View looking north east along the River Irwell
“Manchester United’s 1999 treble-winning parade passed beneath this very bridge !”
Wow…extremely pleased with this one and, once again, special thanks to Steve Welsh for unearthing this gem.
The top photo is from 2001 and is the view looking north east along the River Irwell - Salford City Council admin boundary on the left and Manchester City Council on the right.
The bottom photo was kindly taken 30 October 2025 David Booth of Place North (thanks as ever David for your expertise! 🙏🏻) and shows the scale of change that has taken place over the last decade or so.
On the left is The Slate Yard - designed by AHR the scheme delivers 424 apartments across three buildings: Graphite (21 storeys), Quartz (16 storeys), and Flint (10 storeys), completed in phases between 2017 and 2021. Closest to the camera is Novella which comprises 211 apartments across 23 storeys.
The Slate Yard forms part of the New Bailey regeneration area: a mixed use development which forms part of the 50 acre Salford Central Masterplan delivered by ENGLISH CITIES FUND, Homes England, Muse and Legal & General - in collaboration with Salford City Council.
In the background, and next to the red Grade II listed Irwell Street Bridge, is Four New Bailey, designed by Make Architects.
In the centre of the photo is the 35 storey Affinity Living Riverview designed by Denton Corker Marshall.
To the right is the Leftbank Apartments - part of Allied London’s Spinningfields - along with the Civil Justice Centre, also designed by Denton Corker Marshall.
In front of those buildings is the Manchester Marriott Victoria and Albert Hotel.
Finally, on the right hand side is the 36 storey Union T2 building, also designed by Denton Corker Marshall.
We have to close off by sharing the Flashback photo Euan was tempted to use but, at the last minute, decided not to! See across
It shows the same view but slightly further back so you can see the Ordsall Chord which was completed in 2017. The project is the UK’s first network-arch bridge and connects Victoria, Oxford Road, and Piccadilly stations for the first time.