to Strangeways, Greengate and Manchester
City Centre.
Detailed plans for a first programme of
redevelopment have been approved and are
under construction. Proposals for future
programmes will, in large part, be driven by
solutions to flood risk.
2.10 Irwell City Park
Irwell City Park is a major public realm project
that extends from Peel Park in the north to
Salford Quays in the south, running through
the heart of the regional centre. The overall
vision for Irwell City Park is of a new city park
providing high-quality public open space and
connecting Manchester, Salford and Trafford.
The City Park will reinvigorate key parts of the
River Irwell within the city centre to create a
new economic driver for the city region.
2.11 Summary
The regeneration of Strangeways is strongly
supported by its policy context.
Strangeways has an important role to play as a
major employment area supporting the economic
and cultural expansion of the regional centre,
connecting the neighbouring communities within
the core of the conurbation and providing training
and employment opportunities for residents in
Manchester and Salford.
ChapTER 3
Vision and strategy
for Strangeways
18
Vision and strategy for Strangeways
3.1 Introduction
This section outlines the overarching strategy
based on the key issues and opportunities
facing Strangeways. This has informed the
development of the vision and strategic
objectives.
3.2 Economic Analysis
The Local Plan was developed from an economic
baseline assessment of Strangeways, including
research and consultation of existing businesses.
The purpose of the assessment was to:
• Review Strangeways, current role
and function
• Forecast industrial sectors offering
employment growth
• Assess how the area’s potential and its
geographic growth can be maximised
• Identify potential land uses.
The economic assessment provides the
foundation for the identification of the
key issues, challenges and opportunities
facing Strangeways.
3.3 Baseline Analysis – What is
Strangeways like now?
Economic
• Strangeways is an important provider of
employment in Manchester; it hosts the city’s
highest concentration of businesses outside
the city centre.
• The vast majority of businesses are small
businesses (over half are ‘micro-businesses’
with fewer than five employees) and are
single-site operations that are not part of
larger companies.
• The area is currently acknowledged for its
role in providing low-cost, flexible and basic
premises that support the city economy
through tertiary relationships.
• The area has traditionally had a business
start-up role.
• Wholesale and distribution businesses
dominate the study area. The majority of
these businesses deal in textiles, clothing
and footwear. This clustering is felt to be
important as it facilitates their ability to trade
with other related businesses in the area.
• The most recent businesses incorporated in
the area were predominantly in wholesale.
There is little empirical evidence of a shift
away from wholesale in the area.
• However, there is some anecdotal information
to suggest that a shift is taking place in the
‘back offices’ of some of the businesses, which
may not be fully evidenced in the business
sector data. This involves the diversification of
those running textile and clothing wholesale
businesses into a range of other business
interests, including property, ICT and
electronics wholesaling.
Employment
The surrounding neighbourhoods of Cheetham
and Broughton suffer from high levels of
multiple deprivation. There would appear to
be a limited employment relationship between
these neighbourhoods and the businesses in
Strangeways. Reasons quoted include:
• The high representation of family-owned
businesses, which often employ individuals
from within extended family networks
• The difficulties encountered by local
businesses in recruiting and retaining
staff from adjoining neighbourhoods.
centrally located in the area and is bordered
by high security walls, which provide an
impermeable barrier around the site. It was
built in 1862, designed by Alfred Waterhouse
and accommodates 1,200 inmates. Many
of the buildings are now listed and several
provide important landmarks. The most
prominent is the 71-metre high tower,
which can be seen from a wide area,
and the Gatehouse on Southall Street.
Cultural
Physical
• Strangeways and the wider Cheetham
• The area enjoys good communication links
area has historically been an arrival point
in Manchester for immigrant communities.
Cheetham is very ethnically diverse with an
estimated 33 languages spoken in the area.
• Strangeways boasts a number of significant
cultural and religious facilities within the area
and on its borders, including a Sikh Temple,
Mosque, Ukrainian Catholic Church, The
Jewish Museum, Irish World Heritage Centre,
Polish Club and Ukrainian Club. Strangeways
plays an important role as a cultural location
for communities that live in Cheetham and
the wider North Manchester area.
• Strangeways is synonymous with the rag
trade. The area also has a strong tradition of
brewing and is still home to the Joseph Holt
Brewery. Boddingtons Brewery has closed but
the site still retains its chimney as a symbol of
its historic past.
• Strangeways today is most commonly
associated with Strangeways Prison, officially
named HM Prison, Manchester. The prison is
containing the two main arterial roads of Bury
New Road/Great Ducie Street and Cheetham
Hill Road and is located between the inner
and intermediate orbital routes. Victoria
Station is within proximity to Strangeways.
• The area is a key gateway location for the city
centre and the surrounding communities in
North Manchester and Salford.
• The city centre gateway function is particularly
constrained by the design of the Manchester
Evening News Arena, which turns its back
on Strangeways and provides a barrier to
investment for the city centre being
driven northwards.
• Strangeways is defined by a strong grid
pattern, which provides good permeation
through the area and defines the
development blocks.
• The area is characterised by warehouses and
depots with many businesses occupying
low-rise, large floorplate units.
• There is little consistency in built form,
consisting of a mixture of older brick
warehouses and more modern sheds.
Building heights are generally low. Overall
townscape quality is poor but the area
contains a number of historic structures of
architectural note, particularly along
Cheetham Hill Road, the gatehouse of
Strangeways prison, the Boddingtons
Chimney, Holt’s Brewery and historic
warehouses and factories on Derby Street.
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20
• The area is characterised by low-grade
public realm and in general a poorly built
environment. This is particularly noticeable
along the arterial roads through Strangeways,
which give the impression of a ‘back door’
entrance to the city centre.
• The issues around the degraded public realm
are exacerbated by fly-tipping and the litter
generated by businesses.
• Due to its proximity to the city centre the area
is popular for on-street commuter parking.
Theft from vehicles presents a major problem.
3.4 Major drivers for change
There are a number of major drivers for change
for Strangeways, both in terms of positive
opportunities supporting its regeneration
and threats relating to its economic function.
The threats are:
• The area does not appear to be in major
decline but its reliance on wholesale and
distribution makes it vulnerable to market
changes, such as direct sourcing by retailers
and the vagaries of consumer spending.
Although employment in the wholesale
sector has remained relatively stable in
Strangeways, employment in the clothing
and textile sector is generally in decline in
Manchester and the city centre.
• There is an overrepresentation of industrial
sectors, which limit the potential of the
area in contributing to the expansion of
the city’s economy.
• The lack of investment in the environment,
high levels of crime and the area’s negative
image are self-perpetuating and can only be
reversed through significant investment.
The opportunities are:
Policy drivers
There are a number of major policy drivers
supporting the regeneration of Strangeways:
• There is a major policy emphasis on the
city centre to generate economic growth for
the regional economy. North Manchester
Strategic Regeneration Framework identifies
Strangeways as a major employment area
to be enhanced and marketed forming an
important gateway to the city centre and
to North Manchester.
• Strangeways forms part of the emerging
City Centre North Strategy, which Manchester
City Council is developing with Salford City
Council to create a regionally significant
commercial quarter close to the city centre
and therefore adding to its cultural and
economic offer.
• Strangeways is surrounded by residential
neighbourhoods in Manchester and Salford,
which are undergoing or will undergo
significant regeneration or repopulation.
These include Collyhurst and Broughton.
The neighbourhoods are within the
Manchester and Salford Housing Market
Renewal Pathfinder and new Growth Point
programmes, which seek to recreate
neighbourhoods of choice in areas
surrounding the city centre. Strangeways
has a strategic role to physically connect
these neighbourhoods with the city
centre and provide employment and
training opportunities.
• The approval by Manchester City Council’s
Executive of a development framework for
the former Boddingtons site supports the
development of a vibrant, employment-led
mixed-use neighbourhood within the
Strangeways Local Plan.
• The Manchester College Property Strategy
proposes a new college campus at the former
Boddingtons brewery site in Strangeways to
provide specialist vocational training and a
sixth form. The new campus will provide a
major opportunity to address low training
and employment levels in Cheetham and the
wider North Manchester area and will act as
a major catalyst for regeneration.
Economic drivers
• Employment growth is forecast in the
city centre, driven by the expansion of
employment within high-value sectors
in knowledge-based sectors, including
finance and professional services, creative
and media industries.
• Growth is likely to be driven by a complex
mix of small and large businesses that have
their own requirements relating to office
accommodation.
• A gap exists within the office market in
the city centre for lower cost office
accommodation to accommodate smaller,
independent, creative businesses. There is
evidence of the pressing need to build up the
product range of the city centre in order to
respond to the needs of this type of occupier
and prevent relocations to outlying town
centres due to high office prices.
• The current clustering of wholesale
suppliers is a positive attribute to the
economy of Strangeways, with people
developing business-to-business
relationships and attracting buyers
from across the United Kingdom and
Ireland who visit multiple businesses.
Physical drivers
• The city centre has reorientated itself
northwards towards the Arena and Victoria
Station. The proximity of Strangeways is
a major opportunity to capitalise upon
this investment.
• Commercial expansion is constrained
elsewhere around the city centre (apart from
the Southern Gateway) due to the domination
of residential developments within the
‘city fringe’.
• The proximity to the Manchester Evening
News Arena, one of Europe’s largest indoor
concert venues, the access links to
Strangeways and the development of
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adjoining neighbourhoods, including
Greengate Lower Broughton, the Green
Quarter and Collyhurst, provide opportunities
to generate significant footfall in the area
and create a new entertainment and cultural
location within the city.
• The closure and demolition of the former
Boddingtons brewery on a prominent site
provides a major development opportunity
that can act as a catalyst for regeneration
and drive investment from the city
centre northwards.
3.5 Vision
The vision for Strangeways is for it to be a key
employment, cultural and training destination
in proximity to the city centre accommodating
a broad range of business activity.
It will be well connected to the city centre and
surrounding neighbourhoods and form a key
part of the North City Centre commercial quarter.
The area’s topography and natural resources
will be exploited to enable development
of low-carbon use and environmentally
sustainable buildings.
3.6 Local Plan objectives
The objectives of the Strangeways Local Plan are:
• Creation of a clear framework for physical
change and investment.
• Diversification of the area’s business base
exploiting its location on the edge of the city
centre with diversification focused on the city
fringe area, along the River Irwell and arterial
roads, making Strangeways an important
employment, training and cultural destination
in the city.
• Retention and concentration of
existing industries within the core
of the Strangeways area.
• An increase in the vitality and activity of the
whole Strangeways area.
• An enhanced physical environment and
improved connectivity to neighbouring areas,
reinforcing Strangeways’ role as a gateway
to the city centre, to North Manchester and
parts of Salford.
• Provide local people with employment
opportunities by supporting the
development of a new Manchester College
campus on the former Boddingtons site.
• The development of environmentally
sustainable, low-carbon use buildings.
3.7 Summary
Strangeways is well placed to continue its role
as a major location of business activity in the
city. A key challenge is to make better use of
this highly accessible location, improving the
environment, tackling issues of perception and
integrating Strangeways into the fabric of the
city and the northern part of the city centre.
Reducing numbers of people out of work in
neighbouring residential areas through the
growth and diversification of the employment
base is a key objective. The diversification of
employment is necessary to prevent stagnation
and decline. Strangeways has a key role to
play in meeting the forecast growth of the
city’s economy.
The challenge for Strangeways is to take full
advantage of its location, overcoming physical
barriers to the city centre and adjacent
neighbourhoods. This section has outlined the
overarching strategy based on the key issues
and opportunities facing Strangeways.
ChapTER 4
Employment and economy
24
4.1 Existing characteristics
The Cheetham ward in which Strangeways is
located has 5% of Manchester’s total stock of
businesses, most of which are concentrated in
Strangeways. Cheetham has the largest number
of businesses of any ward outside the city centre,
employing 3% of Manchester’s total workforce.
There is a prominence of wholesale retail trade
in Strangeways, which makes up to two-thirds
of all businesses. Around 20% of businesses are
in manufacturing, well above the Manchester
average. The largest employer is Joseph Holt Ltd.
The area is dominated by small businesses,
with 80% of businesses having 15 employees or
fewer. 86% of businesses in the area are located
on a single site. The area is acknowledged for
its role in providing low-cost, flexible and
basic premises that support the city economy,
making the location especially attractive to
businesses operating on narrow margins
and/or in the early stages of operation.
The overrepresentation of low value-adding
industrial sectors limits the area’s potential
to contribute to the expansion of the city’s
economy. The existing industrial base will not
generate significant investment in the area to
transform its degraded environment and
exploit its potential as a gateway into the
city centre and to North Manchester.
Vacancy rates of commercial premises have
been higher in Strangeways than in the rest
of the city and while vacancy rates have been
steadily declining across the city this has not
been replicated in Strangeways. Vacancy rates
are highest in the lowest rateable value
properties reflecting a city-wide trend.
The area does not have many businesses in
identified growth areas associated with the
regional centre. These include financial and
professional services, culture and leisure, higher
value manufacturing and communications.
The area does not appear to be in major
decline; however, its reliance on wholesale
and distribution makes it vulnerable to market
changes such as direct sourcing by retailers
and the vagaries of consumer spending.
4.2 Diversification of the current
employment base
The Local Plan will seek to diversify Strangeways’
current employment base, exploiting its location
on the edge of the city centre.
The actions of the Local Plan are:
• To create an environment that enables
Strangeways to capture businesses in high
value-added growth sectors associated with
the city centre
• To contribute to the city’s current competitive
offer complementing and adding value to the
activities in the city centre
• To layer employment space and uses across
Strangeways through identifying different
neighbourhoods, characterised by different
types of economic activity. Higher value
commercial space will be encouraged to be
located on the fringe with the city centre,
along the River Irwell and along the arterial
roads, while value wholesale, distribution,
start-up and light industrial space will be
encouraged to be located in neighbourhoods
within the core of Strangeways
• To exploit the need that has been identified
for the city centre to diversify its office
accommodation, which has more recently
focused on high-value space attractive to
multinational corporations. There is a need
for the city centre to provide less expensive,
flexible, mixed-tenure office accommodation
to meet the needs of growing indigenous
firms, including smaller, independent, creative
businesses that are being priced out of the
traditional city centre market. Without this
type of office accommodation in or within
proximity to the city centre, businesses will
relocate to outlying town centres
• To use the prominent former Boddingtons
site as a catalyst to regeneration, driving
investment northwards into the wider
Strangeways area and surrounding
neighbourhoods
• To redevelop the former Boddingtons site
as a vibrant, employment-led, mixed-use
neighbourhood attractive to a range of
business occupiers with a mix of floorplate
sizes, on competitive financial and flexible
sale or leasehold terms. This will include
complementary leisure and retail facilities
that will create vibrancy and vitality.
4.3 Supporting existing
businesses
The current economic base of the area is
expected to remain an important contributor
to the economy. Companies generally appear
confident with regard to their future potential.
There is some evidence of expansions and new
incorporations taking place.
A number of common views and recurring
themes emerged from the research into
existing businesses:
• Most businesses considered their premises
to be adequate in terms of size and quality
for their current and future needs. This
would suggest a reasonable level of
underutilised space.
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26
• Factors cited as critical to business
growth included:
• Cost of fuel and transport costs, especially for
businesses involved in import and export
• Internet trading reducing the need for a
central location
• Local service businesses such as cafes and
restaurants have little passing trade, so
would like to see greater activity and
footfall in the area
• Many of the wholesalers and distributors
recognised risks in their markets and were
diversifying their back offices into other
business activities including property
and ICT.
In terms of Strangeways as a location for
business, the following views were expressed.
Strengths
• It is ideally situated with good access to the city
centre for distribution of products and services.
• Generally the area has sufficient car parking
for staff and customers. This was seen as more
of a problem closer to the city centre.
• Lower business and rental rates than the city
centre allowed for narrower operating
margins and larger more adaptable premises.
• ‘Clustering’ of business activity centred on
wholesale, manufacturing of textiles and
footwear. The area attracts buyers from
across the United Kingdom and Ireland –
predominantly independent retailers. The
clustering has led to trading and greater
business activity.
Challenges
• Crime, mainly in the form of vandalism,
break-ins to cars and premises, street crime
and robbery.
• Degraded environment and poor public
realm leading to fly-tipping in some areas.
The overall perception was that Strangeways
has missed out on investment and the area
remains largely untouched by the regeneration
of the city centre.
The Local Plan will seek to support existing
businesses in the area.
• To encourage the retention of established
economic sectors, including wholesale,
distribution, start-up and light industrial
to be located in the core of Strangeways
• To deter the encroachment of residential
developments into the core of Strangeways as
being detrimental to its economic function
• To support the development of associated
office space and shared meeting space for
existing businesses to bring together clients
and buyers and assist diversification of
their business
• To encourage greater business activity in
the area and clustering of businesses through
the development of neighbourhoods across
Strangeways characterised by their different
economic functions
• To improve the public realm and community
safety in the area.
4.4 Employment
Despite the proximity of the communities of
North Manchester and Broughton in Salford
to the city centre and Strangeways’ rates of
economic inactivity and unemployment rates
remain particularly high. Cheetham has very
low skill levels, with almost half the population
lacking any sort of qualification.
The current propensity for local entrepreneurship
is not well represented in the area. North
Manchester continues to fall below UK rates
though Cheetham is relatively stronger. A range
of support mechanisms exists to develop
enterprise, support people into employment
and training, and encourage self-employment
in disadvantaged areas. The Strangeways Local
Plan seeks to harness these resources to promote
entrepreneurial activity in Strangeways. The key
framework in this context is the Greater
Manchester City Strategy, which brings together
the key public and private economic, employment
and skills-related stakeholders. It sets out the
wider city region’s approach to delivering on the
economic, employment and skills agendas.
The ultimate aim of the strategy is to simplify
and streamline the way that services in these
areas are commissioned and delivered. The key
principles of the plan are to:
• Improve the engagement of residents who
are out of work
• Improve the basic employability and
occupational skills of those not in work
• Engage with employers and support them in
recruiting local residents who are out of work
and to retain jobs for people in work.
Cheetham ward is identified within the strategy
as a key target area and as such its businesses
and population will be the beneficiaries of a
range of support measures. There are a number
of issues, that need to be taken into account in
designing and developing appropriate actions
for the area.
Ethnic minority businesses
The development of new and existing ethnic
minority enterprises is particularly relevant in
the context of the Strangeways area, which has
a diverse population covering a wide range of
ethnic groups.
Recent research suggests that in general, there
is a low take-up of publicly funded business
support among ethnic minority groups.
On the supply side, problems can arise
from providers having a lack of appropriate
information regarding ethnic entrepreneurs.
Both supply and demand issues appear to be
restricting the formation of new ethnic
minority-owned businesses.
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Barriers to entrepreneurship
There are considerable barriers confronting
would-be entrepreneurs in the more deprived
areas of the city. These include:
• Poor awareness of enterprise opportunities
and low aspirations
• A shortage of role models and low
self-confidence
• Inadequate access to start-up finance
• Poor know-how in dealing with financial, legal
and human resource issues, and red tape
• Difficulties in connecting with
prospective customers
• Inaccessibility of large agencies’
procurement processes
• Inadequate access to affordable premises.
An action of the local plan is to include within
the city’s business support programmes startup targets for the Strangeways area that seek
to address the barriers identified above.
4.5 Training and
further education
A review of further education in Manchester
(Adrian Perry, 2006) identified that further
education facilities were unevenly distributed
across the city with two major areas of
deficiency: Wythenshawe in south Manchester
and Cheetham.
The shortage of accessible further education
facilities acts as a barrier to the development
of skill levels in these areas.
A ‘Property Strategy’ has been produced as part
of the merger of City College and MANCAT into
The Manchester College.
The focus of the strategy has been on the need
to engage people from deprived communities,
to improve their participation in education
and training, to support employability and
to reduce the number of people who are
economically inactive.
The Property Strategy outlines the significance
of new buildings to enable accessible education
and training and support a renewed culture of
aspiration and ambition. The Manchester College
is proposing two new college campuses: one
at Wythenshawe and the other on the former
Boddingtons site in Strangeways.
The proposed new Manchester College campus
on the former Boddingtons site would provide
a major opportunity to link local people with
employment opportunities being created.
It is planned to provide accommodation
for an additional 650 learners in full-time
education involved in specialist vocational
training associated with growth sectors of
the city’s economy, and for 400 additional
sixth-form students.
An action of the Local Plan is to support the
Manchester College in developing a new
campus at the Boddingtons site, which will
ultimately provide:
• Links with local employers and employment
opportunities for college students training in
vocational skills
• Help for those with little chance of accessing
jobs, providing an appropriate starting
point for training and a progression route
into employment
• Skilled employees to fill job opportunities,
particularly in the hospitality, catering, retail
and textile industries
• Opportunities to develop creative space for
the performing arts and exhibitions, with
strong linkages to the Manchester Evening
News Arena.
ChapTER 5
The physical environment
30
5.1 Context
On the edge of Manchester city centre the
Strangeways Local Plan area covers 86 hectares
of employment land. It is located between the
city centre and adjoining neighbourhoods of
Broughton, Cheetham and Collyhurst. These
neighbourhoods are expected to undergo
substantial regeneration led by repopulation
and new residential developments.
Strangeways has an important function as a
gateway to these neighbourhoods, to and from
the city centre via arterial roads and the River
Irwell. The enhancement of connections and
gateways is important to make Strangeways
more accessible as an employment and cultural
destination and to support the housing market
in Salford and North Manchester.
The southern neighbourhoods of Strangeways
are located within the new City Centre North
commercial and cultural quarter on the
periphery of the city centre. City Centre North
has good transport infrastructure, an availability
of sites, and a mix of other natural, cultural and
economic assets that give it substantial potential
to expand the cultural and economic offer of
the city centre.
The environment of Strangeways gives the
impression of a ‘back door’ entrance to the
city centre with the appearance of the arterial
routes through Strangeways being relatively
poor compared with other arterial routes into
the city centre. The area is characterised by
warehouses and depots, with many businesses
occupying low-rise, predominantly large
floorplate units within a strong grid street
pattern. The area provides low-cost, flexible
and basic premises.
The core of Strangeways is made up of larger
footprint buildings that tend to occupy larger
plots, with smaller building and plot sizes closer
to the main arterial routes. The southern part of
the Local Plan, in proximity to the city centre,
has a high number of vacant and underused
sites, notably the former Boddingtons brewery
site and a number of small surface car parks
serving commuters and the Manchester
Evening News Arena.
This section of the Local Plan considers the
physical environment within which change can be
brought about. It is divided into four topic areas:
• Support the economic growth of the city
by creating a vibrant and sustainable
employment-led destination that can
accommodate a diversity of employment
premises and business activity.
• Enhance key routes to and within Strangeways
to connect communities to opportunities in
Strangeways and the city centre.
• Support the evolution of the urban fabric of
Strangeways by creating neighbourhoods
of distinct character and townscape.
• Improve the environment and public
realm, raising the quality of Strangeways
as an employment destination and
working environment.
5.2 Creating a vibrant and
sustainable employment-led
destination
Strangeways has been an important
employment location for over 150 years,
adapting to changes in economic conditions
to create the physical structure seen today.
The future of Strangeways is one of evolution
of the urban form.
The Local Plan provides a physical framework
to enable a layering of employment space
and uses across Strangeways’ building upon
and diversifying its employment base and
exploiting the advantages of its location.
• To encourage the development of six distinct
neighbourhoods in Strangeways characterised
by different types of economic activity and
functions. A framework for physical change
has been identified for each neighbourhood,
directing future development and
encouraging complementary uses and
activities to generate greater employment
density and economic activity
• To exploit the potential of Strangeways’
proximity to the city centre, its frontage
onto the River Irwell and its arterial roads,
to capture businesses in high-value growth
sectors associated with the city centre
• To retain and enhance warehouse,
manufacturing and distribution activities
within the core of Strangeways, consolidating
uses into a more efficient urban form
• To protect and enhance the employment
function of Strangeways by resisting in
general the encroachment of residential
development into Strangeways, as it will
conflict and hinder many of the employment
activities in the core of Strangeways. There
may be some opportunity to introduce a
limited amount of residential development
within the immediate city fringe area and
along the banks of the River Irwell where it
can be demonstrated that it has a supporting
role to provide a genuine economically
sustainable mixed-use environment. In the
north of Strangeways there is an opportunity
to provide high-quality family housing
around Cheetham Park, creating a boundary
between the Warehouse District and the
residential neighbourhoods in Cheetham.
5.3 Connecting communities
and opportunities
Strangeways can play a significant role as
a strategic gateway to the city centre and
key residential neighbourhoods of North
Manchester and Salford. Creating better
connections through Strangeways will create
a more connected area, connecting people to
job opportunities within the city centre and
Strangeways. The poor pedestrian environment
of Strangeways reinforces barriers between
communities around Strangeways to the
city centre. Enhancing key gateways into
the neighbourhoods will be crucial in
promoting connectivity and perception
along the arterial routes.
The Local Plan seeks to secure crucial linkages
both north/south (between the economic
activities of the city centre and the communities
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of North Manchester) and east/west
(between the rapidly emerging Green Quarter
development and the growing residential
communities across the River Irwell in Salford).
It also provides an opportunity to link the open
space networks of the proposed Irwell City Park
with the Irk Valley.
The street pattern has developed through a
grid structure, which allows for a high degree
of permeation.
However, part of the structure has been lost
due to the amalgamation of development
blocks. The Local Plan will seek to repair the
grid structure, enhancing permeation across
the area. By improving the pedestrian routes
around the Manchester Evening News Arena,
particularly north to south over Trinity Way,
the physical barrier of the Arena can be
significantly reduced.
• To enhance key gateways from Strangeways
into and out of the city centre and the
neighbourhoods of Lower Broughton,
Cheetwood, and Collyhurst
• To enhance the key arterial routes of
Great Ducie Street/Bury New Road and
Cheetham Hill
• To develop a built frontage and pedestrian
walkway along the River Irwell as part of the
Irwell City Park
• To develop strategic pedestrian connections
through the City Fringe and Riverside
neighbourhoods, including:
• an east to west footpath link connecting to
the Green Quarter and Irk Valley footpath
network to the east and Irwell City Park to
the west
• north to south pedestrian linkages
• developing pedestrian connections across
Trinity Way into Victoria Station and the
Manchester Evening News Arena and along
Victoria Street
• investigating the feasibility of a new
footbridge across the River Irwell
• To enhance key routes through Strangeways,
in particular Derby Street within the
Warehouse District
• To repair the street pattern (where possible)
through planning guidance to provide
good permeation.
Strangeways Area Urban Grain 1848–2007
1848
1923
1980
1890
1956
2007
Figure 5.2: Strangeways Area Urban Grain 1848–2007
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5.4 Distinct character
and townscape
The Strangeways area is characterised by
the remnants of its industrial past and the
vitality associated with business and cultural
activity in the area. It is largely defined by
its historic industrial structures and more
modern warehouse and distribution sheds.
The development of a strong grid pattern has
defined the development blocks, with many
buildings built to the back of the pavement.
The arterial roads of Cheetham Hill and Bury
New Road/Great Ducie Street form important
routes into the city centre and in the other
direction to North Manchester, and have
prominent views of the city centre, the
Green Quarter and the Manchester Evening
News Arena.
The views are enhanced by the topography of
Strangeways, which falls in a south-western
direction. The arterial routes have a relatively
poor appearance with a number of degraded
sites lining the routes in and out of the city
centre. However, there is considerable potential
for these routes to act as a ‘window’ to the
wider Strangeways area.
Cheetham Hill Road is peppered with historic
buildings associated with its commercial and
religious significance and location for migrant
communities to Manchester.
This includes the former Cheetham Town Hall
built in 1853–55 in an Italianate style. Next door,
109 Cheetham Hill Road was built as a Poor Law
Union office in 1861/2.
Further down the road
is the listed Knowsley
Hotel, now a public
house and shop, built
in the mid-to-late
19th century, and a
Methodist chapel
built in 1840 before
becoming a
synagogue, and now
used as a retail
warehouse.
The Manchester Jewish
Museum is an important
cultural facility on
Cheetham Hill Road.
Dating from 1889, the
Grade II* listed building
was originally a Spanish
and Portuguese
synagogue. There is an
opportunity to explore these historic linkages
as a commercial and cultural destination.
Strangeways has some strong physical edges
that impact both positively and negatively
on the area’s appearance and legibility. The
Manchester Evening News Arena provides a
physical barrier to the city centre. The high
security walls of Strangeways Prison create
an impermeable physical barrier. The River
Irwell could become a prominent edge but
Strangeways has turned its back on the river
and its potential has yet to be delivered.
There is an opportunity for residential
development to face onto Cheetham Park,
providing a strong edge between the
Warehouse District and the residential
neighbourhoods in Cheetham.
• To identify the key physical characteristics
of each neighbourhood, ensuring that
new development strengthens the
neighbourhood’s vision and employment
function as outlined in section 7
• To enhance the key gateways, edges and
routes through the neighbourhoods to
enhance their appearance and legibility
• To develop a strong built frontage onto Trinity
Way to overcome the physical barrier of the
Manchester Evening News Arena
• To open up and improve accessibility to the
River Irwell as a major asset in the area
• To develop the arterial routes of Cheetham
Hill Road and Bury New Road/Great Ducie
Street as windows to the wider Strangeways
area, exploiting the historic linkages of
Cheetham Hill Road to develop a cultural
and commercial location
• To ensure high-quality design in accordance
• To develop uses and development associated
with Manchester City Council’s ‘Guide to
Development 2’ by:
• developing active street frontages, clearly
defined urban street patterns and quality
public space
with the city centre within the City Fringe
and Riverside neighbourhoods, driving
investment northwards
• To utilise the topography of the area in
developing masterplans and building designs
to ensure that the south-western aspect is
fully maximised and to create low-carbon
use buildings .
• adopting ‘Secure by Design’ principles,
including natural surveillance and
well-lit streets
Manchester Fort Retail
Elizabeth Street
Waterloo Road
1000m
Derby Street
750m
500m
Lower Broughton
Cheetham Hill Road
Great Ducie Street
250m
MEN Arena
Victoria Station
Trinity Way
Manchester Cathedral
The Triangle
Deansgate
Figure 5.3: Strangeways’ accessibility
35
36
5.5 Improving the environment
and public realm
The public realm in Strangeways is relatively poor,
with little investment reflecting its position as a
low-price employment location. The management of
the public realm is patchy, with fly-tipping a particular
problem around the Great Ducie Street area. While
it is unrealistic to expect high-quality public realm
throughout Strangeways there are key routes that
need to be enhanced to support the overall vision
of an enhanced employment destination.
• To enhance pavements and street lighting
along arterial corridors and key routes
through Strangeways
• To deliver a better pedestrian environment,
particularly in the City Fringe and Riverside
neighbourhoods
• To create a high quality riverside walkway and
frontage, connecting into the wider Irwell
City Park
• To encourage a programme of environmental
improvements, particularly public realm and
lighting to improve the pedestrian connection
between the city centre and Strangeways
• To integrate Cheetham Hill Park into the
neighbouring residential communities through
a programme of park improvements.
5.6 Section 106 agreements
The private sector is expected to contribute
significantly to the creation of a high-quality
public realm within its own developments and
through Section 106 agreements.
• To obtain contributions from the private
sector to create high-quality public realm
and open space within its own developments
and through Section 106 agreements
• In areas expected to undergo major physical
change, particularly in the City Fringe and
Riverside neighbourhoods, high-quality
public realm and connections will need to
form part of major development proposals.
5.7 Neighbourhood management
The Strangeways area faces a number of
challenges relating to neighbourhood
management and crime and community safety
issues. There is low pedestrian footfall in the
area and therefore little natural surveillance
to deter thieves and those who commit
environmental crimes.
The high levels of crime associated with theft
of and theft from motor vehicles are significant
negative factors affecting the operation of the
existing businesses. Combined with widespread
fly-tipping by commercial businesses on
unregistered plots of vacant land this has
led to Strangeways portraying a severely
neglected appearance.
Each of the neighbourhoods in the Strangeways
area experiences a range of neighbourhood
management issues. Within the Workshop
Village neighbourhood there are major waste
management issues, with at least 50% of the
businesses not having waste management
contracts, which leads to fly-tipping of
commercial waste in the area. There has
been limited success with enforcement of
these issues due to a lack of information on
business ownership.
The criminal activity in this particular area
centres on the selling of counterfeit goods.
A number of successful operations in the
area have taken place to tackle this. With
the availability of low-cost, branded goods
attracting young people to shop in and around
the Workshop Village this is thought to have led
to an increase in robberies in the area.
There are a number of empty industrial units
and vacant plots of land within the Warehouse
District that are not adequately secured. These
plots have high levels of fly-tipping, which
quickly become unsightly.
Landowners are reluctant to have the sites
repeatedly cleared. The empty units, particularly
along Cheetham Hill Road, are not only visually
unappealing but also attract antisocial behaviour
and encourage vandalism and fly-tipping.
37
38
Theft of and theft from motor vehicles is
the biggest criminal issue in the Strangeways
area, particularly in the City Fringe
neighbourhood. This is a longstanding
problem primarily caused by city centre
commuter parking. It is exacerbated by the
fact that there is low pedestrian footfall in
the area, and the businesses in general are
not orientated to look onto the street, so
there is very limited natural surveillance.
A number of initiatives have been undertaken
to tackle this problem but with limited success.
The local businesses are opposed to parking
restrictions in the area, as they believe this
will affect the trading.
The key actions of the Local Plan are:
This lack of natural surveillance has led to an
increase of robberies along the walkway at
the River Irwell.
• To generate increased footfall across the
• To ensure businesses have a commercial
waste removal contract for the removal
of waste
• To work with Greater Manchester Police
to reduce robberies, prevent the selling of
counterfeit goods and address vehicle crime
in the area, encouraging commuters to park
in managed car parks
• To continue to invest in the management and
upgrading of the street environment
• To encourage new developments to have a
street frontage and create natural surveillance
Strangeways area
• To encourage use of vacant sites
for development.
Key:
City Centre Fringe
Figure 5.1 Strangeways Physical Framework
Residential Area
Other Housing
Employment Uses
Commercial Mixed-Use
Strategic Green Space
Prison
Cheetham Hill
Primary Gateways
Cheetham
Key Pedestrian/Cycle Connections
Main Roads
Irwell City Park
Eli
za
Strangeways Local Plan Area
be
th
St
re
et
ad
All
is
Cheetham Fringe
oo
Ro
on
Str
e
Stre
e
t
Wa
ter
l
et
Manchester Fort
orne
Brou
ghto
Retail
Destination
She
rb
Cheetwood
n St
reet
Bu
or
ad
Ro
Hill C
orrid
ew
ry N
Warehouse District
tre
eS
am H
City Fringe
at D
Green
Quarter
ucie
Riverside
River Irwell
Irk
Valley
Ri
Gre
Irwell City Park
Manchester
et
tre
ll S
a
h
ut
So
rk
HMP
tre
eS
rn
bo
r
She
Prison
ve
rI
est
et W
n
or
Chee
th
rb
e
Sh
Lower
Broughton
ill Ro
et
ad
Workshop
Village
Che
et
ham
Derb
y Str
eet
t
e
Stre
ay
yW
r
lle
it
Trin
Mi
Springfield
Lane
et
e
Str
Vic
ia
tor
MEN Arena/
Victoria Station
r Ir
e
Riv
ora
tion
Stre
e
Ancoats
City Centre
Ci
ty
Cor
p
Irw
ell
t
et
Stre
Greengate
Pa
r
k
ll
we
Figure 5.1: Strangeways Development Framework
39
ChapTER 6
Neighbourhoods
Neighbourhoods
6.1 Introduction
The Strangeways Local Plan has been divided
into six neighbourhoods: City Fringe, Riverside,
Cheetham Hill Corridor, Workshop Village,
Warehouse District and Cheetham Fringe .
The prison complex sits outside the
neighbourhoods . In this part of the Local Plan
the key issues facing each neighbourhood are
summarised . A series of policies to be adopted
and taken forward as a framework for physical
change are set out in order to achieve the vision
and objectives of the Local Plan .
Cheetham Fringe
Hill
Corr
id
or
Warehouse District
ham
Workshop
Village
Prison
Riverside
Che
et
42
City Fringe
Figure 6.1: Neighbourhood Areas
City Centre
Neighbourhoods
6.2 City Fringe
Context
The City Fringe neighbourhood extends from
Trinity Way northwards to the Strangeways
Prison and Lord Street. The neighbourhood is
dominated by the site of the former Boddingtons
Brewery located at the junction of Great Ducie
Street and Trinity Way. The brewery has been
demolished with only the symbolic structure
of the chimney remaining. North of the former
brewery, along Trinity Way, there is a car hire
depot and to the east a mix of plot sizes
occupied by a collection of small and mediumsized warehouse and distribution units.
There are also a small number of surface car
parks serving commuters and the Manchester
Evening News Arena.
The buildings are generally of a low architectural
quality. However, the former brewery chimney is
of value as a symbol of the site’s historic past.
Beyond the site of the former Boddingtons
Brewery the environment is generally poor
with a range of low-scale industrial buildings.
The City Fringe neighbourhood is dominated to
the south by views of the back of the Manchester
Evening News Arena along Trinity Way. The
Arena forms a strong blank edge to the city
centre, creating a major barrier between the
city centre and Strangeways. The change in
topography is at its most prominent in the City
Fringe neighbourhood with an 18-metre change
in height across the neighbourhood.
Connections and permeation across and through
the neighbourhood are limited. This is mainly due
to the topography and the size of the brewery
site, which is currently a surfaced car park.
In October 2007 Manchester City Council
approved a Development Framework for the
former Boddingtons site to realise its employment
potential and stimulate improvement and
investment for the wider Strangeways area.
The key elements of the Development Framework
are summarised within the actions of the
Local Plan. The Development Framework is
complementary and sits within the overall
strategy of the Local Plan.
Vision
The City Fringe neighbourhood will be
redeveloped as an employment-led mixed-use
vibrant neighbourhood contributing to the
revitalisation of the City Centre North
commercial quarter.
43
44
Neighbourhoods
The key actions of the Local Plan are:
Townscape and public realm
Land use
• To develop a landmark building at the
• To create a vibrant, employment-led mixeduse neighbourhood attractive to a range of
business occupiers but catering specifically
for the needs of growing indigenous firms,
for example: smaller, independent, creative
businesses that are being priced out of the
traditional city centre market
• To create a mix of commercial floorplate
sizes providing choice and flexibility for
potential occupiers
• To develop complementary leisure and retail
facilities, including hotel, cafes, bars and
restaurants, creating vibrancy and vitality
throughout the scheme and providing
support functions for the adjacent
Manchester Evening News Arena
• To support the development of a new
Manchester College campus and associated
leisure and cultural uses targeting
young people
• To allow a limited amount of supporting
residential development where it can be
demonstrated that it is necessary to enliven
the area throughout the day and evening,
provide a genuine mixed-use environment,
and ensure commercial premises can be
available for the target market. Developers
should have regard to the Council’s
Supplementary Planning Document on
affordable housing ‘Providing for
Housing Choice’
• To exploit the natural assets of the site,
including its topography, to create high
levels of daylight and natural ventilation,
its water for heating and water supplies
to develop low-carbon use buildings.
junction of Trinity Way and Great Ducie
Street that draws people into the heart of
the scheme
• To develop a strong character and sense of
place in the City Fringe through architecture
and public realm
• To create active frontages and high-quality
public realm along the arterial roads,
with particular emphasis given to
improving key gateways and routes into
the neighbourhood
• To create a new public high-quality central
square within the heart of the development
• To develop buildings of an appropriate
scale and height to define a City Fringe
neighbourhood with taller buildings
occupying the Trinity Way frontage
• To develop a pedestrian-friendly
environment, including a sweeping
east–west pedestrian link with an active
built frontage
• To investigate the feasibility of utilising the
existing chimney as a landmark feature
within the development.
Connections and accessibility
• To develop high-quality pedestrian linkages
through the site, both north to south and
east to west, linking the city centre and key
redevelopment sites with neighbouring areas
(including the possibility of a pedestrian link
from Manchester Evening News Arena and
Victoria Station to the neighbourhood over
Trinity Way)
• To improve connectivity and permeation
by repairing the existing grid structure of
Strangeways improving connections and
permeation within the Warehouse District
and Cheetham Hill Corridor neighbourhoods
• To provide an appropriate level of car parking,
taking advantage of the topography to
provide underground parking solutions that
minimise the impact on the townscape.
Neighbourhoods
Figure 6.2: Existing City Fringe (Trinity Way)
Figure 6.3: Proposed City Fringe (Trinity Way)
Key:
City Centre Fringe
Cultural Spine
Key Pedestrian Connections
Irk Valley Gateway
Key Gateway
Main Frontages
Corridor Improvements
HMP
Manchester
(formerly Strangeways)
East/West Footpath Link
Buildings of aesthetic or
historical value that make
a positive contribution to
the street scene
Lord
et
Historic Chimney Structure
tre
ll S
t
ha
ut
So
Stre
e
Che
e
tham
Hill
Roa
d
Central Square
t
tre
nS
tto
Du
ree
a St
Juli
et
Green
Quarter
cie
u
at D
Gre
Former
Boddingtons
Brewery
et
Stre
Ri
ve
r
Irw
ell
River Ir
k
t
ge
rid
wB
e
Stre
Ne
MEN Arena /
Victoria Station
City Fringe
Figure 6.4: City Fringe design framework
45
46
Neighbourhoods
6.3 Riverside
Vision
Context
The Riverside neighbourhood will be
transformed into a high-quality commercially
led mixed-use neighbourhood with
significantly enhanced links to the city centre
and adjoining neighbourhoods. A high-quality
riverside frontage will be developed
contributing to the wider Irwell City Park.
The Riverside neighbourhood sits at a key
strategic location, providing a major gateway
to the city centre. The Riverside neighbourhood
is characterised by a series of large warehouses
within a generally flat topography. The
neighbourhood benefits from a south-western
aspect to the River Irwell. Development will
need to respond to the proposed development
at Springfield Lane and Greengate together
with the redevelopment of Lower Broughton
in Salford.
There is a mixed quality of premises in the
neighbourhood with some notably historic
industrial buildings interspersed with more
modern premises of varying quality. The area
is characterised by low-density warehousing,
typically one or two storey. There are also a
number of vacant sites that are used as
temporary car parks. Site security is an issue
with a high number having highly visible
security measures to protect the premises.
It currently creates a relatively low quality
gateway to the city centre.
The River Irwell runs along the western edge
of the neighbourhood, forming a strong
boundary line with Salford. This has immense
potential as a natural asset in the area. Much
of the development in the area has tended to
face away from the river.
Land use
• To introduce a mix of uses that will create a
vibrant neighbourhood complementing the
regeneration of the City Fringe neighbourhood
and wider City Centre North area
• To increase the density of employment within
the neighbourhood
• To provide a mix of office floorplates and
buildings to ensure choice and flexibility
• To allow a limited amount of supporting
residential development where it can be
demonstrated that it is necessary to enliven
the area throughout the day and evening,
provide a genuine mixed-use environment
and to ensure commercial premises can be
available for the target market. Developers
should have regard to the Council’s
Supplementary Planning Document on
affordable housing ‘Providing for
Housing Choice’.
Character and townscape
• To deliver an enhanced river corridor as part
of the Irwell City Park through the provision
of a riverside walk that is overlooked by an
active frontage development
• To deliver a landmark development on the
south-western corner of the neighbourhood
overlooking the river
• To create views of the River Irwell along
Great Ducie Street.
• To create an east–west footpath link and safe
pedestrian crossing point to the City Fringe
neighbourhood across Great Ducie Street
Neighbourhoods
• To enhance Sherborne Street West as a key
47
Improving the environment and public realm
gateway to Lower Broughton
• To provide high-quality public realm and
• To provide a safe crossing point across
signage along key routes of Sherborne Street
West, Great Ducie Street and Julia Street and
along the banks of the River Irwell .
Trinity Way as part of the linear walkway
of the Irwell City Park
• To investigate the feasibility of a new
pedestrian bridge across the River Irwell
connecting the Riverside neighbourhood
with the Greengate area in Salford .
Key:
Employment Uses
City Centre Fringe
Green Gateway
Primary Gateway
Main River Frontages
Irwell City River Park
East/West Footpath Link
bor
r
She
ne
Irw
ell
et
Stre
st
We
et
Cit
y
Riv
er P
ark
Riv
er
tre
ia S
Jul
Irw
ell
k
River Ir
at D
Gre
uci
et
Ne
w
Br
idg
et
eS
tre
tre
eS
Way
Trinity
Riverside
Figure 6.5: Riverside neighbourhood
48
Neighbourhoods
6.4 Cheetham Hill Corridor
Context
Cheetham Hill Road is a key artery to the city
centre from North Manchester. The road has a
mix of land uses and differing qualities in terms
of the built environment, providing a varied
entrance to the city centre.
Between the sites of historic merit are a variety
of buildings of mixed architectural value,
including low-cost warehouse and distribution
sheds, degraded sites and underused buildings.
There are prominent views of the Green Quarter
(a major development of 1,300 new apartments,
offices and hotel) the Manchester Evening News
Arena and the city centre. At the other end of the
corridor is the Manchester Fort, a large retail park.
There is growing commercial investment
along the corridor between these two large
commercial venues. Recent development
includes new office space, restaurants and
reoccupation by fashion distributors. However,
the public realm along the Cheetham Hill Road
corridor is of poor quality.
Vision
For Cheetham Hill Road to become one of the
main commercial arterial corridors leading to the
city centre. This will involve the development of
a mix of commercial uses, including restaurants,
offices and wholesale trade utilising vacant and
underused sites along the corridor.
Land use
• To strengthen the role of the corridor as a
vibrant city artery through the introduction
of a range of cultural, distribution and
entertainment uses.
• To complement new uses by enhancements
to the public realm and retention of
historic buildings
• To provide a ‘window’ to the Warehouse
District and wider Strangeways area
• To introduce a range of cafes and restaurants,
adding to the vibrancy of the city artery
• To encourage the introduction of smallerscale office development.
• To increase the vibrancy of the neighbourhood
• To enhance the public realm of Cheetham
Hill Road through enhancements to the
pavements, the introduction of street trees,
lighting and car parking provision.
• To develop a high-quality environment for
pedestrians, cyclists and users of public
transport and cars
• To develop the junction with Cheetham Hill
Road and Derby Street as a gateway into the
Warehouse District from Derby Street.
Neighbourhoods
Key:
Commercial Mix - Use
b
iza
El
Cultural Spine
h
et
et
re
St
Buildings of aesthetic or
historical value that make
a positive contribution to
the street scene
Primary Gateway
Sencondary Gateway
Brou
ghto
Che
e
tham
Hill
Ro
ad
Manchester Fort
n St
reet
Che
e
tham
Hill
Roa
d
Derb
y Str
eet
Cheetham Hill Corridor
Figure 6.6: Cheetham Hill Corridor
49
50
Neighbourhoods
6.5 Workshop Village
Context
• To enhance the townscape quality of the
The Workshop Village is located on each side
of Bury New Road. It is a mixture of large and
small premises occupied by wholesalers and
distributors involved predominantly in textile,
clothing and information communications
and technology.
The junctions between Bury New Road,
Broughton Lane and Sherborne Street West
act as important gateways into the Lower
Broughton Regeneration area in Salford. The
area is vibrant but overall has a degraded and
unappealing environment.
Vision
To retain the employment function of the
neighbourhood but encourage better quality
development at key locations, more intensive
neighbourhood management and improvements
to the quality of the public realm.
The actions of the local plan are:
Land use
• To retain employment uses in
the neighbourhood
• To encourage more active uses along the
eastern edge along Great Ducie Street
neighbourhood, particularly along Bury
New Road, and as a key gateway into Lower
Broughton at Broughton Lane and Sherborne
Street West
• To enhance the routes to the River Irwell
• To promote more effective environmental
management.
• To improve pedestrian access to the river with
improved footpaths via Sherborne Street West
• To improve the physical environment for
pedestrians and cyclists along Bury New Road
and Waterloo Road.
• To improve the quality of the public realm,
concentrating on improving the lighting and
footpaths along the following key routes of:
• Bury New Road
• Sherborne Street West
• Waterloo Road
• Broughton Lane
• Rugby Street.
Neighbourhoods
Key:
Employment Uses
Wa
ter
lo
oR
oad
Primary Gateway
Bur
ew
yN
d
Roa
et
tre
eS
uci
She
at D
tre
eS
rn
rbo
HMP Manchester
(Formerly Strangeways)
Gre
est
et W
River Irwell
Workshop Village
Figure 6.7: Workshop Village
51
52
Neighbourhoods
6.6 Warehouse District
Context
The neighbourhood forms the core of
Strangeways and is characterised by larger
development plots and a strong grid
pattern that provides good permeation.
Development is mainly to the edge of the
pavement creating a strong urban form,
particularly along Derby Street, which
forms a strong east–west spine through
the neighbourhood.
The neighbourhood is home to a number of
large warehouse and distribution premises
based around the textile trade. There is also
textile manufacturing operating in the
neighbourhood.
The Joseph Holt Derby Brewery located on
Empire Street is the headquarters for the
brewery and its public house operations.
It has been on the same site since 1860.
The red brick buildings provide an impressive
landmark within the area. The area has vitality
as a major business location.
A number of vacant sites and underused
buildings exist within the area. A major
opportunity exists on the demolished former
East Lancashire Dairy Site on Derby Street.
Planning permission has been granted for
a landmark development consisting of 31
distribution and workshop units fronting onto
the street and 280 new offices over four floors.
The building will have modern communication
and eco-friendly heating and ventilation
systems, and central atriums involving
conferencing and meeting areas available
for the wider business community.
The development will be a major catalyst
to the regeneration of the area and will
encourage the development of business-tobusiness relationships.
Vision
To retain and enhance the economic core of
Strangeways by allowing businesses to operate
in a vibrant and secure location. The clustering
of wholesale suppliers and shared space will be
encouraged to support the development of
business-to-business relationships and buyers
from a wide area.
Neighbourhoods
Land use
• To enhance north–south and east–west routes,
• To retain and improve the neighbourhood as
a vibrant business location
• To create a mix of commercial floorplate sizes,
including office space, providing choice
and flexibility for potential occupiers and
encouraging businesses to evolve and diversify
• To encourage the clustering of businesses and
development of shared meeting spaces to
allow business-to-business relationships to
develop and attract buyers from a wide area
to meet suppliers.
• To encourage development to utilise the
strong street grid of the area by building back
of pavement, active frontages, creating better
natural surveillance across the area
• To increase employment density and footfall
across the area to improve security
• To develop Derby Street as a key spine
with particular emphasis on improving the
public realm of Derby Street, reinforcing its role
as a ‘window’ to the wider neighbourhood
• To enhance Sherborne Street, Woolley Street
and Bent Street, particularly for pedestrians,
as the main north–south routes connecting
the residential neighbourhoods in Cheetham
to the City Fringe and city centre.
• To encourage a programme of public realm
improvements that creates a safe and secure
environment and improves the key routes
through the area
• To renew over time the physical infrastructure
to provide a modern, energy-efficient
environment for business operation
and growth
• To remove and deter fly-tipping on
vacant sites.
supporting the development of the former
East Lancashire Dairy site with a high-quality
landmark building and where possible
encouraging the reuse of historic
industrial buildings.
53
Neighbourhoods
Key:
Employment Uses
Secondary Gateway
Allis
o
n St
reet
She
rb
orne
Stre
e
t
oad
od R
two
Che
e
oad
oR
Wa
ter
lo
Brou
ghto
n St
lley
Stre
e
t
reet
Derb
y Str
eet
Jose
p
Derb h Holt
Brew y
ery
Emp
ire S
tree
t
HMP
Manchester
(formerly Strangeways)
Lord
Warehouse District
Figure 6.8: Warehouse District
Stre
e
t
Bent
Stre
e
t
Who
o
54
Neighbourhoods
6.7 Cheetham Fringe
Context
The neighbourhood is dominated by the
only park within the Local Plan. Cheetham Hill
Park is a potentially attractive Victorian park.
It houses two listed bandstands and an attractive
modern Sure Start Children’s Centre. The park
is in need of repair and investment and is
surrounded by neglected and underused sites.
The Park is potentially a strong asset for the
adjacent residential communities but its current
setting severely restricts fulfilling its potential.
The park has been located predominantly within
an employment area, but this has changed with
the development of a large apartment scheme.
• To create a neighbourhood that is centred
around Cheetham Hill Park as a high-quality
formal park.
• To improve pedestrian connections to the
Cheetham and Cheetwood communities
providing crossing points across Elizabeth
Street and Waterloo Road
• To enhance north–south links through the
neighbourhood, linking Strangeways with
the adjoining residential communities,
particularly along:
Vision
For the Cheetham Fringe area to become an
attractive residential area providing goodquality family housing and having an attractive
aspect overlooking Cheetham Hill Park. The
park will have a high-quality public realm and
facilities associated with public parks in North
Manchester. The neighbourhood will provide
a strong edge between the employment
areas of Strangeways and the residential
neighbourhoods to the north.
• Sherborne Street
• Cheetwood Road.
• To establish Cheetham Hill Park as the centre
of the neighbourhood, enhancing the public
realm and facilities within the park
• To significantly enhance the public realm
along key routes through improved
surfacing and lighting.
Land use
• To encourage the development of high-quality
family houses overlooking Cheetham Hill Park.
• To create an attractive residential
environment that enhances the choice
of family housing
55
56
Neighbourhoods
6.8 Strangeways Prison
The prison occupies a significant amount of land
in the centre of Strangeways and is itself a major
employer in the area. The prison building is a
notable historic landmark. The 71-metre tower
and the Gatehouse are prominent landmark
features. Since prison riots in 1990, the prison has
undergone a major rebuild and is surrounded by
an impenetrable high-security wall. The prison car
park is along Great Ducie Street and is screened
from the road by the planting of mature trees.
An action of the Local Plan is to support
opportunities for further improvements or
developments of the prison should they arise.
Any initiative to generate job opportunities or
improve the public realm would also be
supported.
Neighbourhoods
Key:
Residential Development
Other Housing
St
re
et
Cheetham
Hill Park
be
th
St
re
et
reet
on
za
e St
lis
Eli
She
rbor
n
Al
Che
etw
ood
Roa
d
Wat
erlo
o Ro
ad
Primary Gateway
Cheetham Fringe
Figure 6.9: Cheetham Fringe
57
ChapTER 7
Summary
60
Summary
Strangeways is well placed to protect and
enhance its role as a major employment
destination for the city region.
A key challenge is to make better use of its highly
accessible location, improving the environment
and tackling issues of perception. Strangeways
needs to be integrated into the fabric of the
city and to make better connections with
surrounding neighbourhoods as part of the
emerging City Centre North strategy.
The diversification of employment is necessary
to avoid stagnation and for Strangeways
to realise its potential to add value to the
employment and cultural offer of the city centre.
The traditional economic base of textile,
wholesale and trade will continue to make a
significant contribution to the city’s economy.
Strangeways has a key role to play in meeting
the forecast growth of the city’s economy and
the regeneration of the northern periphery of
the city centre.
The creation of a new Manchester College
campus as part of the wider development of
the former Boddingtons site provides a major
opportunity to link local people with the
employment and training opportunities being
created in Strangeways and the city centre, and
for the area to become a unique and significant
cultural, employment and learning destination
in the city.
Summary
For more information relating to the Strangeways Local Plan please contact:
Regeneration Team North
Manchester City Council
Hexagon Tower, Blackley Village
Manchester M9 8GQ
tel: 0161 655 7850
email: north.manchester.regeneration@manchester.gov.uk
61
Printed April 2009
WT 63299 • m-four Design & Print • Manchester City Council 2009 • www.m-four.com

Strangeways Local Plan - Manchester City Council

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