Planning permission has been granted for Manchester Metropolitan University’s new state-of-the-art library building.
And it looks pretty impressive, to say the least.
After the first plans and artist impression images for the prospective facility were first unveiled back in November of last year, ahead of the University’s 200th birthday, it’s been announced that Manchester City Councilhas officially given the green light for the ambitious project yesterday (15 February).
This means that MMU’s current library building at All Saints on Oxford Road will be replaced with a “modern and dynamic learning environment”.
Architects Hawkins\Brown and Schmidt Hammer Lassen were commissioned to design the striking new building.
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Great news! Plans for our iconic new library have been approved. 🤩
The library will provide a vibrant learning, research, and collaboration hub, empowering our community and fostering creativity and engagement for future generations.
With demolition works expected to begin on site this autumn, the University says the eye-catching new building will feature digitally-enabled teaching and research facilities that will enhance students’ data science and analytical skills, as well as a range of flexible break-out spaces to “support collaboration” and “nurture ideas”.
The new building will also house the University’s ‘Special Collection Museum’, and the Manchester Poetry Library too – which is the North West’s first public poetry library – plus, there’ll also be a new gallery and event spaces that public audiences will be invited to engage with.
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Andrew Fallon, who is the Director of Estates, Facilities, and Capital Development at MMU, says the new library will be a “striking addition” to the Manchester skyline.
He continued: “The new library will serve as an iconic All Saints architectural gateway to our University, and once built, it will provide a vibrant learning, research, and collaboration hub, empowering our University community and fostering creativity and engagement for future generations.”
Plans have been approved for Man Met’s ‘modern and dynamic’ new library building / Credit: Hawkins\Brown
News that MMU’s new library has been granted planning permission comes just days after it was announced that the next chapter in the storied history of Manchester’s iconic John Rylands Library is also about to be written, as the green light was too given for an ambitious £7.6 million restoration project this week.
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The Grade I-listed University of Manchester-owned building will be transformed “enhance” its contribution to research, student experience, and public engagement in the city.
Timelines for this project are expected to be announced in due course.
Spike in antisemitic incidents reported after Manchester synagogue terror attack
Emily Sergeant
A new report has revealed that there was a rise in antisemitic incidents reported following the Manchester synagogue terror attack.
In case you need a reminder, the shocking knife and car attack took place on 2 October 2025 on Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish calendar – at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, and during the incident, two men sadly lost their lives during the attack – Adrian Daulby, 53, who was shot dead by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) while trying to stop the attacker from entering the synagogue, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, a worshipper who also helped stop the attacker.
The attacker was named as 35-year-old Jihad al Shamie – a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent who lived in Prestwich – who at the time was on bail for an alleged rape, before being shot dead by police.
In the wake of the attack, the Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors antisemitism in the UK, said 40 antisemitic incidents were reported on 2 October last year, and a further 40 were reported the day after – more than half of which involved direct reactions to the deadly attack.
These were the highest daily totals in 2025.
A spike in antisemitic incidents were reported after the Manchester synagogue terror attack / Credit: Google Maps | GMP
Three of the reported incidents on 2 and 3 October involved ‘face-to-face taunting and celebration of the attack to Jewish people’, according to the CST.
39 of the reported incidents were antisemitic social media posts referencing the attack, abusive responses to public condemnations of the attack from Jewish organisations and individuals, or antagonistic emails sent to Jewish people and institutions.
The Manchester synagogue attack was the first fatal antisemitic terror attack in the UK since the CST started recording incidents in 1984.
Overall, 3,700 anti-Jewish hate incidents were recorded in 2025 – which is said to be up 4% on the incidents recorded in the year before – and the CST revealed that this the second-highest annual total ever recorded.
There was also a spike in reported anti-Jewish hate incidents following the Bondi Beach killings in Sydney in December of last year too, the CST said.
Dave Rich, who is the director of police at CST, told Sky News in a statement: “We need a more robust approach to the kind of extremism that drives antisemitism.
“Jewish people in Britain used to be able to go about their lives without ever thinking about antisemitism, and now it’s the topic of conversation around every dinner table. That’s new.
“It feels for a lot of Jewish people like we’re in a different world now, the atmosphere is different, the climate has changed for Jewish people and the amount of antisemitism is part of that.”
Featured Image – GMP
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Trailer released for new romcom Finding Emily set and filmed all across Manchester
Emily Sergeant
The first trailer for a new romcom that’s set and filmed all across Manchester has been released.
The film, titled Finding Emily, tells the story of a lovesick musician, played by Spike Fearn, who meets his dream girl on a night out, but ends up with the wrong phone number, and so teams up with a driven psychology student, played by Angourie Rice, in a bid to find her.
Together, the unlikely duo spark a hilarious campus-wide frenzy that tests their own hearts and ambitions along the way.
The film – which is directed by Alicia MacDonald, and based on a screenplay written by Rachel Hirons – is produced by Working Title Films, is set in the fictional Manchester City University, and is due to be distributed by Focus Features and Universal Pictures across the UK and internationally this spring.
The talented ensemble cast groups together big names like Minnie Driver with rising stars like Ella Maisy Purvis, Yali Topal Margalith, and Kat Ronney, as well as other established actors including Timothy Innes and Nadia Parkes.
Filming took place in Manchester between August and September 2024.
The two and a half-minute trailer has been shared with the world today, and when we say it’s a Manc film, we mean it… we quite literally lost count of how many of our city’s famous locations can be spotted in just the trailer alone.
The trailer has been released for new romcom Finding Emily set and filmed in Manchester / Credit: Universal Pictures & Focus Features (via YouTube)
There’s everything from Manchester Central Library and Piccadilly Records, to Canal Street and the Gay Village, the Northern Quarter, the Crown & Kettle pub in Ancoats, and even the Emmeline Pankhurst statue in St Peter’s Square featured for all to see, alongside what’ll, presumably, be dozens of other famous locations.
Oh, and not to mention, if you keep your eyes peeled when watching the trailer, you can even see a small clip of Stockport band Blossoms playing a gig in there too.
Emily Sergeant -
16th February 2024 
