The official opening date of Manchester‘s New York-inspired ‘sky park’ at Castlefield Viaduct has now finally been confirmed.
After the National Trust announced its ambitious vision to create an urban green space in the heart of the city centre by tackling the challenge of “greening” the Grade II-listed Castlefield Viaduct and celebrate the history of this well-known landmark, it has now been revealed that visitors will be able to enjoy the park from next weekend.
Construction company MC Construction, Twelve Architects, and four local partners have been working with gardening specialists and apprentices at the National Trust to create the new park – with thousands of plants, shrubs, and trees having been planted over the past five months.
Now, less than half a year after work began to transform the giant 330-metre steel viaduct into an elevated park, the finishing touches are being made.
The temporary urban park at Castlefield Viaduct will open to the public on Saturday 30 July.
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Artist impression images of what Castlefield Viaduct will look like once it opens to the public in summer 2022 / Credit: Twelve Architects & MC Construction (via National Trust)
The park will be or the next 12 months, with green spaces stretching across the elevation, and during this time, visitors will have the opportunity to explore part of the structure and find out more about the viaduct’s heritage, the city’s long relationship with plants and trees, and learn urban gardening tips.
You’ll also get to experience a variety of planting displays as you walk along the viaduct while enjoying the elevated setting above the historic cobbled streets, according to the National Trust, and see the park “develop, evolve, and respond” with the changing seasons.
The plans for Castlefield Viaduct are part of the National Trust’s work to “increase access” for everyone to nature, history and beauty in, around, and near urban areas.
The Castlefield Viaduct dates back to 1892 and was built by Heenan and Froude – the same engineers who worked on Blackpool Tower – but the site closed in the late 1960s, and before the National Trust took over and began to add over 3,000 plants, shrubs, trees, and more, it had sadly been left derelict.
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Castlefield Viaduct before work began to transform the derelict site / Credit: National TrustPlanting underway on Castlefield Viaduct / Credit: Annapurna Mellor (via National Trust)
The industrial heritage of Castlefield has been reflected through all elements of the design of the park.
The National Trust says the design of the planters at the new park gives “a subtle nod” to the industrial architecture of the viaduct, and mirrors the curve of the railway tracks that once transported goods across the structure to the Great Northern Warehouse.
A section of the viaduct has also been left untouched to “provide a sense of how nature has reclaimed the space” since the site closed.
Speaking ahead of the park officially opening to the public next Saturday, Andy Jasper – National Head of Gardens & Parklands at the National Trust – said: “Creating a garden on an industrial heritage structure such as this is new territory for us and we have created a test bed that represents how the park in the sky might be, if the people of Manchester want it.
“With more than 3,000 individual plants planted in completely peat free growing media over the past couple of months, we’ve been literally trialling new planting techniques as we go – working with limited growing depths and thinking about how these plants will deal with the more challenging conditions of being 17 metres in the air.
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“I cannot wait to see what people say, and I am intrigued to see how the plant life will take in its new surroundings.”
A green oasis from industrial foundations, new life is being breathed into Castlefield viaduct: https://t.co/Eu9xBfIBuO
Once carrying heavy traffic into the heart of Manchester, it’s now set to be transformed into an elevated park that celebrates the city’s heritage. pic.twitter.com/ftjYraNaa4
Duncan Laird – Head of Urban Places at the National Trust – added: “This has been an intensely busy few months as we prepared to open the doors of the pilot project, and we are incredibly excited to finally be able to open this space for people to visit for the first time in over 50 years.
“As the trees and plants start to bed in and grow it will slowly begin to match the vision for this space, and we will be keenly listening to visitor feedback that we will use to shape the ongoing evolution of the viaduct.
“We’re at the start of the journey – not the end.”
100 people a day will be able to visit the Castlefield Viaduct from Saturday 30 July.
Entry onto the structure will be free, but a booking system will be in place to help manage numbers, and as part of the experience, visitors will be able to join guided walks – with plans to host various community events, workshops, and consultations in the pipeline.
Featured Image – Howard Bristol (via National Trust)
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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.
Emily Sergeant -
22nd July 2022 
