THING OF THE WEEK
CRIBS… Developer Blueoak is best known to Place readers for its office-to-resi conversions – think Sale, Chester, and Old Trafford. However, the firm is currently preparing to launch a very different type of scheme, one it has billed as “the most exclusive apartment complex available on the Wirral” – a bold statement given the calibre of some of the existing homes in places like Caldy and West Kirby. The project in question features 10 three-bedroom homes overlooking the Dee Estuary on Hoylake’s Meols Drive that will set you back between £820,000 and £1.87m. Perhaps one for Liverpool FC’s growing list of summer signings to look at…
Mike Ingall and Bev Craig looked wowed in white. Credit: via Roland Dransfield
MATCHING… This week saw Allied London launch Campfield, a 130,000 sq ft hub for innovation and creativity within a pair of historic former market buildings in Manchester.
The event was attended by Manchester City Council Leader Bev Craig, who said the scheme is “a shining example of public and private organisations working in partnership”, and Allied London chairman Mike Ingall. Ingall said the project is a “hub for deep tech, media innovation, and social progress”. In a bid to show just how aligned the pair are in their vision for Manchester, Ingall and Craig even decided to wear the same clothes to the launch. Both look great, but who wore it best?
Credit: via planning documents
RAIN MAN… Tim Groom Architects is known for its atmospheric renders and refusing to shy away from Manchester’s meteorological reality when depicting future schemes. But this time, it might have gone too far. Resubmitted plans for a new-build, four-bed house off St John’s Street in the heart of the city centre show an image of what the project would look like if it were transported to monsoon-season India.
Credit: via Radar PR
TURN… Plans for an all-weather football pitch at Coleg Cambria’s Connah’s Quay site were rejected by Flintshire County Council’s planning committee recently, prompting the school to appeal. The scheme, backed by the Johan Cruyff Foundation, was tipped for approval, but the committee squirmed away from the officers’ recommendation in a manner befitting the late great Dutchman amid concerns about noise and light pollution.
Credit: via Inform Comms
FEAST… A shoutout must go to the team at Island on Manchester’s John Dalton Street who put on a spread of smorgasbord proportions at the building’s launch on Thursday. GM Mayor Andy Burnham had been due to give a speech at the event but had to pull out due to illness. This meant he missed both a tour of the 100,000 sq ft building by HBD’s Lee Treanor – dubbed by colleague Adam Brady as “Mr Workspace” – and a mesmerising buffet that had the city’s office agents swarming like a pack of hungry seagulls.
That house off St John’s Street is bizarre, I thought that proposal had died.
It is in an alley way! Not the worst of alleyways, but not the nicest either. There was a nightclub immediately next to this until very recently. Having worked in one of the nearby offices for years, i saw many people regularly use it for sketchy things in broad daylight, the morning after showed that it didn’t get any nicer during the dark hours.
Who in there right mind would pay all that money to live in a house down there?! Weird.
By Anonymous
The St. John st house couldn’t look more different that the classic Georgian buildings in the Conservation Area. Ghastly.
By Anonymous
Honestly, if they wanted realism, they nailed it. That render wasn’t exaggeration — it was live coverage. Manchester’s been auditioning for monsoon season the last couple of hours. I half expect to see tuk-tuks floating past Deansgate shortly Mr Rain Man
By Response to Rain Man