Commentary
Culture can transform cities. Salford is proof
The power of arts and culture has always been firmly rooted within our development plans and central to our delivery, writes Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett.
Whether it is The Smiths, L.S. Lowry, The Happy Mondays, Harold Riley, Elkie Brooks, Ewan MacColl, or Albert Finney, Salford has always had a reputation for producing more than our fair share of cultural icons. This legacy lives on today, with culture firmly cemented as a priority for the city council and our partners. The power of culture offers hope and new experiences for Salford’s communities and is a catalyst for regeneration.
Salford can firmly say this, with more than two decades of successful economic delivery utilising culture’s role as a key driver to regeneration now paying dividends. It is a point I will be making at Place North’s Question Time event in November, as we debate about the best ways the government can collaborate with the North to revitalise the region.
The Lowry still remains the most-visited cultural attraction in the North West and has played a foundational role in the wider regeneration of Salford Quays, acting as a cultural anchor for regeneration which contributes £1.3bn to the UK economy, 99% more than in 2001. This thriving hub for media, culture, and arts outside the capital is a blueprint for how regions can be reinvigorated and renewed to ensure that communities and local economies flourish.
Only recently BBC Radio 3 announced that their Weekday Breakfast show will move to Salford and June saw the BBC News At One broadcast their first programme from their new studios in Salford, marking the first daily network TV news bulletin outside of London.
Culture has been firmly anchored in the city’s story of regeneration and reinvention, attracting significant inward investment and new national visitor attractions such as the RHS’s first urban garden in the North, and the council’s support of and investment in attractions like RHS Bridgewater and The Lowry are validated by their success.
Further cultural successes are played out across the city. The hugely popular We Invented the Weekend – a free-entry, two-day, family-oriented festival celebrating free time – attracted 60,000 visitors in 2023 and brought in more than £3.2m to the local economy.
The Sounds From the Other City festival brings performances to underused and unusual spaces along Chapel Street, whilst a public realm-driven masterplan with residential and commercial buildings set back from the canal has enabled community events to happen organically at Middlewood Locks.
Click any image to view the gallery of the Sounds From The Other City festival. Photographs: Breige Cobane.
Islington Mill is fully established as a hotbed for creatives and performers, hosting an eclectic mix of artists and events. With plans now approved to develop additional spaces with more opportunities for artists to create, it will further cement its position as an alternative to the Manchester artistic scene.
Culture for and in the heart of communities is also key and long-standing events like The UK Chinese Dragon Boat Festival and Pink Picnic provide opportunities for our diverse communities to express and share their culture while animating our great spaces and places.
In many ways, this is just the beginning. Salford will continue to protect and support culture, celebrate diversity, and bring forward creative ways with our partners in making arts, culture, and sport more participatory, accessible, and visible across the great city of Salford.
Crescent Salford, the city’s next major regeneration scheme will create further spaces and opportunities to host cultural experiences aligned to existing heritage buildings and assets such as Peel Park, Salford Museum and Art Gallery, and Working Class Movement Library, whilst our planned purchase of Salford Community Stadium has the potential to provide a completely different venue to host cultural events.
Development being brought forward in Greengate builds on existing cultural uses, such as Blue Print Studios (hosting major recording artists such as Elbow, Johny Marr, and Paul Heaton) and Eagle Public House, bringing forward more high-quality public realm and the ambition for the restoration and redevelopment of Collier Street Baths.
The English National Opera’s move to Greater Manchester will bring benefits to Salford, and funding from Arts Council England will see us realise our plans for our Light Up the City programme of events. In November, we’ll host the Beyond Conference, strengthening the identity of Salford as an innovative, creative city. We have ambitions to become a UNESCO City of Culture and the Greater Manchester Town of Culture in the coming years.
Salford truly is a city with culture at its heart. In a challenged and changing world characterised by financial hardship and a crisis in arts and culture funding, our continued investment in the sector and the amazing work of our cultural organisations and partners proves that investment in culture can boost local economies and add real value to communities.
- Paul Dennett is Salford City Mayor
- Hear from Paul Dennett alongside other Northern leaders at Place North Question Time on 5 November. Find out more and book your place
It’s nice to hear that Greater Manchester is choosing to invest and retain its culture.
After living in Birmingham for a few years and seeing what’s happening to it now, it feels like a much more interesting and vibrant place to be part of. Hopefully other cities will follow Manchester and use Birmingham as an example of how not to treat your culture.
By Anonymous
I moved to Ordsall in 2002. I was told not to. I can honestly say I’ve loved living here and everything that’s on my doorstep. I’m between Salford Lads Club and Ordsall Hall. Salford Quays to my east and Aviva Studios in Manchester to my west.
My only gripe is the heart of Ordsall needs more shops and bars and cafes .
By Christopher
I was thinking just the same as I was walking up church street on Friday night. What a fantastic job Salford council have done since 2001.
By Anonymous
Don’t forget Bez.
By Jeff
Lucky Salford getting all those well paid BBC jobs and more still arriving, the ENO moving to the area too, plus funding for large arts projects. I suppose its easy to say culture can bring transformational benefits when you get so much favouritism from Central Government whether Tory or Labour.
By Anonymous