On Saturday
15 June 1996, at a peak shopping time the day before Father's
Day, a 3,000lb IRA bomb exploded in Manchester, injuring more
than 200 people and ripping into the fabric of the city's main
shopping centre. In a state of shocked disbelief, police had
begun clearing people from the area some 40 minutes before the
blast; fortunately, several telephoned warnings had been issued
to newspapers, radio stations and to at least one hospital in
Manchester an hour before the blast. Newspaper offices in Dublin
and Belfast received similar warnings.
An army
bomb squad employed a robotic anti-bomb device to check an illegally
parked Ford van, which had been recorded by several closed circuit
security cameras in the city, when the bomb exploded.
Manchester's
ambulance services counted 206 injured people. Most injuries
were sustained from falling glass and building debris. In the
immediately ensuing chaos, ambulances and private cars were
used to shuttle victims to local and regional hospitals.
Local authorities
had to close Victoria and Piccadilly railway stations for several
hours and to seal off the city centre. The evacuation of shoppers
immediately took place from the Marks & Spencer's department
store, which was directly at the centre of the site, outside
which the lorry-bomb was parked.
Initially,
the evacuated staff and shoppers stood outside, right next to
the bomb, but when the emergency services realised this they
shunted them to the nearby Victoria Station.
Why Manchester
city centre was targeted by the IRA is uncertain, but it later
became clear that the cause probably lay in the breakdown of
the IRA "ceasefire" in the light of lack of progress with the
British Government's ongoing talks about a permanent peace settlement
in Northern Ireland.
It was estimated
that up to 50,000 square metres of retail space and nearly 25,000
square metres of office space have subsequently needed to be
reconstructed.
Whilst much
of the city centre has now reopened, the immediate area surrounding
the blast site, including parts of the Arndale Centre, the Corn
Exchange, the Royal Exchange, Royal Insurance's Longridge House
and Marks and Spencer's remain cordoned off and a considerable
amount of demolition has had to take place. Marks & Spencer's
store, alas, was totally demolished, and the Royal Insurance
Building is no more, as are several shops in the immediate vicinity.
Central
government quickly set aside £1million of European Union finance
and set in place a master plan for the redevelopment of the
City Centre. They have also provided £150,000 to support an
international urban design competition, which was launched just
one month after the bombing, and which provided a cohesive plan
for rebuilding.
The reconstruction
has been overseen by the new City Centre Task Force, Millennium
Manchester Organisation. The government allocated a further
£20 million to Manchester from the European Union regional aid
budget for 1997-99.
Four years
later, and the whole area of the devastation zone is now completely
restored. The
Royal Exchange has been renovated, the Corn Exchange has been
reborn as the Triangle, and the whole north side of the Arndale
Centre has been rebuilt.
Shambles
Square including the Old Wellington Inn and Sinclair's Oyster
Bar - the two oldest buildings in the city of Manchester - have
been physically moved some 100 yards to a new Shambles Square
location off Exchange Square and opposite Marks and Spencer.
Finally,
Marks and Spencer have rebuilt completely on the original site,
the largest M&S store in the world.
