Welcome to the abattoir (and shops)
‘The Abs’ is a disused shopping centre built alongside a slaughterhouse in sixties Manchester Chris Slater visits the eerie site, now used as a backdrop for dystopian TV dramas
STANDING on the dark coloured concrete walkway next to disused railway sidings, covered in moss, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Soviet East Germany rather than east Manchester.
But, on the horizon, you can see the roof of the Etihad Stadium, and the club’s sprawling, shiny new training ground and the academy next door. To the right are Bradford’s iconic former gas holders.
We are standing at the edge of a set of unique buildings with a dark if fascinating history which, despite thousands of people driving past it every week, many will know very little about.
We are at what was once one of the entrances to the former Manchester Abattoir complex.
The site includes an abandoned railway platform, an eerie shopping centre, and a re-purposed slaughterhouse.
Designed by architect Sydney George Besant-Roberts and opening in 1968, the council-built complex – opposite Phillips Park near Beswick and Bradford – promised to bring together the city’s network of abattoirs into one ‘comprehensive’ site for the storing and slaughtering of livestock and the storing and sale of meat.
Indeed hundreds of thousands of animals met their death here until it stopped being an abattoir in 2000.
It had been home to dozens of butchers and trade suppliers, and there was abortive attempt to turn one of the former meat markets into shopping mall in the years after it shut.
Parts of the 20 acre site have now been re-born as the backdrop for dystopian TV dramas – including recent Sky hit drama Cobra.
And, as we begin our tour, it easy to see why. Probably the most eerie part is where many of the animals arrived during the 32 years that the site housed a slaughterhouse.
No longer accessible to the public, the M.E.N. has been granted special access to the area that was once a bustling depot, with trains coming and going, but is now a chilling relic frozen in time.
Specially built sidings off the (still operating) main railway line were able to bring up to 33 wagons containing animals, the majority from Ireland, to be killed for meat.
The tracks have now been removed but the grooves in the ground where they sat are still visible and so is all the concrete infrastructure, covered in branches, with huge puddles having formed after the torrential rain.
A line of rusted metal gates lead into a path, with a walled off walkway at the side, where animals could be led off trains in single file.
A concrete pillar box, reminiscent of a Berlin Wall watchtower, remains where a man would sit and count the animals off the wagons.
As do the concrete troughs where animals would have had what may have been their last drink before meeting their maker.
Over the wall you can look down to a field where sick animals were taken to graze and recovered.
There is a chute going down the side, which we are told was for the lambs who didn’t survive the journey.
As the railway sidings were above the site on Riverpark Road, a huge ramp was constructed, from which the animals could be led down into what is now called ‘block one,’ but what was previously two-storey lairage accommodation, the place where animals were kept before they were sent to the slaughterhouse.
The lairage space and killing floor are now a furniture warehouse. The vast 245x200 feet space could once house 1,500 cattle, 6,000 sheep and 800 pigs. There was also vet’s accommodation and staff accommodation, including showers. Manure chutes sent waste down to the ground floor.
All the paraphernalia may have gone but this area still evokes vivid memories for the man now in charge of it.
Jimmy Mills, 57, from Beswick but who now lives in New Moston, began working here as a ‘slaughterman’ in 1980, and has remained here in different roles ever since.
He is now site manager for the site owners Realty Estates.
“Everyone round here knows ‘the Abs’ he says. “It’s iconic, it’s a landmark.
“Even now if you wanted to a order a cab and said ‘pick me up at the Abs they’d know where you mean.’ It’s a strange building but that’s what makes it unique. I have lots of memories here but thinking back to the days it was ‘the Abs’ is a bit strange really because so it was so long ago and such a different time.”
Now called Riverpark Trading Estate, after the road it sits on – facing Phillips Park just off Alan Turing Way – it’s still an operating business site, being used not only by the furniture firm for warehousing, but by other companies for storage and office space, which is available to let.
As we walk into the former lairage block, which now has shelves stacked with flat pack furniture, the word ‘Quarantine’ is spray painted on one of the huge concrete walls.
At first glance it could be a remnant of the abattoir days. However this is, in fact, we are told, a more recent addition.
Around 14 years ago, as well as it’s everyday uses, the site was opened up to film crews.
Creative property consultancy, Space 2, essentially an estate agent for the film and video industry, have been letting it for shoots, with a
number of big stars having filmed scenes here.
Crime drama No Offence, starring Will Mellor and Joanna Scanlan, Curfew with Sean Bean, Cold Call starring Sally Lindsay and Daniel Ryan and Channel 4 series Utopia are among the big name shows to feature scenes shot here.
In the popular Sky drama Cobra, about the government’s response to a fictional power crisis, the abattoir’s former wholesale market featured as a hospital in the ‘red zone’ that was left without power and became a makeshift refugee camp.
Stuart Hamilton, Regional Production Manager at Space 2, said: “Over the past 14 years, we have worked with our partners across the UK, to facilitate locations and production spaces for countless features, television dramas, commercials and experiential activities.
“Riverpark stands out as one of the most versatile; both in terms of its flexibility and its location.
“It offers unique architecture and an atmosphere, that not only looks great on camera, but offers suitable spaces for even the largest of projects.
“Productions continually find new ways of utilising the buildings, ranging from grittier police series, period dramas, to high concept sci-fi locations.”
You can certainly see why more and more TV companies are clamouring to use this space. Every corner you turn on is an architect’s dream with stunning examples of both Brutalist and modernist design, inside and out.
The former wholesale meat market – nicknamed the Bullring – is probably its centrepiece and what makes it so recognisable from the outside.
The 20-sided polygon shaped building has doors, from what were the stalls, leading into a sprawling courtyard in the middle.
The courtyard is the bit in most demand from film crews, we’re told.
The names of some of the butchers that used to buy and sell here are still visible on the huge green doors where their vans would reverse up to be loaded and unloaded. The wholesale meat market used to be connected to the chiller room next to the old slaughtering hall, by a footbridge, which is visible on old aerial photos of the site, however this has now gone.
Only one butcher, Anthony Burns Ltd, and one poultry supplier, K
Moore, still operate here and are based on the ground floor of the former slaughtering hall.
However back when there were hundreds of people working for dozens of butchers here, each had office space.
Some of these offices are occupied, including one by Jimmy, who has a huge bank of TV screens in front of his desk showing footage from the CCTV cameras across the site.
However that is one of the few modern touches.
And what a fascinating place it must be to work.
It is like stepping back in time with some of the stairwells, carpets, handrails doors and lights being the originals from 1960s.
In the same building – now know as the Business Centre – is what was originally called the Poultry Hall.
There were around 28 shops in here, half of which sold poultry and the other half other goods connected to the meat trade such as cooked meats and utensils.
However this now resembles something from a zombie thriller having been left deserted for nearly two decades.
A sign for the former Riverpark Cafe on the ground is still visible.
Its owners added traditional shop fronts to the meat stalls as part of a plan to turn it into a specialist outlet mall for items such as jewellery.
However that never got off the ground and it has lain empty for some time.
These days the most frequent visitors, other than occupants, are Manchester City fans, with many using it as car park for home games, including Jimmy, a big Blue, who has a short walk over to see his favourite team.
Lots of people also park outside on Riverpark Road – but many be oblivious to its past, and the treasure trove of history that lies inside.