masterplan – Modern Mooch

By Wilson and Womersley 1968, the project architect was John Sheard.

New-towny, dense low-rise housing irregularly grouped around and over pedestrian access paths.

Pevsner 1996/2004

The 2003 masterplan recommence its removal.

The masterplan states that Radcliffe has many unattractive buildings and few architectural assets. But this could work to its advantage as a lack of protected or noteworthy buildings makes it easier to replace them with contemporary structures.

This could include demolishing the “unwelcoming” St Thomas Estate and replacing it with a mix of private and social housing on the old street layout. Existing tenants would be rehoused in the new houses so that the community would not be broken up.

Lancashire Telegraph

JL Womersely famously Sheffield City Architect:

During his term, Sheffield’s housing grew upwards with multi-storey flats constructed at Low Edges, Park Hill, Hyde Park, Netherthorpe and Woodside. It was Womersley’s response to 13,000 families on the council’s waiting list and 10,000 condemned properties waiting to be demolished.

Sheffielder

Wilson and Womersley were responsible for the Hulme Crescents and Manchester Arndale.

In the space of a decade they shaped Manchester’s urban fabric, leaving a questionable legacy. The technical quality of their buildings was undoubtedly poor, but their qualities – bold forms, monolithic materiality and streets-in-the-sky – were of the moment, and captured a particular brand of urban renewal, imported from North America and inflected through British post-war planning.

Richard Brook

Social housing has been, and continues to be, a contentious arena. This seemingly well-constructed estate was once deemed unfit for habitation by its residents.

Tenants of the St Thomas’ Estate in the town centre allege they have been forgotten by Six Town Housing, which manages the properties.

Magda Csatlos, former chairman of the now disbanded Tenants and Residents Association said rotten bricks with visible gaps between them, badly-designed leaking roofs and damp and mouldy conditions plague many of the 90 homes.

Bury Times 2014

Happily the Local Authority are able to remedy the problem.

After some residents on the estate, who were visited by Bury South MP Ivan Lewis, called for the properties to be “condemned”, the Council agreed to invest £2 million to bring the homes up to standard.

A total of 90 social housing properties on St Thomas Estate have been provided with new external rendering, roofing, windows, doors, insulation and brick cladding.

Bury Times 2016

On the day of my visit the long term tenants with whom I spoke were happily, happy with their homes.

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Here are some photographs, taken under the watchful golden eye of a low winter sun, hence the dramatic light and shade.

I wrote about the history of Civic in 2020.

Also visiting the multi-storey car park yesterday.

The work of Manchester City Architect Sydney George Besant-Roberts and his team.

Work began in the interwar years, and continued following the hiatus of 1939-45. The shopping centre named the Civic Centre was open in 1963, the actual Civic Centre containing a swimming pool, theatre, public hall and library in 1971.

Here I am again four years later, taking a look at how it looks today.

ASDA remains the anchor store, Wilko having left a Wilko sized hole in the precinct. On an overcast Friday morning there was sufficient footfall to sustain the wide variety of smaller shops and larger retail chains. As with many other towns within the central Manchester orbit, the easy proximity fills those busy trams and buses, which are leaving the area.

There are plans in place to regenerate the area, in the form of a Masterplan – which can be downloaded here.

Between 1991-2002 there have been some architectural changes, including new stores and office developments. Some of the interventions included significant adaptions which further increased retail into the existing buildings high street.

The interventions included significant adjustments to the multi-storey car park with the aim of reducing parking numbers whilst providing additional lettable space. Further Transport Hub Arrival commercial development was created to the north of the site with the construction of Etrop Court, despite there being significant commercial vacancy across other parts of the estate.

Whilst there has been significant incremental intervention, the character of the area has
not fundamentally changed from its founding concept. However the cumulative impact of the various changes have had a negative impact on the functionality and suitability of place, so much so that the centre is in many ways no longer fit- for purpose.

The site today is surrounded by surface car parks, with a total of around 2,500 car parking spaces, 1,700 of which are contained within the multi-storey car park. Many of the retail units, the upper floor office spaces along the Birtles and Hale Top, and buildings to the east are vacant.

Typically, the levels of vacancy are consistent with the changing demands of the high street, where typically modern and successful retail centres are now more diversified and focussed on creating a visitor or destination-based experience. In this sense, we anticipate a need to diversify the high street and to promote a smaller more concentrated retail core, whilst supplementing the offer with more meanwhile and permanent uses and activities based on culture, food and creative workplace.

The gateway to the Civic Centre on arrival from the Transport Interchange is very poor. Access to the high street isn’t obvious and the route through to the high street isn’t clear. Much of the site is surrounded by fencing, barrier and gates and whilst they are open during the day, they are locked at night to prevent vandalism. This barricaded aesthetic does nothing to promote an easily accessible and family friendly environment as well as preventing any opportunity to promote a much needed night- time economy.

Currently, the Civic Centre appears to only cater for those with a need to visit for a particular purpose, rather than capitalising on an opportunity to create a place to visit and dwell.