To the north of the Corn Exchange

“the completed building which is now home to the National Football Museum. ”

The choice of location this week is the site to the north of the Corn Exchange and adjacent to Chetham's Library and Chetham's School of Music, and Victoria Station (it was, for many years, a surface level car park). The ‘activation’ of this part of the city centre was one of the key pieces of the rebuilding plan after the 1996 bomb.

Strangely the top photo does not feel as though it is that old - however, it is from July 2001 during the construction of what was then the Urbis Centre (note the sign: ‘this is Urbis - Manchester’s new museum of the modern city.’) The adjacent Cathedral Gardens was also under construction, branded at the time as the ‘Millennium Quarter Park’.

The bottom photo is more recent and shows the completed building which is now home to the National Football Museum.

Muse’s New Victoria comprising 520 apartments across two towers of 20 and 25 storeys is also visible to the right, along with the Hotel Indigo Manchester - Victoria Station.