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Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre (G-Mex)


18/ 7/2003

G-MEX is an impressive piece of refurbished C19 railway engineering. The designer was Sir John Fowler with Sacre, Johnson and Johnstone, and opened in 1880.

It was formerly Central Station, built principally for the Midland Railway Company, and has the widest unsupported iron arch in Britain after St Pancras in London.

The magnificent brick arcades that elevated the station to track level are said to have utilised 34 million bricks but also destroyed 225 houses and displaced over 1000 people to provide space for the station and its approaches.

In 1969, it was decided that Manchester had too many railway termini. Central Station was one of two to draw the short straw, and was closed.

For many years it was one of the city's grandest car parks, then, in the mid-1980s it was converted by EGS, working for the now-defunct Greater Manchester Council, into the Exhibition Centre.

The most exciting part of the building is the interior. When it is empty, the visitor stands isolated in 10,000 square metres of uninterrupted space.

Next door and linked is the Manchester International Convention Centre, a tasteful and elegant design from local architects Stephenson Bell.

From the elevated area in front of G-MEX, take note of the rear of the Midland Hotel. If you are lucky you might catch this at sunset when the building, in the dying light, seems to glow like a hot coal.


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