The legacy of the IRA bomb
Article published: Monday, June 20th 2011
Wednesday marked the 15th anniversary of the IRA bombing of Manchester city centre. Over the last week a lot has been written about the bomb’s legacy for the city. Most of them are singing from the same hymnsheet, so it was interesting to see a different perspective.
On 15 June 1996 an approximately 3,300lb bomb was detonated in a white van on Corporation Street, an hour and a half after a call was made to Granada TV Studios. The blast injured 212 people and caused an estimated £700m worth of damage. 670 businesses were put out of action, and 200,000 sq ft of retail and 300,000 sq ft of office space were destroyed.
The popular narrative tells how ‘Manchester’ then pulled together the way only Manchester could. The business press waxes lyrical about how Manchester’s wise and visionary leaders grasped the opportunity with both hands, transforming the city into the wonderful place it has supposedly become for everyone.
It was good then to read something a little more considered, among what was times was frankly quite nauseating and self-intersted boosterism masquerading as commentary (though the pages of the last week’s Greater Manchester Business Week did provide some interesting insight into the heads of a few of the city’s most influential men).
Kevin Ward’s blog post on cities@manchester, ‘Explosive urbanism: fifteen years after 15/6’, gave the situation much-needed context and not just from the perspective of the city’s political and business leaders. Ward is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Manchester. He co-edited the book City of Revolution: Restructuring Manchester back in 2002. Over 10 years on it probably remains the most comprehensive collection on the city’s post-industrial ‘renaissance’ (and includes a whole chapter on the bomb’s legacy), so he knows what he’s talking about and is worth listening to:
New builds were emerging, as the price of land in the centre and to the south of the city continued to rise sharply. Gentrification was at full throttle. The ‘Northern Quarter’, adjacent to the centre, and the ‘Gay Village’ to the south were being constructed as sites of cosmopolitanism and difference, open and tolerant and ripe for marketing and exploitation.
However, the centre had largely fallen behind in the city’s regeneration/gentrification:
No sooner had the dust settled – literally – than plans were afoot to undertake a significant redevelopment of the retail core of the city… the Council successfully packaged the post-Bomb redevelopment as an opportunity to radically overhaul the city centre, allowing them to pursue a narrow and aggressive consumption-driven agenda.
The city centre is a very different place, one which is increasingly ‘public’ in quite superficial ways, heavily policed, exclusive and “emblematic of a new ‘authoritarianism and control’ according to Anna Minton” (also a good read and a very interesting topic in itself). That model of property and consumption obviously came crashing down in 2008:
The over-supply of apartments that had accrued in the preceding decade left the city centre housing market horribly exposed as the economic winds of change blew through the city during 2008 and 2009. Many apartments simply could not be sold and a series of incomplete building sites remain testament to how quickly capital can flow out of a city. When the sums don’t add up, capital cuts its losses and runs.
The whole post is worth a read, but the final two paragraphs asked the most pertinent questions:
Whether the city centre model pursued so vigorously by an alliance of the City Council and various representatives of capital is robust and resilient enough to survive the next couple of years is a moot point. On a number of indicators those in Manchester are set to get a whole lot poorer. With more public sector employment cuts on the horizon and a private sector that is just about muddling through the omens are not good. And remember, this is already a city that is one of the poorest in the UK. Perhaps that is to miss the point however? Maybe the City Centre we have is not for the citizens of the city. Somewhere along the line it was wrestled away from us and we did not even notice. The Council together with a number of other stakeholders placed all their bets on a particular sector of the economy, a decision which raises questions about the Centre’s very sustainability.
The Centre seems to be for those who come from elsewhere, those who can continue to engage in one form of conspicuous consumption or another. For sure the city centre remains busy. Are people spending enough money though? Perhaps out of the next couple of years will emerge a realization that there should be more to a city centre than consumption? A rebalancing to the debate might open up the possibility for a reinsertion of ‘the public’ into the city, as problematic as that term remains. We live in hope.
The cities@manchester blog has been up and running for a few months, providing an entry point into urban research going on at UoM. There has been some engaging stuff on the site recently, and it’s concise, easily digestible and free. They’re on Facebook and Twitter, and worth checking out.
More: Blog
Comments
-
all those conspiracey theories about 9/11 but none at all about the manchester bomb,could have made a few quid writing books to be turned into a movie/s etc then i’d get to hang out with all the labourite glitteratti down the townhall.Bruntwood and all the others who now seem to own most of those big new shiney buildings that all look quite similar
Comment by john on May 14, 2012 at 10:19 am
maybe get to buy my own council flat adding to the ever growing homless list we have here as well.
old manchester had its own unique character,but no profit in that is there compared to our new shiney steel and glass edificies that surround us all now.
soulless bars and shops selling overpriced coffee to tourists,doubt you’ll find folk from Harperhey,miles platting sitting in there tapping away on their latest laptop.
but,nothing lasts forever does it?thers a storm brewing as the cost of living gets higher and higher and a small few flaunt the bling a lot of people wont get no supper tonight,when folk start getting hungry they might start getting angry as well.
ps.dont blame me cameron and co and the rulimg manchester labour council when the little folk have had enough of your shiney,wealthy privalaged lifestyles.
one last thing,why doesnt the city councillors make public their expenses claimed for on the backs of all us little folk that keep you in a world a million miles from our own.
The comments are closed.
