Curlew scales back contentious Hulme scheme 

Following refusal of its plans for a 13-storey student development in May, the developer has reduced the building’s height and the number of bedrooms. 

Curlew’s proposed redevelopment of the former Gamecock Pub off Boundary Lane in Hulme met with objection from members of the local community and Manchester MP Lucy Powell. 

Block the Block, a campaign to stop the project was launched amid claims from residents that Manchester doesn’t need more student accommodation and that the development would block sunlight to their gardens. 

Despite being recommended for approval by officers, Manchester City Council’s planning committee rejected the scheme, saying the “scale of the development relative to the size of the site which would be detrimental to the area visually”. 

Now, Curlew has tweaked its plans by knocking two floors off the tallest block of the two-building scheme and decreasing the number of bedrooms to 197. 

At 11 storeys, the project’s height is now the same as that of a previously approved scheme on the same site. 

That development, brought forward by Zeagham Ahmad Property Barrowford, was approved at appeal in 2008 but never materialised.

SimpsonHaugh is the architect for Curlew’s scheme and Turley is the planning consultant. 

The application’s reference number is 130387/FO/2021.