Timeline in place for Dispensary restoration
Ancoats Dispensary Trust and development partner Igloo Regeneration are planning to start work on the restoration of the grade two-listed building in Old Mill Street in October, subject to a successful £4.5m Heritage Lottery Fund bid.
Ancoats Dispensary is a derelict building to the north of Manchester city centre, which was saved from demolition in 2013 by a local community group which formed the Trust.
Designed by architect Daniel Lewis, the Ancoats & Ardwick Hospital was built in 1874 and provided out-patient and home-patient care to industrial workers and their families. The hospital closed in 1989, and fell into decline, and owner Urban Splash applied to demolish the building in 2011. However, the protest campaign meant that Urban Splash withdrew its demolition application in 2013, and agreed to hand over the building to the Ancoats Dispensary Trust should enough funds be raised.
In 2014, the Trust secured support from HLF, with a £770,000 initial development grant for immediate stabilisation works to the building. The funding also went towards creating detailed plans for restoration, and putting together a bid for the full £4.5m grant, which is due to go in this month.
According to recently revealed designs by architect Purcell, the plans for the renovated Dispensary include a community café, event space and meeting rooms on the ground floor, and two floors of office space for occupiers who work in health and wellbeing sectors.
Tenants would be charged around £12.50/sq ft for larger offices, and £15/sq ft for smaller offices.
The scheme will be delivered by special purpose vehicle Ancoats Dispensary Ltd.
Subject to fundraising and the HLF grant, ADL is planning to have a contractor in place by October, with a start on site in November, and completion by 2020.
