Mayfield Imaginarium set to revive lost district of city

A NEW campaign to get the public involved in revitalizing Mayfield – the lost district of Manchester – gets off the ground at the weekend.

A collaboration of academics, architects, planners, artists, campaigners and all three local universities are coming together for the Mayfield Imaginarium.

The Imaginarium will take place at Think Rise MCR in the Great Northern Warehouse on Saturday October 8 and Sunday October 9 when all ages and interests will be welcomed for workshops, talks, interactive activities and creative fun.

The new district of Mayfield, around Piccadilly station, will likely see up to £850m worth of investment and is an incredible potential opportunity for Manchester, say the organisers.

The Mayfield site equates to 4% of the whole of the city centre and will be one of the most important new built projects of the coming decade.

The collaborative group has contacted the developer U+I which was recently announced as the successful developer of thE 24-acre area.

U+I will commit up to £20m equity to the project with an ambition to submit an outline planning application in the second quarter of 2017, and a detailed planning application for the first phase of development in Q3.

The deal was struck recently between London-headquartered U+I and the Mayfield Partnership, a public sector consortium comprising Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester and LCR.

The redevelopment will deliver a mixed-use community on a 24-acre gateway site adjacent to Piccadilly station that has been derelict for more than a decade.

The proposed masterplan for the regeneration includes the construction of more than 1,000 homes, a new hotel and 807,000sq ft of offices as well as leisure and retail space, with the potential to create 7,500 jobs.

Mayfield was built in 1910 as a rail traffic overflow for what was London Road Station, now Manchester Piccadilly.

The last train ran through in 1960, and the building was used as a post depot until 1986 when the site was permanently abandoned.

Daniel Kelso from Architecture Unknown, which is leading the event said: “We are organising the Imaginarium to be a creative and open-ended public engagement weekend, to give people the chance to explore and positively challenge the developer, U&I, to pursue a holistic approach to the development of our common ground.

“By attending you will be casting your vote for a more democratic, social city fit for everyone to use and change in search of a better future.”