Places

The footbridge over Commercial Street

Is Manchester a missed opportunity?

The bull ring in Birmingham

There’s little doubt that Manchester has changed for the better in the ten years since the IRA bomb hit the city centre. Remember those hideous waves over the entrance to Marks & Spencer, the Exchange Square bus station, the rickety footbridge over Corporation Street and the glory of the Arndale centre's mustard-tiled façade and shudder.

But was the redevelopment rushed and a chance to make Manchester a great looking city missed? Sir Gerald told a specialist development magazine that the city council rushed to get shops open so that trade wouldn't "drain away to the Trafford Centre" and says something as spectacular as Birmingham's new Bull Ring would have been a better idea.

"The redevelopment of Manchester has been reasonably good, but not marvellous," he told Estates Gazette Magazine.

The stones in Exchange Square

"The city could and should have taken the opportunity to transform Manchester into a world-class, 21st century city. The bomb was obviously bad - but from a redevelopment point of view, it was a lost opportunity. While the area around St Ann's Square and Deasgate is not disagreeable, if you compare it with somewhere like Birmingham with that extremely exciting development around Selfridges, well, we've got nothing to touch that in Manchester."

The city council see things very differently. Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester City Council from 1996 to present day, thinks that Manchester is light years ahead in terms of redevelopment, and that not only he thinks that, but "most people in Manchester, and most of the experts from bodies like the Royal Town Planning Institute, the Royal Institute for Architects and the Commission for Architecture in the Built Environment think we’re light years ahead as well."