Tuesday 17 March 2015

Coming soon a 27 storey residential development by Albion Street

Now this one almost slipped me by, although I suppose once it’s finished it will be pretty hard to miss.

ATrafford Street, 2015
We are on Trafford Street by Albion Street with the Rochdale Canal behind those hoardings.

I will have passed the site countless tomes and also looked down casually over the years from the tram at that spot.

And recently I did wonder why it hadn’t been developed and what the future might hold.

Of course Andy Robertson has done just that.

An impression of the finished development, 2015
On one of his many photographic excursions through town he stopped and recorded the architect’s vision of what will one day rise from this bit of land.

According to the planning application which was submitted last year it will be a “27 storey residential building (Class C3) with associated servicing arrangements, hard landscaping, pedestrian access bridge and associated works on land Bounded By Albion Street, Trafford Street & The Rochdale Canal.”*

As you might expect given the size of the development the consultation process involved 65 documents many of which were extremely detailed.

All of which points to that simple lesson that I should really go looking at the planning applications more regularly and if for no other reason than that big applications important like this contain detailed heritage and archaeological reports which just add to our knowledge of such sites.**

A view if the finished development, 2015
After all I have no memory of what was there and had to start looking at old directories to get an idea of what businesses used the site.

So the heritage report was a fascinating one given that it comprehensively reported on the site from the late 18th century through with maps and photographs pretty much up to today.

All of which I shall read most carefully and return to at a later date.

But for now I have every confidence that Andy will go back and begin one of his meticulous series photographing the changing site.

So no pressure there then.


Pictures; Trafford Street development,  2015, courtesy of Andy Robertson

*Manchester City Planners, Application No. 106490, Albion Street, Trafford Street & The Rochdale Canal, http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=externalDocuments&keyVal=N9SAL7BC03O00

**Heritage Report, http://www.publicaccess.manchester.gov.uk/associateddocs/selecteddoc.aspx?106490-shs-0001.pdf

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