manchester

mancunians

expats

Ideas above its station

Torvill and Dean have done their stuff here in spectacular ice shows. In 2001, for the first time ever, Manchester's General Election results were also announced here.

But, if you are older, you will recall that G-Mex has a "previous life". And a very long one at that - as Manchester Central Station.

Until 1969, when it closed, Central Station was a busy place. But not busy enough, which is one of the reasons why it closed. The city simply did not need its then quota of railway stations.

Around the same time, Exchange Station (the site is now a car park near Victoria Station) was also dubbed surplus to requirements and, sadly, fell prey to the bulldozer.

But Central, unlike its unfortunate sister station, survived to become one of the flagship buildings in Manchester's regeneration programme of the 1980s.

It was originally built in 1880, to connect the fast-growing urban centres of Manchester and Liverpool. Its unsupported iron arch is the widest in the country, after St Pancras in London. The arcades that elevated the station to track level are said to have utilised 34m bricks - but its coming also destroyed 225 houses and displaced over 1,000 people, to provide space for the station and its approaches. Only 70 years previously, cows had grazed around here, and the nearby River Medlock meandered through open fields, with Lower Mosley Street and the Rochdale Canal planned but not yet built. The Industrial Revolution put a stop to such pastoral bliss. Factories, gasworks and timber yards were all constructed nearby, to cope with the vast boom in business and manufacturing industry. Next to the Briton's Protection pub - even then an institution - was a tumbledown shanty, where Mr Sam Thornhill sold oysters and mussels. Chepstow Mill (now luxury apartments) and Britannia Mill added to the dark, satanic atmosphere of the area.

Later, workdays would see thousands of people alight at Central Station to go to their jobs in the city centre. By the early 20th century, the station was also the gathering-point for Manchester United fans on their way to the "Theatre of Dreams". There was a coach station opposite, where the Bridgewater Hall now stands.

The conversion of Central Station into its present incarnation took a long time. For almost 20 years, it was a huge car park, and the area around was badly in decline. When economic recession arrived, in the late 1970s, things got even worse. But in the mid-eighties, the Central Manchester Development Corporation was set up, to help regenerate many derelict sites in the city centre and come up with solutions to the fall in fortunes of once-proud places such as this. Together with Manchester City Council, they worked on an a plan to resuscitate the space in an exciting and innovative manner. The result, some years later, was G-Mex.

In its new form - and after £20m worth of public and private investment - the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre (G-Mex) was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 1986. At the time, many people scoffed and said it was a waste of public money.

The critics were wrong - G-Mex is now one of the most popular exhibition venues in the country and, at over 10,000 square metres, it is also one of the country's largest. The hall can seat over 9,000 people, and there are an additional 2,250 square metres of land adjacent to the main hall for temporary buildings and exhibitions, with onsite parking for over 1,500 cars. Regular exhibitions are held there - everything from Aquatic to Computer Fairs, Caravans and Home Exhibitions.

Next door, and linked to G-Mex, is the Manchester International Convention Centre, which opened a couple of years ago. During the Commonwealth Games, the G-Mex site was the veritable hub of the two-week extravaganza, as the worlds's press gathered to report on the stunning action. Not at all bad for a site which, only 20 years earlier, was a grotty car park!

Links within ManchesterOnline

Links to other web sites