James Dyson
@dysonsk3
Architecture. Urbanism. Art. Environment. The North (of Europe and Britain). Cycling. Mountains.
Return to Ancoats. Ex-Central Retail Park, site of Manchester Digital Campus, aka No10 North. It was all going so well until I spilt water over it. Hoping @andyburnham.bsky.social has more luck.
Sad to miss MSA sketch-athon Friday, but here’s 4 of Ancoats. One is from 1826 by KF Schinkel, appalled by our Northern working conditions. Coming from Berlin, now pledged to DOUBLE its 440,000 tree count by 2040, what would a 21C Schinkel would make of our barren Great Ancoats Street?
Crazy. Replace a few of those parametric panels with glass, add a few lightweight timber internal walls and floors = housing with basement parking. I know...
Always enjoy a visit to the UCL Bartlett and AA degree shows, however or because their work is so speculative.
Much improved Gordon St / Gordon St at UCL. Strident road markings, planting, seating, breakout space for cafes and meetings which on a Friday lunch was clearly popular. Oddly though it all looks a bit reversible - even the zebra crossing is still there - heritage legacy installation?
In 2017 I identified over 200 vacant sites in the town centre of Stockport alone, giving over 9000 homes. A few were optimistic, but projecting that rate of disuse over the MBC area could= 270000 homes. We use the land we have in ludicrous ways.
Minefield isn't it. In case (a) the owner should be prosecuted as they are responsible for who drives the car? [I'd no idea about S172 but AI takes a different view]. In case (b) has anyone *ever* seen a car get cleared off a pavement? If it was, then charge the owner with costs.
Thinking width is only one issue of many here. 🚳bike lane is paint 🚳bike lane discontinuous by level+material 🚷pavement discontinuous by level+material 🚷kerbs/blisters tell non-motorised where to stop 🚗vehicle priority 🚗no speed constraint 🚗level+continuous surface roadway It could be different.
A word on the lesser churches of Tournai. St Nicholas, St Jacques, St Piat and St Brice are all interesting medieval structures. St Marie Madeleine shares similar 13C detailing to St Jacques, but is sadly disused and boarded up. Tournai, very much a work in progress - go there in 3 years time.
There’s interesting stuff beyond Astrid: Musee des Beaux Arts (a 2016 expansion plan appears to have stalled), Maison Pion (not open weekends LoL), Hotel de Ville. On a Sunday in May this whole quarter was closed up and appeared unloved. Heras fencing.
In the West corner of Grand Place is Beffroi, surrounded by the site work of Rues St Martin and du Parc, and Place Rene Astrid.
Grand Place St Quentin (rebuilt) now has pleasant garden space Square Delannay around with a restored 13C tower Fort Rouge. Beyond is cobbled Rue Perdue, in 2011 given a 7m deep trench filled with 125 car spaces.
West of the cathedral is Grand Place, a fine urban space rebuilt after May 1940 in historicist style. It is part pedestrian, part car park, part highway, with much road diversion temporary works. The paving grid pattern is 2.5x5m (If you know, you know).
Circling the cathedral giving unfolding views of its architecture are a set of pleasant urban improvements: Rue des Orfèvres, Rue des Choraux, Place l'Evêché, Pl Vieux Marché, living spaces when the weather is good. A brass strip follows the street centre, as “punctuation”(?).
The cgi’s of Carre Janson by TANK architects are so good it appears finished. Fantastic it may one day be, but in May 2026 it was still a building site. Images from TANK.
From the Gare onwards the focal point of this axis has been the cathedral, a study of the evolution from Romanesque to Gothic (West to East). Since a 1999 tornado it has been an archaeology site, with inside only the West part of the nave and South aisle accessible – expect scaffolding.
Picking up Rue Royale axis again, its extension is pedestrian-friendly Rue de l'Hôpital Notre Dame with an interesting mix of old and new, the recent housing infil by AUDE. It opens onto Place Janson, partly a building site for cathedral repairs and Carre Janson.
East of the Scheldt near the military area of Saint-Jean, behind the improved Pl Gabrielle Petit is the Architecture Faculty of 2017 by Aries Mateus, still pleasantly white though its forecourt is used for fly parking.
Much of this is still work in progress, but where complete it is promising and an activity draw.
Rue Royale ends at the Scheldt river, and as at Kortrijk the quayside is being transformed. A 3km stretch of riverside with wide promenade, benches, bike parking, planting and trees to Quais Dumon, des Salines, du Luchet, St-Brice, Poissonsceaux, Vifquin, Sakharov and L’Escaut.
Will this improvement work extend left and right to the districts around St Nicholas St Brice and St Piat? Much of the city has a good urban grain but many buildings appear neglected. Pl Verte was restored 2015-18 but looks in need of more tlc.