Manchester says Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! a venue in Eastlands

Mamma Mia! The Party will form part of Manchester City’s £300m Medlock Square leisure quarter, providing an immersive, theatrical dining experience based on the ABBA-soundtracked blockbuster.

Manchester City Council today voted to approve City Football Group’s plans for the three-storey, 33,500 sq ft venue off Alan Turing Way close to the Etihad Stadium.

The 600-capacity venue will recreate the wedding venue on the island of Skepolos from the 2008 musical Mamma Mia! and is being delivered in partnership with Pophouse Entertainment. The concept is the brainchild of former ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus.

The Manchester scheme will be the second in the UK and third globally. The other two are in London and Stockholm.

The scheme is designed to be flexible. Tenants, such as Mamma Mia The Party!, will occupy the space for contracted periods, designing the interior to suit their needs but the space will have in-built flexibility, allowing it to be reconfigured in the future.

To learn more about the scheme, search for reference number 145358/FO/2026 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.

Deloitte is the planner and PRP is the architect. The project team also includes Hoare Lea, Turner & Townsend, Griffiths Evans, Norris Green Design, Calibre Consulting, Planit, Greengage, Arup, GHD, and RS Security.

Approval of Mamma Mia The Party! maintains the development momentum at the Etihad Campus following the completion of the Co-op Live arena and the more recent handover of City’s enlarged North Stand.

The project will sit within the £300m Medlock Square, which, along with the North Stand, will feature a hotel, restaurant, offices, stadium roof walk experience, and an immersive Manchester City museum.

Seed Architects has designed the scheme. Credit: planning documents

Also approved by Manchester City Council on Thursday were designed by Seed Architects for the demolition of a mosque and its replacement at Winterford Road in Cheetham Hill.

In building a new part two- and part three-storey place of worship and education centre, Al Sunnah Mosque wants to increase its footprint to 13,600 sq ft, which would be an increase of around 7,000 sq ft on the current 1970s-built one- and two-storey structure.

Facilities would include, at ground floor level, a prayer room, two classrooms, Iman’s office and associated washing and toilet facilities; with a further prayer room, meeting room and associated washing and toilet facilities at first floor level. The second-floor element would accommodate three further classrooms, a multi-functional space, an IT room, office and toilets.

To learn more, search for reference number 141545/FO/2024 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.