Changing face of our city
PERHAPS no other city in the UK has undergone the type of transformation Manchester has over the last 30 years.
Kickstarted by the building boom that followed the 1996 IRA bomb, large parts of town are now unrecognisable from what they were in the 80s and early 90s.
Shambles Square and the Deansgate footbridge
With its eccentric mix of shops and two historic pubs the old Shambles Square made up in character what it lacked in beauty. The concrete square was built in the 1970s as part of the construction of the Arndale and took its name from the butchers and abattoirs which once stood in its place – the blood and guts leftover from slaughter and butchering were known as ‘shambles.’
It was home to the Old Wellington Inn, Sinclairs, a Safeway supermarket, an air rifles dealer called Sussex Armoury, Goldmine record shop, Hazels cafe and amusement arcade, Kaleidoscope clothing, the back entrance to Marks and Spencer and Galleon travel agents. One particularly unusual part of the Shambles was its link to Deansgate via a concrete footbridge.
Originally envisioned as part of a series of aerial walkways across the city centre, it led to a row of shops on the ramp at Premier House opposite. Shambles Square was sheltered from the worst of the damage caused by the IRA bomb, but as it was in the centre of the area earmarked for development its days were numbered.
By the late 90s the shops had closed, and the whole complex was demolished, replaced by New Cathedral Street, Number One Deansgate and the new M&S and Selfridges. The pubs would be the only thing to survive, painstakingly demolished and rebuilt piece-bypiece 300 yards away next to the cathedral, on the new Shambles square.
Market Street obelisk
Decorated in pink and brown tiles with a clock halfway up the column, the Market Street obelisk’s appearance meant it acquired of quite a few rude nicknames. The brainchild of then Manchester council leader Graham Stringer, the obelisk was built sometime in the early 90s and was supposed to give Market Street a ‘market town feel.’
Sitting near HMV and McDonald’s it became a popular place for teenagers to meet and even had its own gang of punks who would regularly hang out there.
But by the mid-90s complaints were being made that was fuelling anti-social behaviour and there was a growing clamour for it to be demolished. Town hall legend has it that it disappeared within three hours of Graham Stringer leaving the town hall in 1996 - and the city centre’s punks seemed to vanish with it. In actual fact it was dismantled the following summer and rebuilt in Crumpsall Park, where it remains to this day.