And perhaps nothing quite illustrates this more than the ever-changing skyline around us, with even more new skyscrapers, towering apartment buildings and office blocks set to further transform the city as we know it heading into the new year.
Several major projects are expected to break ground in 2021, while others that have long been in the pipeline could be completed.
Most of the development will continue to come out of the city centre in areas that have been earmarked for regeneration for several years – such as Deansgate, Mayfield, and NOMA – but some schemes have been given planning permission in the past 12 months.
Here’s how we can expect the face of Manchester to change once again this coming year.
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First Street
Downing
Co-living proved to be one of the most controversial concepts to enter the planning conversation in Manchester this year, and developer Downing’s plan for a vast co-living scheme on the edge of the city centre near Hulme was at the heart of the debate.
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The developer’s proposals for more than 2,000 apartments across four residential blocks – including a 45-storey tower – prompted backlash from housing campaigners and councillors who feared the buildings would become “slums of the future”.
But Downing received planning permission in September, and work is expected to start on-site in early 2021.
Blade and Cylinder
Crown Street
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SimpsonHaugh / Renaker Build
As part of the latest phase Renaker’s Crown Street development on the edge of the city centre near Mancunian Way, two new 52-storey skyscrapers will provide 855 apartments, a new 210-place primary school – with a rooftop playground – and a public park will sit between them, also set to house one, two and three-bedroom properties.
The towers – nicknamed ‘Blade’ and ‘Cylinder’ – will be joined at the base by a large podium, which will include concierge areas, a lounge, gym sauna and shops.
The scheme will also form part of the wider regeneration of Great Jackson Street.
Oxygen
Piccadilly
Russell WBHO
The £85 million Oxygen development in Piccadilly has reached a milestone this year.
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The landmark 36-storey tower – along with its neighbouring 16 and 10 storey neighbours – topped out over the summer, and the three buildings will house 372 one and two-bedroom apartments, and 12 ground-level townhouses with their own gardens.
A five-star spa will include a 25-metre luxury pool, while residents will also be able to enjoy a private cinema, gym and fitness studio.
Developers are aiming for the entire scheme to be fully completed in 2021.
The first phase of development centres around the 6.5-acre Mayfield Park – which will include a bridge over a restored section of the River Medlock currently buried beneath the former industrial estate – and two office buildings – The Poulton and The Republic – will reach 13 and nine storeys high respectively to provide 319,900sq ft of workspace.
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An 11-storey car park with 581 spaces will also be built as part of the first phase, and it is hoped the majority of the park will be built within two years, so it could be open by early 2023.
New Victoria
New Victoria Scheme
Construction of the £185 million mixed-use scheme – close to Manchester Victoria Station – finally began this year, more than four years after planning permission was originally granted, and the Network Rail-Muse Developments joint project will see three towers built in place of a surface level car park on Corporation Street.
Two of the towers – 20 and 25 storeys high – will provide up to 520 one, two and three bedroom apartments for rent, and the third eight-storey building will house 150,000sq ft of Grade A office space.
NOMA
NOMA
NOMA will continue to take shape in 2021.
Around 563,000sq ft of office spaces have already been built or are under construction at the £800 million city centre site – including Amazon’s first UK headquarters outside of London – and some residents have also already moved into Angel Gardens – the 36-storey tower promising luxury living through its 458 high-end apartments – but this year, Manchester City Council signed off on plans to expand development within the 20-acre site centred around Angel Square to include more offices, retail and leisure space.
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Running slightly ahead of schedule, 4 Angel Square – the 11-storey office block expected to house around 2,000 workers – has already seen construction begin ready for a 2022 completion date.
The building will sit at the corner of Corporation Street and Miller Street.
StayCity Aparthotel
Deansgate
Ask Real Estate / SimpsonHaugh
Following the winning of planning approval back in June, work on the 22-storey hotel next to the Grade II listed Castlefield Viaduct in Deansgate is expected to start next year, and it will be the fourth StayCity branch to open in Manchester, with the aparthotel chain already operating in St Peter’s Square, Mason Street, and near Piccadilly station.
The 310-room hotel will be built in a small half-acre plot sandwiched between the viaduct and The Deansgate pub, which will be retained.
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Two arches running underneath the viaduct will also be opened up for use by businesses.
The Factory
The Factory
The Factory – the landmark arts complex, which has been beset by rising costs and delays – was supposed to open next year, but construction will continue throughout the coming months with contractors eyeing up a late-2022 opening.
Construction on the nearby Manchester Goods Yard, the 400,000sq ft office block- which will house Booking.com’s new headquarters – did however begin this year.
It is also expected to finish in 2021.
St John’s
Water Street
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Vita / Denton Corker Marshall
A new £1.3 billion project is expected in 2021.
The St John’s neighbourhood – based in and around the former ITV Granada studios – will continue to take shape in the coming year, with two towers – one 36 storeys high and the other 32 storeys – built by the Vita Group providing 1,600 co-living flats off Water Street in Manchester city centre.
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The 1975 and Charli XCX drop collab teaser in Manchester city centre
Danny Jones
Manchester, we might have a collaboration between two of the biggest British acts around right now as local lads The 1975 and pop sensation Charli XCX look to have just teased something big right here in the city centre.
It’s fair to say that if 2023 was the biggest year of The 1975‘s career to date then 2024 has very much been Charli XCX’s. In fact, we’d say it’s been a pretty great 12 months or so for pop music in general, which it feels like we don’t get to say that often.
That being said, despite the Cambridge-born singer having only just released her smash-hit BRAT back in June, is already ramping up for more new music to be dropped.
A massive new poster has appeared near Piccadilly and not only is it the bright lime green and plain black font now synonymous with her album but the words also read “the 1975” backwards.
It looks like this could finally be The 1975 x Charli XCX collab so many fans have been waiting for and there’s plenty of reason to believe it could be coming very soon.
For starters, rumours of the two working together have been running ever since the 32-year-old became partners with the band’s drummer, producer and co-songwriter, George Daniel, who has regularly appeared with her on stage at the likes of Boiler Room, not to mention sharing mixes of her songs.
She also came out as a surprise guest during their second-to-last visit to Manchester and the AO Arena back in January 2023 – much to the delight of the crowd.
Furthermore, Charli recently announced her next project rather straightforwardly called Brat and it’s completely different but still also brat.
While there are no other discernible clues to take from the rather large billboard, the title alone, George Daniel’s involvement and her own penchant for DJing of late quickly led people to piece together that she is planning to release a reworked version of her sixth studio album.
Moreover, Charli (real name Charlotte Emma Aitchison) has already revealed a number of feature artists on the remixed version of BRAT, including Addison Rae, Robyn, Billie Eilish and Yung Lean, as well as Troye Sivan and Lorde, who both joined her on stage recently for the ‘Sweat Tour’.
As already confirmed, whatever this new project ends up sounding like, it’s coming out next Friday, 11 October and if the collabs we already know about are anything to go by, then it’s a pretty safe bet that The 1975 will be also a appear on a tune or two. Who knows, maybe it could be something even bigger?
‘Bratty Healy’ is born, whether you like it or not.
Featured Images — The Manc Group/Press Image (supplied)
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Robbie Williams is releasing a big budget biopic later this year – only it stars him as a monkey?…
Danny Jones
Robbie Williams has always been a true popstar but he’s never exactly played it paint by numbers, which is why learning that his upcoming biopic features him as a CGI monkey sounds much less random than it would be coming from anyone else.
There have been countless big-budget movies about rockstars and famous musicians even in just the past few years – One Love about Bob Marley, Back to Black about Amy Winehouse, Elvis and even the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic – but there is a single one we could name where the star is a monkey.
Announced this week, BETTER MAN will tell the story of Robbie Williams’ life and career right up until the present day and is set to be released this festive period.
The first trailer has now dropped too and whatever you make of the concept, visually at least, looks pretty good – only time will tell whether it’s a good film or not.
First trailer for the Robbie Williams biopic ‘BETTER MAN’, starring a CGI monkey as Robbie Williams.
The tagline for the film is, “Discover an extraordinary journey that can’t be told in an ordinary way” and as Williams addresses in the short teaser, starting by simply saying, “I know what you’re thinking? What’s with the monkey?”, they’ve certainly found a way to tell this story diferently.
In fact, although telling his story through the medium of a monkey wasn’t his idea to begin with and, as he and director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) told the likes of Heart Radio, there’s a few reasons for it.
First off, Robbie said of the film and its vision: “I want everything that I do from here on in to be slightly unusual, so that fits that narrative.”
“As humans, we care more for animals than we do for humans. So the audience is probably going to have more empathy for me as a monkey than they would’ve done for me as me.” That’s a fair point: a cute CGI monkey can definitely be rooted for, but it’s Gracey’s explanation that makes it sound most interesting.
As he puts it, the idea to make a furry version of the 50-year-old came from looking to reflect the hitmaker being “pushed on stage” like a “performing monkey” throughout his life, even when heavily under the influence of durgs and alcohol. But it goes much deeper than that.
“This is how he sees himself.” Director Michael Gracey explains why Robbie Williams is a monkey in #BetterManMovie – In select US theatres December 25. Everywhere in the US January 17. pic.twitter.com/GBSyFNfRe5
The Australian director, who also headed up fellow pop music icon P!nk’s autobiographical documentary, goes on to explain: “He was always putting on a performance at [his hometown] Stoke for the other kids, at home for his parents.
“It made it so powerful for me because I was like, You’re going to fall in love with this character, this little monkey. And you’re going to invest emotionally in this little monkey. As long as you set that contract at the start of the film, you’re in, and you will go with that monkey through the entire journey.”
Robbie will be played and largely voiced by Chesterfield-born actor Jonno Davies via motion capture technology, not unlike that used for the Planet of the Apes films, with the story spanning his fractious childhood to boy band success with Take That and then solo superstardom.
Still one of the best-selling and most well-known pop stars to ever do it, he will naturally take full control of the singing sections in the film as well as provide narration.
As he put its himself in the voiceover we’ve now heard, “I’m one of the biggest pop stars in the world but I’ve always seen myself a little less… evolved”. The stylistic choice has certainly split opinion already, with some calling it a “fantastic” approach from a “working class lad” who made it. Others have only found the immediate humour in it thus far.
idea for a film… the life of Robbie Williams told through the perspective of a CGI monkey pic.twitter.com/UhVtr4O8cX
Set to release on Boxing Day 2024, the blockbuster project from Paramount Pictures also features Steve Pemberton, Damon Herriman’ Raechelle Banno, Alison Steadman, Kate Mulvaney; Frazer Hadfield, Tom Budge and Anthony Hayes.
With a budget of a reported $110 million, the movie has actually already been debuted at the Toronto Film Festival and was met with pretty positive reviews, with The Guardian giving it four stars and labelling it a “surprisingly entertaining saga.”
As for us, we will say that we’d probably have watched a Robbie Williams biopic anyway, but let’s just say it being told through the lens of a monkey has very much piqued our interest.
There’s also another feature-length project still being made right here in Manchester that we’re very much keeping our eye on.
The Manc -
30th December 2020 
