Urban island that never was

Hana Kelly looks back at the brutalist 'entertainment district planned in 1960s almost forgotten today

- 

MANCHESTER is still being built, it will always be under construction. It is a collection of centuries of architecture.

But in the 1960s, a plan for Mosley Street and an inner-city ring road could have seen some of the historic buildings on Oxford Street, Portland Street, and Mosley Street demolished in favor of the ‘Piccadilly Entertainment District.

In their place would be a monolithic, brutalist district raised above the city at first-floor level complete with plazas and footbridges, connecting the cinemas and theatres of Oxford Road to the Manchester Art Gallery and beyond.

The plans for the entertainment district were to coincide with the redevelopment of five other areas of the city.