Manchester Suburb Set For Major Transformation Scheme

The sight of people wearing JCB work clothes on construction sites in Manchester is a common one, but much of the focus has been in the city centre and the immediate neighbouring areas like Ancoats, Cheetham Hill, Hulme, Ardwick and central Salford.

However, new areas of development are emerging all the time and the latest blueprint has been drawn up for the heart of Chorlton, a suburb in the south-west of the city beloved by hipsters and famous for being where the Bee Gees started, not to mention Cosgrove Hall, whose cartoon productions included the legendary Danger Mouse.

Being a funky suburb is not quite enough, however; the main shopping precinct started to look dated years ago and developer PJ Livesey has been working with Manchester City Council on a new masterplan.

The upshot is a blueprint that will see the shopping centre, the multi-storey Graeme House office building and a car park replaced with a new development that includes 2,000 homes, a ‘linear park’ alongside Barlow Moor road created by establishing a gap between the pavements and the new developments, pedestrianised areas and commercial space.

The development will include a mix of different homes with 20 per cent being classed as affordable, while many will have raised gardens to add to the greenery, along with various sustainable features like solar panels and heat recovery stems. The designs will be sympathetic to the architectural styles commonly seen in the area.

Members of the public have been invited to have their say on a consultation document ahead of the submission of a planning application in early 2024. If all goes well, construction workers could be on site in the summer of 2024.

Chorlton is certainly a popular place to live, with its own Bohemian culture and excellent transport links, being connected to the Metrolink as well as within easy reach of places like Salford Quays, Old Trafford, the Trafford Centre and Manchester city centre itself.

However, escape from urban life is not hard to find, with the leafy green corridor of the river Mersey fringing the district to the south.

All this may make Chorlton a popular spot for new residential developments, but sensitivity to local concerns will be important for the plans to get the blessing of locals.

Another scheme, the planned housing development on Ryebank Fields, has faced fierce opposition after Manchester Metropolitan University announced plans to sell the land, despite it being given to them specifically for leisure purposes.

Many want it to be kept as common land and there are heritage concerns over the preservation of the Nico Ditch, a boundary ditch dating from the Dark Ages that has been obliterated in some locations as it runs across south Manchester, but survives in others, including the fields.

Both the council and PJ Livesey will hope the scheme for central Chorlton will prove rather more popular, adding to other developments in recent years that included the construction of new apartments on the old Cosgrove Hall site.

Those planning to develop Ryebank Fields may be considered as villainous as Baron Greenback, but the next few years in central Chorlton may be more like an episode of Bob The Builder.