Manchester Arndale (known locally as The Arndale Centre or just The Arndale ) is a large shopping centre in Manchester, England. The centre was built during the 1970s when many other cities were also constructing large malls. Manchester Arndale is the largest of a chain of Arndale Centres built across the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. It was originally constructed in phases between 1972 and 1979, at a cost of £100 m.
The centre was redeveloped after the Provisional Irish Republican Army bombing in 1996. The centre now has a retail floorspace of 1,400,000 sq ft (130,060 m²), making it Europe's largest city-centre shopping mall.
History
The Manchester Arndale was built in 1971–9 on Market Street, Manchester's main shopping street. The developers were Town & City Properties, the successors to the Arndale Property Trust, with financial backing from the Prudential Assurance Company and Manchester Corporation. It was the largest of about eighteen Arndale Centres.
Arndale Property Trust
The Arndale Property Trust was formed in the early 1950s, taking its name from its two founders, Arnold Hagenbach and Sam Chippindale. Hagenbach was a Yorkshireman of Swiss extraction at the head of a chain of baker's shops who had been investing successfully in retail premises since before 1939. Chippindale was an estate agent and former civil servant from Otley. Arndale was unusual, but not unique, amongst property companies in being based outside London and specialising in shops. Of the pair, Hagenbach invested more and was the quieter. Chippindale formed a reputation for being blunt and outspoken and capable of persuading sceptical northern councils to accept Arndale's plans, where London-based developers could not. Arndale began buying property north of Market Street in 1952.
City Council's plans for redevelopment
The city authorities recognized before the end of the Second World War that the area around Market Street was in need of redevelopment, and a plan that formed the basis for much of what followed was drawn up in 1942–5. Their position was set out by the city surveyor in 1962. "Manchester crystallized in its Victorian setting ... A new look for the city has been long overdue. ... Its unsightly areas of mixed industrial, commercial and residential development need to be systematically unravelled and redeveloped on comprehensive lines. Only in this way can a City assume its proper place as a regional centre." The corporation had by then used the power of compulsory purchase to speed redevelopment at the bomb-damaged Market Place (between the Corn Exchange and the Royal Exchange—the development has since been demolished), at the CIS buildings, and at Piccadilly. In the view of the surveyor, "These schemes have greatly improved the appearance of the central area of the City ...". The corporation's preferred form of building was a tower above a two or three storey podium, the form used in all three developments, and later that of the Arndale. Corporation planners added the land and buildings they owned to those already acquired by Arndale to increase the size of the available plot.
Retail centre
Manchester was traditionally the dominant retail centre of the conurbation and region, and Market Street had been the main shopping street since about 1850. However, Manchester's position weakened during the 1960s as the range of goods available elsewhere increased. Salford had concentrated its three main retail areas into one, with the express aim of eliminating the need for residents to travel to Manchester to shop. The town centre of Stockport had been cleared of cotton mills to improve its appearance, and a major through route had been closed to build the Merseyway Shopping Centre, which had the consequence of doubling local retail spend. In quantitative terms, while in 1961 Manchester's retail spend was 3.7 times that of the next biggest shopping area in the conurbation, by 1971 this had fallen to 2.8 times.
Plan of 1965
A 1965 version of the scheme, costed at £15M, was bounded by Market Street, Corporation Street, Withy Grove and High Street. It was intended to be the UK's biggest single shopping centre from its inception. The only change to the boundaries (as of 2009) was in 1973 (ie before opening) onto the site of the former Manchester Guardian offices on the opposite side of Market Street. Boots took the 110,000 square feet (gross) extension in its entirety, their biggest store at the time.
Town & City Properties
Arndale Property Trust was acquired by Town & City Properties in April 1968. A public enquiry into the redevelopment of the area started on 18 June 1968, with a submission that the existing street pattern, while historic, was "hopelessly inadequate for modern requirements". The city planning officer gave evidence that "the development would be comparable with the best carried out in North America and Scandinavia" The scheme was to include seven public houses and a 200-bed hotel. An economist gave evidence that spending in central Manchester would double by 1981. The enquiry finished on 8 July 1968 and reported in early November 1969. The inspector approved the scheme, noting that the region north of Market Street needed redeveloping, and it was sensible to redevelop the frontage too. Manchester corporation compulsorily purchased a further 8 acres (3 ha) of property in 1970 using money raised by selling land outside the city purchased for overspill housing.
Pre-1971 streets and buildings
The area was a patchwork of mostly Victorian buildings on a 17th and 18th century layout of streets, alleys, and courts. A map prepared for the 1961 meeting of the British Association shows shops fronting Market Street and Cross Street, with mainly warehousing behind (the opposite, south, side of Market Street was again fronted by shops, but was mostly office buildings behind).
Opinions vary as to the quality of the architecture. Neither Stewart's The Stones of Manchester (1956) nor Sharp et al.'s survey Manchester Buildings (1966) describe the area in general or any buildings in particular. Stewart is generally strong on Victorian architecture, and none of its sixty "principal buildings" lie in it. Sharp et al. covered both older and (then) new buildings; of the many described, from across the city, over fifty are in the city centre but none are in the cleared area. Pevsner, writing in 1969 when clearance was due, found nothing of note. H W D Sculthorpe , the town clerk, described all the buildings as obsolescent in evidence to the public enquiry. The Guardian (whose offices had been nearby) wrote in 1976 that Market Street had been "depressing and decaying" for 30 years.
Later descriptions are more complimentary. Spring (in 1979) wrote of "... monstrosities that have ousted the city's grand heritage of nineteenth century commercial and industrial architecture—if the recently completed mammoth and distinctly lavatorial Arndale Centre is anything to go by." Hamilton (in 2001) wrote that the area reflected Manchester's wealth and leadership in the middle of the 19th century, with buildings designed by leading UK architects (though names are not given). Moran (in 2006) called it a "maze of characterful streets".
The area had been home in the early 1960s to several of the establishments that made Manchester, in Lee's description, a rival to Hamburg as the "fun city of Europe". Coffee bars were gathering places for people to listen to live and recorded music. As they did not serve alcohol, they were unlicensed and effectively outside the police's control. A police report of 1965, based on observations by plain-clothes cadets known as the "mod squad", found them to be unsanitary, dimly-lit drug dens, often run by "men of colour", where young men would be fleeced of their money and young women trapped into prostitution. The Manchester Corporation Act 1965 was passed following the report and had the effect of closing most of the bars. The Cinephone cinema on Market Street was the first in Manchester to show, and concentrate on, 'continental' (i.e. semi-pornographic) movies. Several second-hand book stalls and what Lee described as "Manchester's very own Carnaby Street" had opened by the early 1970s. The Seven Stars on Withy Grove was one of Manchester's oldest pubs, with a licence dating back to 1356; Redford claimed it to be "oldest licensed house in Great Britain", though this was probably not the case.
Design and Construction
The architects were the partnership of Hugh Wilson and Lewis Womersley. Their other work as a pair included Hulme Crescents and the University of Manchester's educational precinct. Womersley, as Sheffield city architect, was responsible for Park Hill.
The developers and the corporation did not allow the architects a free hand with the design of the centre. The developers demanded a closed building with little natural light and rejected a more open, roof-lit, design. The corporation insisted on a bus station, a market, car
Shopping Bags Paper Bags Kraft Bags Merchandise Bags Gift Bags Brown ...
Discount Shopping Bags Merchandise Bags Wholesale Packaging Brown, White & Plain Craft Kraft Paper Bags and Tissue Paper
Paper Bag | Gift Box | Shopping Bag - READY STOCK & CUSTOME
Paper Bags, Gift Boxes, Shopping Bags product PaperBag-Box.com | Wholesale - Ready Stock & Custome Made Supply
Grocery Bag | Custom Paper Bags | Merchandise Bags
Grocery Bag, Custom Paper Bags, Paper Merchandise Bags – Bags ... Paper Merchandise Bags, Eurototes, with Wholesale and ... Laminated Shopping Bags Merchandise Bags Paper Shopping Bags
Paper Bags Manufacturer,wholesale Paper Shopping Bags,Handmade Paper ...
Kagzi Handmade Paper Industries - Manufacturer of handmade paper bags, paper handmade bags, recycled paper bags, paper shopping bags, paper handmade shopping bags, wholesale paper ...
Gift Bags | Shopping Bags | Printed Paper Bag | China Paper Bag ...
... com, your online source for unique paper bags, shopping bags ... many of which are exclusive to Zooly Bag. From shopping bags ... distinctive visual impression for many wholesale ...
Wholesale Paper Shopping Bag Supplier Matte Colors Merchandise Kraft ...
Discount Shopping Bags Wholesale specialize in Retail Packaging & with & without Handle Brown, White & Plain Craft Kraft Paper Bags
Nu-Era Wholesale Paper Bags and Paper Shopping Bags
Nu-Era offers a comprehensive line of paper shopping bags all backed by our 110% low price guarantee.
Shopping Bag, Plastic Shopping Bag, Wholesale Shopping Bag, Paper ...
Shopping Bags at The Packaging Source. Your source for plastic shopping bags, wholesale shopping bags, paper shopping bags and retail shopping bags
Holiday Gift Box, Paper Shopping Bag, Customised Paper Shopping Bag ...
Holiday Gift Boxes at The Packaging Source. Your source for paper shopping bags, customised paper shopping bags, wholesale paper shopping bags and personalised paper shopping bags
Paper Bags, Wholesale Paper Bags, Custom Printed Paper Bags ...
Paper Bags at A plastic Bag. Your source for wholesale paper bags, custom printed paper bags, personalised paper shopping bags and custom paper bags