After 17 Years, Maybe Piccadilly Gardens Will Be Less Awful?
Acres of mud, paths in the wrong places, a concrete wall and bunkers, drunks, stabbings, the smell of drugs, lots of homeless people, graffiti and a fountain that, when it works and when the sun shines, turns into the kiddie paddling pool from hell.
Some cities have grand public squares to greet newcomers: Manchester has a cross between the Somme battlefield and an open-air hostel.
The 2002 redevelopment of once sedate Piccadilly Gardens is probably Manchester's least successful property story. "Wildly unpopular" is the verdict of the Manchester Evening News.
Now Legal & General Investment Management, which has a 250-year lease on the unlovely concrete pavillion, has withdrawn 2017 plans to rethink the gardens, which have become unviable without financial support, North West Business Insider reports.
Instead, a city council plan will be developed and costed including a "softening" of the concrete walls.
In Novembver 2018 it emerged that plans were being considered to move the bus station out of Piccadilly Gardens, a first step in improving the area's appeal.
Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese confirmed that proposals are under consideration, although Transport for Greater Manchester said it has no immediate plans for action.
The huge volume of bus traffic through Piccadilly Gardens is in contrast with similar central piazzas in other cities: London long ago banished buses from Trafalgar Square, which was once a major terminus.
Manchester's public spaces have long been a headache: Albert Square, framing the Grade I listed town hall, is frequently strewn with tents and metal crash barriers. Attempts will soon begin to make a £4M improvement to Lincoln Square, a 1.3-acre plot, long semi-derelict due to poor paving and deep shadow.
