Original medieval in town
History and context played a role in the redevelopment plan. It is most successful to reintegrate the Cathedral into the city centre by creating a new pedestrian street, New Cathedral Street. It can be access by pedestrian from Victoria Station to King Street, during retail hours. ‘The area around the Cathedral was the original medieval focus of the city. ’2() It was recognized with the provision of a heritage centre in 2001 which would tell how Manchester developed from Saxon times to the early modern age.
Garden that grew from bomb blast
There is a garden that created on derelict land between the new Urbis centre and historic Chetham's music school after bomb blast. And it was proud for Mancunian that this garden obtained top spot in the design section at the prestige Town Centre Environment Awards. Manchester city council leader, Count Richard Leese, said: "The Cathedral Gardens project is one that we at the city council are extremely proud of and this accolade was thoroughly well deserved."3(www.rebuilding-manchester.co.uk)
The Pedestrianised Route
The pedestrianised route runs from St Ann’s Square to the Cathedral, incorporating a new public square. It designed by New Yorker, Martha Schwartz. This is a playful new space which should provide pressure throughout the day and evening with rows of lights gently changing colour, a water feature following the historic watercourse of Hanging Ditch, and 20 metre high pop art windmills spinning round and round. For this new way, the Sinclair’s pub in Shambles Square was moved and residential buildings were constructed at the rear of Shambles Square. Moreover, the Old Wellington and Sinclair's Oyster Bar, provide that important alfresco refreshment opportunity.
Marks & Spencer
The bomb blast brought a new, bigger Marks & Spencer on its old site, and there is a new glass walkway through the centre the M&S store linked the Arndale to Shambles Square. The opposite department store is Selfridges, it provides so many famous brands there, for instance, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi and Boss etc.The new Marks & Spencer has four floors and includes a customer lounge where shoppers can put up their feet, watch television and read a newspaper. That is an absolutely nice place for people to have a rest. It is the biggest Marks and Spencer in the world. Close by is the Royal Exchange which reopened in 1998 after more than £30m of rebuilding. Every visitor to the city is amazed by their surroundings.
“£100m new look for Arndale"
The Arndale is the biggest city centre shopping mall in Britain. Arndale North has been dogged for years. The first-phase mall at the Arndale opened in September 1976, with 60 shops. The Knightsbridge Mall opened the following May. ‘After almost a quarter of a century Mancunians have learned to live with - if never quite to love - the ''yellow-tiled monstrosity'' featuring ''the longest lavatory wall in Europe.''’
There were 15-acre complex of more than 200 shops in Arndale centre. Retailing and its indoor malls were extremely popular in Manchester. More than 750,000 people per week visit the centre. It is firmly in the UK top 10 shopping destinations. After the 1996 Manchester bombing, and the change of Arndale ownership in its wake, the centre's surface has been extensively changed as a result, it won a lot of praise. It spent £325m for the centre in early 1998, and invested another £100m on the parts the bombers did not reach in order to be suitable for new parts.
Booming Manchester's Arndale Centre is to get a massive £100m face lift. The dramatic regeneration will dwarf the rebuilding work after the Manchester bomb in 1996. The Arndale block bordered by Corporation Street, Withy Grove, High Street and Cannon Street will be stripped to its bare concrete skeleton and virtually rebuilt.
Owners Prudential intended to increase retail space by almost a third. As a result, the new Arndale centre, the biggest indoor city centre shopping mall in Europe, would be able to compete with Bluewater in Kent and the Metro Centre in Gateshead as one of the biggest retail centres in the UK.
Moreover, there is a new food court in new Arndale centre. It is at the Withy Grove side of the shopping complex with an expanded market behind it.
The extra space will come from bold plans to develop a major department store on the corner of Corporation Street and Withy Grove and transform Cannon Street into a glass-roofed shopping street and winter garden. The changes would at last join the two halves of the Arndale, the bustling Market Street side with the northern block, now linked only by bridge and underpass.
A remodelled market is on one floor at the High Street end of the New Cannon Street Mall. And apart from the central tower, which will get a new foyer, and the High Street car park, the hated yellow tiles vanished forever.
The new four-floor department store completed the third side of showpiece Exchange Square, flanked by Marks & Spencer and the Triangle shopping mall in the Corn Exchange.
Printworks and Urbis
The Corn Exchange which returned as the Triangle in April 2000, there are a lot of good quality international retailers such as Muji, Adidas and Celvin Klein. At the same time, Arndale Centre has been rebuilt to provide a more accessible, less forbidding frontage. It is safer compared before. Local architect Stephen Hodder has provided the rebuilt link bridge between the Arndale and M and S with a spiralling and twisting new profile. Beyond Exchange Square other projects on the way is including the Printworks, a leisure and retail development with its IMAX cinema and Hard Rock Cafe. The URBIS, opened in late 2001, is the most stunning modern building of them all. Entry ticket is 8 pounds per person. It has eight floors of glass and steel rising like a prow on Corporation Street built to celebrate the role of the city in the modern world.
Other Changes
There are also some other changes in city center.
First of all, Corporation Street was reserved for pedestrians and buses only, and a special ‘bus loop’ was created around the centre.
In addition, Cannon street will be turned into a covered Winter Garden creating a new shopping street to replace the bus station
Finally, a Trocadero is planned for Maxwell House, with a cinema and games complex. A cultural centre with a library and theatre will be constructed on the site of the existing NCP car park.
Conclusion
To summarize, architecture has not only being devastated but also being developed through Manchester bombing. That is, shopping mall, garden, the pedestrianised routes and streets are more attractive than before. Some fantastic building which was remodelled is really bringing a new scene to human beings. It does not have any words can express that, wonderful article excelling nature. In one word, the bomb blast really brought a new, fantastic city centre to Manchester. Tony Blair, the Labour leader, said: "If the IRA think they can shift the resolve of any government with this action they are cruelly mistaken."5 In my opinion, it is meaningless of bombing, Nowadays, Manchester, that the city centre had been rebuilt, is still a charming city.
Bibliography
Internet:
1 By Jonathan Schofield, Bomb to boom, Copyright © 2004 all rights reserved, P1
2 By Jonathan Schofield, Bomb to boom, Copyright © 2004 all rights reserved, P2
3 www.rebuilding-manchester.co.uk
Books:
4 Pro Jamie, Peck and Lecturer Kevin, Ward, first published 2002, “City of revolution”, restructuring Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, published by Manchester University Press. P133
5 Pro Jamie, Peck and Lecturer Kevin, Ward, first published 2002, “City of revolution”, restructuring Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, published by Manchester University Press.P146