Developers Far East Consortium (FEC) has unveiled its vision for the “sustainable regeneration” of Manchester’s Red Bank neighbourhood.
It will create 5,500 new homes within Victoria North.
Working with international design practices Maccreanor Lavington and Schulze+Grassov, FEC has applied its ‘Wild Urbanism’ concept across the Red Bank masterplan, and is aiming to connect the built environment with the urban nature of the River Irk Valley to create what it’s calling “a unique city neighbourhood”.
The vision – which applies ’15-minute neighbourhood’ principles – includes the “prioritisation” of green space, biodiversity and public realm, with just 50% of land within the masterplan dedicated to high-density residential development.
The neighbourhood is expected to provide new homes for a diverse mix of people, and will build a new community with both “long-term infrastructure” and social amenities.
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Other key features within FEC’s masterplan for the largely-brownfield site include a focus on active travel, the revitalisation of St Catherine’s Wood as part of the wider City River Park, improvements to the River Irk, and new social and community facilities – including initial proposals for a new primary school and health centre.
Integral to the regeneration project is a “connected, safe and inviting network of public spaces” where pedestrians and cyclists are prioritised to support healthy and active lifestyles, and FEC says that the strategy has been designed to “increase connectivity” between Red Bank, Collyhurst, Cheetham Hill, New Cross, and Manchester city centre, all while creating an “accessible frontage” the River Irk.
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Far East Consortium (FEC) has unveiled its vision for the “sustainable regeneration” of Manchester’s Red Bank neighbourhood / Credit: Google Maps
£51.6m of investment – which has been secured through a bid by joint venture partner Manchester City Council (MCC) via the government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) – will see the Council deliver critical infrastructure to help “unlock the neighbourhood”, including re-naturalisation of the River Irk, as well as the first phase of the City River Park, site remediation, access routes and new utility connections.
Speaking on the unveiling of the plans, Hilary Brett-Parr – Project Director at FEC – said: “The River Irk and its valley provides an opportunity to create a unique, sustainable, residential community within an incredible setting.
“Our ambition is to establish Red Bank as a key location within Victoria North, unlike anywhere else in the city, providing plenty of access to wild, green spaces within a healthy urban environment for people to live, visit and work.
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“To support the new community in Red Bank, we also recognise the importance of social and community infrastructure and at this early stage have identified locations for a new health centre and primary school needed to allow the new community to flourish.
“We will be working closely with MCC to develop these proposals.”
The regeneration will create 5,500 new homes within Victoria North / Credit: Google Maps
Cllr Gavin White – Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Housing and Employment – added: “Red Bank has a huge amount of potential, as part of our ambitious Victoria North project, and aside from the overall investment opportunity to deliver 5,500 new homes on this brownfield site, the area lends itself to a bold and innovative approach to development – putting green space, active travel and sustainability at the heart of the investment.
“Red Bank gives us a blank canvas to create from scratch a blueprint for sustainable urban development in this part of North Manchester alongside the River Irk.”
Local residents and stakeholders are invited to view the plans as part of a public consultation programme, with events taking place on 8 and 9 December.
Featured Image – Far East Consortium (FEC)
Manchester
A massive East Asian street food fair is returning to Manchester next month
Emily Sergeant
Manchester’s massively popular East Asian street food fair is returning to the city centre next month.
Taking over a Sunday in mid March, the day-long event is set to treat hungry Mancs to food from six of GRUB’s favourite street food vendors, including some newbies too, who will all be serving up delights directly from the east of Asia.
This means that, from noon right through until early evening, you can feast on Taiwanese fried chicken and Japanese Tonkatsu buns from All Fired Up, and South Korean wonders from the aptly-named Korean Grub Club.
How about some fresh noodles with a choice of toppings and drizzles? Served up from Mala resident, Wok Bros, who will be coming to GRUB for the first time.
Manchester’s popular East Asian street food fair is returning next month / Credit: GRUB
Not only that, but for those with a sweet tooth, there’ll also be an array of desserts and treats courtesy of the popular Mary’s Cakery Makery too.
GRUB says the East Asian Food Fair is by far one of its best-attended annual events each year, and also a personal favourite to host for foodie fans as well.
The East Asian Food Fair is happening on Sunday 15 March from 12-6pm, and you can find out more on the GRUB website here.
Featured Image – GRUB
Manchester
A brand new two-level food hall is coming to Manchester city centre
Danny Jones
Get ready, diners and drinkers, because another exciting food hall is coming to Manchester city centre very soon.
Greater Manchester is well and truly in its food hall era, it seems, with the likes of Mackie Mayor, Alty Market, Society, Kargo, Stockport’s Produce Hall, The Egyptian Rooms in Oldham, New Century Hall and many more that we could reel off.
We’re not complaining by the way: being able to go to a place where you can sample various different cuisines and pretty much any drink of choice is ideal for keeping things interesting – plus, it always helped appease big groups where not everyone wants to eat the same thing.
With that in mind, prepare to welcome Manchester’s latest food hall, which is being developed by a man who knows all about the industry alongside Vita Group, whose local presence continues to grow.
Being spearheaded by Jake Atkinson, the former operations manager of the widely popular Mackie Mayor, Altrincham Market and Macclesfield’s Picturedrome – all of which serve as the blueprint for a successful food hall – his new venture will be called House of Social.
Set to host five kitchens tucked between statement arched windows and spread across two levels, Jake and co. have spent a year building a brand new collective of operators, with some much-loved regional food and drink brands bringing new ideas to the table.
The House of Social food hall will open just a few yards away from fellow cultural hotspot HOME Theatre on First Street, itself an ever-flourishing Manchester district, not to mention just a few minutes walk from both Oxford Road and Deansgate-Castlefield stations.
Hoping to serve as both a prime destination for a great night out, somewhere to grab breakfast on the go, enjoy a quick bite on your dinner or waste hours chatting rubbish with your friends over a few drinks, House of Social aims to be a place for all seasons and occasions.
You can get a close look at the early CGI mock-ups of how it’s going to look here:
Credit: CGIs (supplied via Vita Group)
As mentioned, the project is in collaboration with Vita, who are developing another brand new university accommodation block within which the food hall will sit, meaning that students will also be able to dive into Manchester’s diverse food and drink scene of the city quite literally on their doorstep.
The five independent kitchens at House of Social will be revealed in the upcoming months. Locals and visitors alike can expect a variety of vendors serving pizza to dumplings, all from growing businesses excited to get stuck even further into Manchester’s thriving hospitality scene.
Atkinson said of plans: “It’s such an untapped location, we’ve got this beautiful building with loads of natural light from soaring arched windows and also some gorgeous interior details with that curving staircase – it’s going to have so much character.
“We’ve tried to match that with the traders we’re working with – we’ve got some big names and some big personalities coming along – they’re creating menus which work in a food hall setting but with so much more attention to detail than anything I’ve seen before in this space.”
Credit: Supplied
Jake went on to add: “The offerings will really complement each other but I also think the traders are going to gel well too. I just can’t wait to get started.”
Set to open Summer 2025, House of Social really can’t come soon enough; we’re all dreaming of sun-soaked days with a belly full of scran and booze. Bliss.
Speaking of food halls, another city centre favourite of ours is doing something very fun for us Mancs this Valentine’s Day…
Emily Sergeant -
6th December 2021 
