Located in the heart of the city, Manchester's Arndale Centre
in many ways dominates the central shopping area of the City.
Begun in 1972, by its completion in 1979 it was the largest covered
town shopping centre in Europe, covering some 30 acres in the
old city centre, with 750,000 shoppers visiting it each week.
With over 200 shops, major department stores, restaurants an fast
food outlets it has become a busy and active shopping arcade.
The centre
houses an 1800 space multi-storey car park, shopping malls on
two levels, office space in tower, residential flats, and originally
the Arndale Centre Bus Station at Cannon Street, so badly damaged
by the IRA bombing of
Manchester in 1996, that it never reopened, and has now largely
been built over.
The design
for the Centre was made by the architects Hugh Wilson and Lewis
Womersley, who had already redeveloped the University Precinct
on Oxford Road, as well as a considerable involvement in the redevelopment
of housing in the Hulme area.
It was a
controversial development, obliterating some of Manchester's old
streets and alleys, and stubbornly defying all the old Victorian
grandeur surrounding it, with its massive monolithic concrete
forms and unrelieved ceramic cladding. The whole project cost
some £100 million - a then unthinkable sum.
The land,
bounded by Market Street, Corporation Street, High Street and
Withy Grove had been designated as a "Comprehensive Development
Area" by the City Council.
Many different
companies had bought and owned the land through the 1970s, but
it was eventually to be built by Town & City Properties, who,
in the face of mounting financial difficulties and substantial
underwritten loans of over £16 million, sold the lease to
P&O Properties, who managed the complex until 1998 when it
was taken over by the Prudential.
The Centre
houses many major department stores and famous High Street names,
including Currys, W.H.Smith, BHS, Mothercare, Tandy's, etc, as
well as innumerable other smaller concessions.
Extensive
redevelopment has been taking place to the Arndale Centre since
September 2003. Prudential, who now own the centre, (having purchased
it from P&O in 1998), together with Manchester City Council
have produced a £150 million plan for redevelopment which
includes covering up 80% of the ill-fated and much derided yellow
tiled surface of the building, and re-cladding the exterior in
a pleasanter, less gruesome architectural style.
This is the
very last stage in the reconstruction of the city centre since
the IRA bombing of 1996
effectively obliterated the heart of Manchester.
The northern
end of the Arndale is to be completely demolished, as is Cannon
Street and the old Arndale Bus Station. Cannon Street will become
a covered part of the shopping complex and reborn as New Cannon
Street. At either end will be Exchange Court and the Wintergarden.
A major new
store for Next is to be created facing the Urbis
Museum, completing the regeneration of the Millennium Quarter
and Exchange Square.
Work is planned to be completed by Christmas 2005.
