The Piccadilly Gardens Problem - new development proposal (P32)

B B

Blue Smarties

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 Aug 2008
Messages
27,280
When are the council going to do something about this? For all the good things happening to the city, this place is getting an alarming reputation. Not only is it ugly (what's the craic with the concrete wall?), it seems to be a hotbed for crime and unwelcome activity. In fact, it's the fifth worst crime hotspot in the country.

I spent yesterday in Liverpool and returned to Manchester in the evening, which resulted in me walking through the city via Piccadilly Gardens around 21:00*. For all the shit people like to fling at Liverpool for its 'reputation of crime', if I was a tourist and didn't know either city, I would have thought Manchester was the city harnessing the 'cars on breezeblock' jokes. When I walked through Piccadilly last night it was swarmed with teenage scallies loitering, being loud, aggressive, and just not doing the place any favours in general. There were police officers camped out on each side of the gardens ffs. It's not the first time I've seen it like this, so it doesn't appear to be a one off.

There's so many good things happening to this city and yet we have a real problem right in the heart of it. We shouldn't allow these groups to loiter, it's so unattractive. Shit hole behaviour, not the behaviour you'd expect from one of the central locations of a thriving city.

*Yes I have walked through the centre of Liverpool after 21:00, no big groups of scallies hanging around the areas which are deemed to be central hotspots of the city.
 
I would suggest:

1. Demolish that hideous wall, using volunteer labour if necessary.
2. Turn the 'gardens' back into an actual garden instead of a mass of concrete.
3. Play classical music through loudspeakers 24/7/365. Scrotes can't abide classical music and would soon find somewhere else to gather.
4. Put anyone misbehaving in the area in the stocks, and allow people to hurl rotten vegetables at them for a charge of £1 a go.

Only the last proposal would require legislation.
 
I went into the centre for the first time in many years about a month ago. I walked down from Piccadilly station through the "gardens" and on to the Arndale etc.

I just thought "what a fucking dump this place is"

Why would anybody want to be a tourist in a shit hole like this?

To make things worse my Czech wife was with me on her first ever visit, she wasn't impressed at all!
 
For most visitors to Manchester it will be one of the first places they see, so why leave it as it is?! It's a shithole.

On a side note, has anybody noticed the amount of homeless people in town these days? Easily quadrupled from a couple of years ago. Any reason for it? I heard a shelter was closed down so they've nowhere to go
 
malg said:
They fucked up when it stopped being 'gardens'. Whoever signed off on the plans to make it more concrete than green was, and is, a fucking moron.
Click to expand...
Yes
And they could improve things by demolishing that new office block what an eyesore!
 
You're bang on OP..the place is a disgrace..you think about all the redevelopment money ploughed into the City..the ripping up of all the fucking roads..yet one of Manchester's focal points resembles East Berlin circa 1980..it's shocking
 
Get rid of those fountains too, it will always be a centre for hoodlums getting together with it being a transport hub round all 4 sides of it. The drug dealing is rife round there and very brazen.

It's a shame who over designed the gardens fucked it up so badly with the Berlin Wall and the office block which should have never been aloud to go up.

For this one mistake in the city we do have Albert square, the northern quarter, Castlefield and Spinningfields which make our city unique.
 
It does need a complete overhaul .... which takes time and money. But the scrote/druggie problem can be rectified immediately ....
 
malg said:
They fucked up when it stopped being 'gardens'. Whoever signed off on the plans to make it more concrete than green was, and is, a fucking moron.
Click to expand...

it would never happen in London and like you said morons turn it back into the gardens
 
ancoats said:
it would never happen in London and like you said morons turn it back into the gardens
Click to expand...
Can you imagine the swarms of teenagers and dealers hanging around Trafalgar Square? It's disgusting that we let this happen. The place is a shit hole, unfortunately it's one of the first few places that tourists see.
 
In the old days it used to be mint. Skaters and moshers chilling out having a spliff on the banks. Now its crap. I took my daughter to her 3rd game, dortmund, she danced about in those fountains on the way home. Was fucking freezing. Me, I tried to olly on a board off the edge of the old fountain. Totally winded and maybe broke ribs. Idiot.
 
Turning it back into gardens would be the best plan, lots of lights, lights in trees etc, Media city would be a good blue print.

I don't understand why they got rid of the little garden at the back of the town hall either.
 
Yaya_Tony said:
In the old days it used to be mint. Skaters and moshers chilling out having a spliff on the banks. Now its crap. I took my daughter to her 3rd game, dortmund, she danced about in those fountains on the way home. Was fucking freezing. Me, I tried to olly on a board off the edge of the old fountain. Totally winded and maybe broke ribs. Idiot.
Click to expand...
Skaters all hang around the Football Museum now, don't they?
 
That concrete thing is ugly as sin. Me and the missus were sat on the grass in summer causing no hassle and were told to finish our beer quick as it was not allowed.
On the far otherside is the bit where the piss heads still sit and they never got told, they were loud crude and just as piss heads are in town.

A couple with 1 bottle each of craft beer eating a sarni having a kiss and cuddle should be left alone, tell the effing scrotes.

In the day on the grass you get a nice mix of people in general, should be well lit at night with lots of relaxing cafe cum bars with nice outdoor seating all around.
 
TCIB said:
That concrete thing is ugly as sin. Me and the missus were sat on the grass in summer causing no hassle and were told to finish our beer quick as it was not allowed.
On the far otherside is the bit where the piss heads still sit and they never got told, they were loud crude and just as piss heads are in town.

A couple with 1 bottle each of craft beer eating a sarni having a kiss and cuddle should be left alone, tell the effing scrotes.

In the day on the grass you get a nice mix of people in general, should be well lit at night with lots of relaxing cafe cum bars with nice outdoor seating all around.
Click to expand...
Inspiration from Amsterdam?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top