YOU get a fantastic view from the top floor of the first Manchester tower block rescued from demolition by Urban Splash. The city centre is laid out like the video game
SimCity, Strangeways prison looms to one side, trains pull in to Victoria station, and down below a little girl with long red hair plays in her garden.
Gina Holbrook smiles. That little girl could have been her, forty-odd years ago. Gina’s family lived in the terraced streets knocked down in the 1960s to make way for tower blocks and council houses. Gina, 46, won a competition held by Urban Splash to rename the three once derelict tower blocks undergoing redevelopment. “I thought it was really important to call them after the Pankhursts,” she says.
“Sylvia Pankhurst hasn’t even got a memorial.”
The sales publicity proclaims: “The Pank- hursts were from Manchester too. They were inspirational and committed. They helped sound a wake-up call for our country.”
It isn’t difficult to work out the implied association between pioneering suffragettes and pioneering property developers. Urban Splash hasn’t won all those awards for nothing, you know. Formerly known as Dalton Court, Bucknell Court and Newton Court, the blocks are now Emmeline, Christabel and Sylvia respectively. For more than ten years they had stood rotting, after the last council residents had gone. The “3 Towers” as they are collectively known, are off Rochdale Road, to the north of the city. Although they are technically in Salford, Manchester city centre is ten minutes’ walk away. It certainly feels urban, but this is no concrete jungle. Grass grows over the ruins of a warehouse, and the River Irwell rushes by, reminding locals that it was once the hub of industry, with paint factories and cotton mills crowding its banks. There is even a pony grazing in a scrubby field.
From many of the apartments you can see as far as the Pennines or Welsh hills. Round about, there is the typical city centre/suburban hinterland found in post-industrial northern towns and cities. This is often dominated by social housing, and few residential property developers have yet explored its possibilities. Certainly none has been brave enough to take on three tower blocks and try to turn them into fashionable apartments.
The shortage of central Manchester plots is forcing developers ever farther out. Urban Splash could not resist the challenge and no one else wanted the unloved eyesores. Planning permission was obtained in October 2004; the final phase will be finished in 2008. There are 62 apartments in each 12-storey block, starting at £92,000 for a one-bedroom unit and rising to £165,000 for two bedrooms. Each apartment comes with one parking space, another draw. Some of the surrounding land will also be landscaped and used for parking. Several ground-floor apartments have their own small gardens.
“We’re aiming at the first-time buyers,” says Patrick Sheridan, development manager for Urban Splash. “To be honest, it hasn’t been difficult to attract them. There has been tremendous interest in what we’re doing here, and the prices, because they aren’t city centre, are attractive.”
So what exactly are they doing? “We needed to create a new aesthetic,” Sheridan explains. “There was a stigma attached to tower blocks. People thought that you would never be able to sell them again. So what we have done is to completely change their character, so that they don’t look like council flats.”
This is immediately apparent from the exterior of Emmeline, the first block to undergo its £4.5 million renovation. It has been clad in a dark timber veneer product called Prodema, trimmed with brushed aluminium. The effect is impressive and certainly beats the stained concrete underneath. It will weather without rotting, Sheridan assures — just as well, given Manchester’s rainy reputation.
Several other major structural changes have modernised the buildings and provide improved interior specification. Each flat previously had a balcony, which has now been incorporated into the living room to create a larger space, with real ash flooring. And the surprisingly small windows have been replaced by much bigger ones.
Walls, which are all finished plain white, have been shifted to create an integral kitchen. This has smart white and birch units, a built-in electric cooker, washing machine and fridge with ice-box. Residents with no time to shop might have wanted to squeeze a freezer in there too.
Every kitchen features a splashback decorated in an abstract black and white floral pattern. This looks mind-blowing — and much in keeping with the reworked 1960s vibe — but it might not be to everybody’s taste. Similarly, the bright orange cupboard interiors. “This idea was inspired by the idea of a well-tailored suit,” says Sheridan. “You know — you open it up and there’s a lovely vibrant silk lining inside.”
Actually, this could stand as a metaphor not only for the kitchen cupboards but for the whole redevelopment. What the Pankhursts would have made of it, who knows. If they were after a safe bet in a nice, established area, then they would not be impressed. But if they were up for an urban adventure . . . well, they could pick much less interesting places.
- Details: e-mail sales@urbansplash.co.uk, call 07000 373737, or visit www.3towers.co.uk
ANY QUESTIONS?
Isn’t the Manchester boom so, like, over? Not if you know where to look. The city centre is flooded with new apartment developments right now. Agents report a sluggish September for sales. Keenly priced numbers such as 3 Towers’ one-bedders starting at £92,000 are selling well, though.
But aren’t these away from the action? The Northern Quarter, the most “real” part of central Manchester, is within walking distance. It’s boho-central, with delis, bars and clubs.
Where’s rocking right now? Check out Matt & Phred’s live jazz club on Tib Street. It’s a stagger home from the Warehouse Project, Manchester’s newest club, at the former Boddington’s brewery on Great Ducie Street.
So will I bump into musicians and artists? You might see the likes of Ian Brown (Stone Roses), Ray Winstone (his ITV1 drama series Vincent is filmed here) and there’s always an ex-member of M-People hanging out somewhere in the Northern Quarter.
