It was once described as one of the best built and most pleasant suburbs in the kingdom but the Luftwaffe and the opening of the Mancunian Way drastically altered the townscape and severed the township of Ardwick from Manchester city centre.
Now plans are afoot to Draft Neighbourhood Development Framework for one of Manchester’s neglected suburbs, a short stroll from the City Centre as the area is increasingly attracting the attention of developers and investors.
Ardwick Green is immediately adjacent to the Mayfield strategic regeneration area, the vision for which is to deliver a world class, transformational, distinctive and imaginative commercially led neighbourhood centred around a new 6.5-acre park. It also borders Brunswick which is undergoing a £106m regeneration programme seeing the remodelling of the neighbourhood with over 650 homes refurbished and over 500 new homes developed, including a 60 place extra care unit; new parks; a new retail
hub and neighbourhood office.
Now The draft Neighbourhood Development Framework (NDF) has been prepared by the City Council to guide the future development of Ardwick Green in order to steer the quality
of new development and supporting public realm, highways and other community infrastructure that will seek to deliver a safe, accessible, vibrant,unique and sustainable neighbourhood.
In recent years there has been a concentration of creative businesses,photography, video, and sound,and a couple of large, old, former industrialare providing office and work space for a range of businesses many of which are related to the fashion and clothing industry which have relocated out of the Northern Quarter.
Also One Manchester and Arawak Walton own and manage social housing stock in the residential heart of Ardwick Green. The existing residential stock is mixed in terms of type, tenure and age, some of which could be considered suitable for renewal.
The Vision for the area is that Ardwick Green will be enhanced as a vibrant community-led neighbourhood, where the distinctiveness and history of the
area is apparent and preserved, whilst it looks forward to a brighter, greener and cleaner future
There are five themes to the Vision,Community-centred activity,Green public place making,Being ‘Appropriately Ardwick,Harnessing heritage,and crtating a place to live, work and play.
Ideas include making Ardwick Green Parkthe green focal point of the neighbourhood,creating a community hub centred on the area between Ardwick Green South and the
Brunswick PFI area including the Medlock Primary School, Vallance centre,and the Apollo.
The Cirty council have been consulting on the plans which have received strong backing and the next stage will see a public consultation exercise that will take
place between November and the end of December 2020, involving local residents, landowners, businesses, developers, statutory and non-statutory
bodies and other local stakeholders.
