Manchester's beautiful Ancoats Dispensary saved despite the efforts of Urban Splash to bulldoze it

[editor]

An iconic building dramatically saved from demolition earlier this year has been awarded a £10,000 restoration grant.

Heritage campaigners hope the lottery cash can help turn Ancoats Dispensary into a bustling arts space for the local community.

The Grade II listed landmark – which featured in one of LS Lowry’s paintings – was due to be bulldozed by owners Urban Splash after they ran out of cash to redevelop it.

But a huge backlash eventually saw the firm back down and withdraw its demolition order in July, in the hope enough cash could be found to regenerate it instead.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...ts-dispensary-campaigners-win-lottery-6341299

What a bunch of cunts that Urban Splash lot must be.

 

[DrRingDing]

10k is not going to be much of a restoration

 

[Crispy]

With volunteer labour, it's enough to at least keep the building watertight.

 

[editor]

10k is not going to be much of a restoration

Saving the thing from falling down is just the start, but at least it'll still be there.

 

[editor]

Looks like the locals put up a fantastic fight too. Respect.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...test-march-in-bid-to-save-under-threat-693498

 

[Favelado]

Just look at the photo in the OP. That's an archetypal Mancunian/Lancastrian civic building, of the kind the region's collective heritage stems from. I don't know anything about listed status and planning laws, but I have the common sense to be able to see that it's clearly a building that deserves protection.

 

[editor]

Just look at the photo in the OP. That's an archetypal Mancunian/Lancastrian civic building, of the kind the region's collective heritage stems from. I don't know anything about listed status and planning laws, but I have the common sense to be able to see that it's clearly a building that deserves protection.

There's been some amazing buildings flattened through self-interest, stupidity, greed and short sightedness.

Look what happened in Brum:

 

[farmerbarleymow]

This is great news.

It is just round the corner from me, and I pass it often. It is a lovely building, but it is in a very bad way so £10k is unlikely to even make it watertight sadly. But it should be saved as it is a good building and a local landmark.

 

[belboid]

Usually an initial grant from the heritage lottery will be to develop full and proper plans for full restoration, rather than being directly for restoration. Hopefully that will be the case here, cos 10k really would go nowhere (unless it's already in decent nick, which I doubt)

 

[salem]

"ran out of cash" has an overpowering stench of bullshit about it.

Even if they said something like not economically viable for redevelopment I'd at least give them credit for being honest about their intentions but run out of cash suggests that they are at administrations door and I suspect that isn't really the case.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

This is what it looked like in summer. The first picture is from the front, the second from the rear of the building. Its in a really bad way unfortunately.

In the first picture you can see the large tanks of water presumably acting as ballast to anchor and stabilise the walls to stop them falling down. In the second picture, the white building visible to the left is my GP surgery, so at least there is some continuity of healthcare provision in that immediate area.

 

[salem]

I hope they didn't 'run out of money' after they took the roof down for replacement

And I notice it's listed. How were they going to just casually demolish it?

The more I read about this the more it appears that this was going to be an expensive job and they're not too subtly trying to get out of it. Shame lottery money is having to be used on this too.

 

[belboid]

Had a proper look at the funding now, and it's very good news.

It's a 10k Start Up grant. The money will go on developing the go nance and structures required for new community use, and to. Go to an architect to draw up fuller plans. 10k is the maximum awarded as a start up, so this means the lottery really like the project! and gives it an excellent chance of getting a full (seven figure!) grant later. It will take quite some time tho, don't expect to see any more significant developments for a year at least.

There is also some dosh for a cherry picker in the 10k, so a little bit of clean up work/stopping it from being actually dangerous.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

That's good - the first hurdle is cleared, and now the (very) hard work begins.

 

[Dogsauce]

The Westinghouse Offices at Trafford Park were a sad loss, though I guess not in an area where something like residential use was feasible. Came down as recently as 2002.

More here:

http://www.g3ngd.talktalk.net/f-stone.html

 

[Cid]

There's been some amazing buildings flattened through self-interest, stupidity, greed and short sightedness.

Look what happened in Brum:

That's a video of some Victorian gothic buildings being replaced by a great example of brutalism housing a massive, spacious and well-lit public library. A marked improvement imo... Would have looked amazing with Portland stone cladding as originally intended. Although the Central Library is now earmarked for demolition afaik, despite EH trying to get it listed twice. The new library is this:

Post-modern. Prefer the old one tbh, although times and technologies change, and libraries must to.