Anyone that’s been to Manchester in the last decade has seen it, that
great big lump of grey that encloses half of what used to be Piccadilly Gardens.
For 13 years this big slab of grey concrete has insulted people’s eyes. The
wall was designed as a barrier between the bus station and the gardens by
acclaimed Japanese architect Tadao Ando and built as part of a refurbishment
exercise after the 1996 IRA bomb. It was officially called the
Japanese Pavilion but has been repeatedly compared to the Berlin Wall since its
construction in 2002. What was once a garden is now a baron
grey concrete waste.
This hideous giant wall is widely hated by all, but (according to
Manchester City Council) would cost too much to tear down – so six months ago
it was announced that plans have been made to hide it. Quite how anyone could
hide this monstrosity really beggars belief, it should just be pulled down. Oh
and six months on guess what? It’s still there, unaltered, nothing done!
Design
As I said above, it was designed by the acclaimed Japanese architect,
Tadao Ando as a functional work of art. Personally I think it was built on the
cheap using the wrong products. Stone would probably have been fine but
bare-faced concrete? No! Ando should have had the sense to
realise that concrete doesn't work this far North. The light is wrong. What
looks ok in the south of France or even New York just looks dull and grey in
England (particularly in Manchester).
There's
nothing wrong with there being a barrier between the bus station and the
'gardens', that's not why people hate it - they hate it because it's a ugly
miserable slab of grey concrete that cost a fortune and looks like the designer
thought he could get away with anything if he called it art.
The poor design of the wall extends to the adjacent ‘gardens’
and bus station. Manchester City Council has cynically chipped away at this
once protected public park within the city centre for the past twenty years.
First they sold off the Portland Street end of the park to fund their cold and
alienating vision of a "Japanese garden". One designed by Stalin
perhaps, a less Japanese design it would be hard to imagine; the Japanese love
their gardens but Piccadilly Gardens is a work of cold, urban brutalism. So
now, after decimating the Victorian gardens, they want to reduce it further,
replacing about a third or more of what little space remains with shops.
Such heroically unimaginative, small-mindedness does not
bode at all well for either the city or a devolved Greater Manchester. Despite
being a Labour Authority they seem to have the attitude of "Sod creating a green oasis and high quality urban experience; that's
prime real estate, get it sold". It’s all about the cash for them! If
Manchester City Council ran New York, Central Park would be a small, scrubby
roundabout with a couple of bushes!
Eyesore
The wall
does serve a purpose, but concrete should never have been allowed. Stone or
marble would have made an artistic contribution. The trouble is, it breaks up the space, makes
it claustrophobic, and looks bleeding awful when the sun isn't out, or when
it's wet; much as I love Manchester, it doesn't share the sort of light that
Barcelona or Dubai has.
The whole area is truly a disgrace and needs looking at,
I think you would be hard pushed to find a worse area in any major UK city, others
would just not allow it so why does Manchester? It's badly designed, badly lit and
unsafe. The big wheel is also a ridiculous introduction into a public space. It’s
just another eyesore. Why on earth do we need that in our second main space in
this, the UK’s second city?
The fact is the whole area needs a rethink. It is a no go
area after dark. It is a high crime area which is far too shielded to be safe
and the lighting in areas is appalling. There are far too many places where
unsavoury things can happen because they are unseen. Any time you go there,
there are gangs hanging out. It is a real shame!
Local politicians like Pat Karney, Richard
Leese and Howard Bernstein are the reasons we don't really want an elected
mayor. Apart from the horrible wall these are the guys that took away the original
gardens, sold-off the land, built some crap fountains that are always being
switched-off, installed metallic trees (yes, really) along with sub-standard
paving and they occasionally have a melting ice rink and that expensive big
wheel there. Welcome to Manchester everyone!
Tear It Down
Six months ago, city
centre councillor Pat Karney announced plans to disguise the wall by
incorporating it into a new cafe and shop development. When he was asked why
the wall couldn’t simply be torn down (or Mancunians be allowed to bash away at
it with hammers, Berlin-style) Karney said it was more or less indestructible. “It was built to last forever,” he said.
“Last year I had a quote for how much it
would cost to pull down and it was £50,000-£100,000. It just wouldn’t be
economic. The solution is to integrate it as an internal wall in a new
development.”
Well I’m sorry Pat but surely a few
thousand Mancunians with hammers could be encouraged to deal with it Berlin
style at little cost to the council. I'm also sure there would be plenty willing
to provide refreshments, a party atmosphere, and cart away the rubble. Job
done. What about a fund raising exercise, 10,000 people giving a fiver each is
easily achievable given the hatred for the wall?
Maybe some demolition contractor would
be up for doing this for free to get some publicity? It could be on TV and in
the papers with an opportunity to get their name and logo everywhere ? Or some
other kind of company like Lego could sponsor the event for similar exposure? Acclaimed
local singers like Mick Hucknall could sing on top whilst it is being
demolished, recreating the iconic David Hasselhoff moment when the Berlin Wall
came down. You could even get The Hoff himself to turn
up and sing.
Create A New
Piccadilly Square
Piccadilly ‘Gardens’ needs to be transformed into a world
class public space. If we want to create a so called 'Northern Powerhouse' that
will rival London then we'd better turn Manchester into a place where people
actually want to go.
I frequently
walk through Piccadilly ‘Gardens’ and think it will continue to fail miserably
until it's completely overhauled. Recently I've been to Trafalgar Square and also
to the Plaza de la Constitucion in Malaga both of which are attractive,
pleasant and cope with fairly large volumes of people. First and foremost,
there's no grass to be regularly fenced off and re-seeded in either. They are
covered in slabs of stone, not paving flags. They are completely dry areas with
no slimy wet soil that forces people into narrow corridors to walk. Trafalgar Square
in particular has excellent stone seating around the edges and monuments that
draw people in and provide leaning posts. Piccadilly ‘Gardens’ seating is a
disgrace because they are built on the cheap and not built for a long life.
I
really don’t know why they’re proposing retail on the wall as there is already
shops and cafes on the inside of the wall. Personally, I don't think the public
space should be encroached upon any further. Someone needs to re-think the
landscaping of the whole area, it always looks scruffy, the grass can't stand
up to the wear and tear it gets, and it doesn't deserve the name 'gardens'. Manchester
deserves an attractive, open space that can be easily maintained to stay clean
and pleasant, not just another cluster of takeaway joints.
Remove that ridiculous big wheel, it's like some dirty
old fairground attraction on a caravan park. Get rid of the grass, pave it
properly! Cover the wall in stone or marble, make it a landmark to the people
of Manchester. But for the love of god no more Sainsbury's locals, Spars,
amusement arcades or betting shops. Another important (but controversial one)
is to get rid of the buses! The bus station can go, the pollution and noise
would not be missed, bus stops on London Road. can be used instead and buses
can wait outside the city centre.
The place seriously needs colour - there was a petition
to construct a low-maintenance vertical garden up the bus station side of the
wall, whatever happened to that? It would have looked a lot less depressing
than bare concrete and plant life helps to absorb the traffic fumes too. The Gardens are so small that planting a few
trees would hardly turn it into a proper green space (like Hyde Park, or
Central Park in New York) it's just too small. Planters, nice benches and pleasant
pathways through it would be much more suitable in my opinion. More greenery
yes, but let's not pretend that it's ever going to be an urban forest - there's
far too much foot traffic for that.
Manchester City Council needs to listen to the people! We
want the wall to go - not get changed - along with the ridiculous pavilion
(bunker more like) but we don't want a load of shops built there, turning it
into another shopping precinct. It needs a complete restoration based on other modern
developments like those mentioned above. Every change carried out so far has made it worse,
now is an opportunity to actually make it better.
But at the end of the day, just removing the hideous
Berlin Wall would improve it massively !!
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