At the heart of our proposals is the sensitive refurbishment and redevelopment of the Grade II* listed warehouse and Grade II listed Deansgate Terrace to create a new mixed-use urban quarter for Manchester, providing new residential, leisure and retail uses that sit alongside established and successful restaurant and leisure uses, and removing the non-original additions to the buildings that have blighted them for many years.
The site’s underused public realm will be completely transformed, creating a green oasis within the city, and introducing a vibrant new pedestrianised street, Dean Street, between the Warehouse and the Deansgate Terrace, improving connections and legibility. The listed viaduct structure to the south of the warehouse will become a generous high-level landscaped public space, linked to pedestrian routes across the site.
A new public artwork displaying verses of the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem, “The Masque of Anarchy” is also proposed. The poem was written following the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, which occurred very close to the site’s location. Crafted bronze strips, perforated with lettering will be carefully integrated into the façade on the corner of Deansgate and Peter Street. The wall will be back-lit at night to create a powerful and meaningful reminder of the site’s important role in history.
The Grade II listed Deansgate Terrace will be carefully refurbished and redeveloped, including the removal of non-original additions. A lively new retail and restaurant frontage will be created to Dean Street, and new residential uses will be introduced within the building’s upper levels.
As the first phase of redevelopment of the Great Northern site, this scheme fulfils the site’s potential as a destination for visitors, culture, business and high quality residences, and celebrates its unique character and valuable heritage.