Looking across the new Piccadilly Gardens with trams and concrete pavilion in the foreground and the historic facades along Piccadilly on the other side of the square. Upper left is the CIS building. See the feature in Eyewitness in Manchester Redevelopment Update Autumn 03

The new Piccadilly created by Manchester City Council looks slightly less ugly at night than during the day. The only positive feature of the concrete walls by Tadao Ando is the concealed lighting from below, which isn't switched on in this view. From street level the wall blocks views and confronts people with an ugly and threatening expanse of bare concrete. Like the 1990's obelisk on Market Street it should be removed from this location at the earliest opportunity and re-erected in a quiet corner of one of Manchester's parks, possibly Wythenshawe Park.

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Keywords: Manchester, new Piccadilly Gardens, Metrolink, trams, night, Lancashire