Theres No Place Like Piccadilly Gardens(?)

[MarkatManchester]

Hi everyone.

I am a researcher at the University of Manchester and have just happened to stumble onto this forum, after Googling Piccadilly Gardens.

Piccadilly Gardens is one of the sites we are interested in getting views and opinions on, particularly by its users. Our research looks at how urban design builds in control and for some how it excludes them.

I have read through what some of you have said already about Piccadilly Gardens and it has been quite informative. However, I was hoping that the discussion could be reopened for further evaluation.

We would like it if you could discuss particular features of Piccadilly Gardens, such as the wall, the fountain, the benches, the street wardens, the lighting, the walk ways, and so on in relation to your experience of them. Our concern is less with the historical significant of the site, but more the current social significance. We would also like to hear about your comparisons of the site to other urban spaces you have visited, recently or in the distant past, in Britain or abroad. Do you have, in comparison, any favourites and why. We would like to know, also, what types of things have you done in this space, for example picnics, meeting friends, hanging out, and so forth, the good and the bad.

Your help in this matter would be greatly received and most appreciated.

Best wishes.

[Polly64]

Having sat there last week on the bench opposite Primark it was with some heavy heart as I worked at Polly of Piccadilly and regularly saw Jimmy Saville pass in his Roller and we had the fine model parties at the Plaza and the gown store. But time moves on and as did not happen then the class divide in young and old is removed. I sat on a stone bench and there was the street artists as in Las Vegas doing a show. There the music like the pied piper made those flock and engage in social discourse and engage in groups. There was no age, disability or difference in ethic, disabled, enabled and young and old, or who was a class difference.
To me it was a change for the better even though it is devoid of colour, a fact that is lacking but obviously because of theft of colour objects. I would like to see a mosaic here in majolica to illustrate the diversity and integration as a social stage during the day. It was an honour to come back and come back I will like the others as anonymous identities sharing a chat as the old lady with the Sicilian former husband shared with me in her 80th year on that bench. It is here I spotted the faces of two missing girls published locally. I hope they are home now, safe and sound and thank you to Abode for letting me be safe and use your phone. There is unity and change and it is for the better in my view.

[Mamucium Son]

I loved Picc Gardens when I was a kid. Full of characters who seemed, somehow, less threatening than the er, 'characters' you get around town today. I also remember seeing the Wombles LIVE onstage in the Gardens in about, um, 1976 ?? Not exactly punk of course, and I'm pretty sure that Mike Batt himself wasn't in one of the furry suits onstage, but, very entertaining nonetheless. In fact, thinking about it it was my first EVER gig! The next was to be Patti Smith at the Apollo - the day that everything (musically in my life) changed.

[monstera]

When I was a teenager in the 1980's, the gardens were a dive, frenquented mainly by drunks. Now the location is a true hub of the city, the numbers of people who hang out there being attestation to the fact.

You mention the wall though and to me this sticks out as a piece of poor (cheap?) design. I understand the need to shield the open space fromt the bus & tram traffic on Parker Street and maybe to keep the plaza out of the eyeline but it is very ugly. Quite why there is a need for the curved section in the SW corner is beyond me.

[samorost]

Piccadilly Gardens to me are: a meeting place, the centre of town, a base from which to explore in all directions.

On a sunny day, a chilled out place to lay on the grass and watch the world go by. Kids love the fountains, they're great. Have them on 24/7 (well maybe just on weekends, midweek it's pretty quiet after 2am) and lit up too.

At night, an easy, central place to meet up. The memorial tree is a good landmark. Light it up!

I take visitors from abroad on tours of Manchester and we generally start in Piccadilly Gardens. Compared to other cities it seems a little shabby. My visitors comment on the rubbish in the streets and lack of greenery in the 'gardens'.
As a first view of Manchester it doesn't really represent the richness of our city.
St Anne's Square and the Town Hall square have the kind of class that Piccadilly lacks.

Kiev city square is immaculate http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...undiy/kiev.jpg

Rome too http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/6572/rome1lq9.jpg

It was suggested on another forum, in an interesting thread (Piccadilly Gardens - SkyscraperCity) that the 'Berlin Wall' should come down, the bus station be moved and the whole area opened up as a proper city square. I couldn't agree more.
Sod decorating the monstrosity, get rid of it altogether.

[Ashtonian]

To me, the old Victorian statues seemed anachronistic.
The gardens I would best describe as a work in progress.

[aidanorourke]

From the moment in 1999 I opened the now defunct City Life magazine and saw the computer visualisation of how Piccadilly Gardens was to be redeveloped, I knew it was a mistake.

Manchester City Council simply got it wrong. They thought that by bringing in a fashionable internationally renowned designer - Tadao Ando - to design the concrete wall - and other elements - they would create 'one of the most exciting urban spaces in Europe'.

Unfortunately I and lots of other people could see immediately that the idea was misconceived.

The worst aspect is the placing of a new office block of mediocre design directly on the gardens, reducing their size and impact, and blocking views of the historic buildings at the far end of the square - yes, it is a square.

I know that many councillors within Manchester City Council are dissatisfied with what has happened in Piccadilly Gardens.

Every time I cross that part of the city centre I have to grit my teeth. I now usually walk via the Northern Quarter, or Chinatown, in order to avoid the present Piccadilly Gardens.

There is only one satisfactory solution: Demolish the office block No 1 Piccadilly Gardens - as has happened to many other failed office buildings - remove the concrete wall and pavilion, and start again.