Ancoats is the Northern Quarter’s cousin. Old mills have become expensive flats, and businesses have flourished around the area’s centre, Cutting Room Square, which has been named among the world's coolest streets by Time Out.
Now, a six-month trial has been launched to see if closing the roads around the square could be a permanent fix to traffic issues, while also creating outdoor seating for businesses. It comes after the square off Blossom Street, which is home to many cafés, bars and restaurants, was temporarily pedestrianised during the pandemic.
Local councillors say the move, which saw businesses spill out into the square with tables set up in the streets over the summer, creates a 'European feel'. The trial, which started last week and could become permanent, is hoping to gauge the public’s response to the car-free zones and is part of Manchester council’s commitment to provide safe and attractive, traffic-free public spaces.
The Manchester Evening News headed down to Cutting Room Square to talk to businesses and residents about the changes. Harrison Boase, supervisor at Seven Brothers Ancoats, has mixed views on the move. He said: “It’s nice to have it out there during the summer, but now during the winter, we’re going to either have to have heaters out there that are expensive to run, especially with cost of living and everything.
"It’s been put in at the end of the summer, if we’d had this from like June, July, onwards it would have been mint. We don’t have a lot of storage space as is, so if we have to start storing heaters somewhere.
“I think it would be better if they made the whole lot of it permanent, so we’d have permanent furniture. It’s nice while we have nice weather, but in the winter, what’s the point?
“They’ve not shut off Loom Street on the back and when I go out and do the bins, we go out through the back of the building and onto Loom Street and people drive just as bad down there. It’s arguably worse because it’s a really narrow street, I think it's just moving the problem out of sight of the square.
“The square looks really nice now, brilliant - but you’ll have the same idiots driving on different roads.
“Come winter nobody will want to sit out there, I certainly wouldn’t. I think they’ve started the trial at the wrong time. They should have started it at the beginning of summer. Even if they just changed half of the square into communal seating.”
Despite having to carry their outdoor furniture from the corner of Blossom and Henry Street, The Edinburgh Castle pub backs the closure. Manager, Andrew Wild, explained how closing the road has actually helped the boozer.
He said: “We’ve been hankering for this for ages. I wasn’t here when they did it for Covid, but the closure means we get seating in the square.
“If it had been done sooner, it would have helped us a bit more. We only got the square seating because everyone got to go on the street.
“Everyone saw how busy Stevenson Square got on that hot weekend, we could have had it too. The outside space is a completely different vibe than our usual customers. We had a group of uni students who went through six bottles of wine out there.
“We’re very thankful for it, but it would have been better earlier.” The location of Edinburgh Castle on the corner of two narrow streets, mean staff have witnessed a string of crashes.
Andrew added: “Within a two week period, granted they’ve put road markings down now, there were three instances of the same type of crash.”
Cutting Room Square was awarded the 21st spot in the magazine's annual list of Coolest Streets in the World 2022 - a first for Manchester. It joins the likes of Rue Wellington in Montreal (no 1) and Yaowarat Road in Bangkok (no 8), and was ranked higher than MacDougal Street in New York which came in at number 28.
Roberta Merolla, assistant manager at Rudy’s, thinks the road closure makes it safer and will help business. She said: “It helps in a very good way. People were worried about cars, especially with kids.
“I can see more families coming because there’s no cars, it’s more safe. For the business in general, it will be good. In terms of money, it’s really good.
“There was a lot of confusion before in the square of whose tables belong to who. If they did it in the beginning of the summer, it would have been so much better for everyone."
Returning to safety, Roberta also thinks that Ancoats could do with more signage on the roads. She added: “The main spot where accidents happen is still free flow traffic. So the problem still needs to be fixed.
“Often, you hear a 'boom', then cars crashed. The people have no signs that it is their time to drive across. There’s no sign that a car is coming from the other side.
“I hope they’re going to leave it like this. I think Ancoats has become one of the main places for hanging out in Manchester so having outdoor space will help people in the area.
“It’s become a place where you can meet for a beer, it’s safe. It’s a new quarter.” Kathy Smith, who works in sales and lives just off Cutting Room Square, is all for the pedestrianisation. Enjoying a drink in the sunshine on what, last week, was a through road, she said: “There’s no way that you need this road.
"It’s good for local businesses, ambience. If you’re going to live in Ancoats, on the square, you’ve got to expect some noise.”
Joining her for drinks was care worker Adam Cowan, who also lives in the area. He said: “There’s enough streets to get around, keep it this way. It’s such a nice area, it feels like there shouldn’t be cars here. It feels like cars shouldn’t be allowed down here.”
Councillor Tracey Rawlins, Manchester city council's executive member for environment and transport, said: “We’re excited to launch this consultation in this part of Ancoats. It's a well-used and vibrant part of this growing neighbourhood and during the pandemic the emergency pedestrianisation of this area made it clear what benefits can be brought by limiting cars and other vehicles from some of our streets.
“This consultation will be running for an initial six months so I would encourage people to use the square during this period, experience the new environment and give us your feedback.
“Ultimately we want to see Ancoats as a green and clean urban space, an ambition we are working to realise through a wider strategy to put green space and active travel at the heart of the Ancoats community. The trial to pedestrianise the roads around Cutting Room Square is another step in this direction."
The ETRO (experimental traffic regulation order) includes:
- Closing Blossom Street to vehicles between Cotton Street and Sharrett Street
- Closing Cotton Street to vehicles from its junction with Blossom Street to a point just to the south-east of Hood Street
- Closing Hood Street from its junction with Cotton Street to a point just to the south-west of the Halle building’s servicing door
- Closing Hood Street (except for vehicle loading/unloading) from its junction with Murray Street to a point just to the south-west of the Halle building’s servicing door
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