Market hall media hub 'will be like Guggenheim'

A media centre planned to open in Manchester this summer will prove as visually popular as one of the world's most lauded architectural gems, the developer has claimed.

Allied London thinks Campfield Market in Castlefield will be a "must see" building, likening it to the Guggenheim Museum in the Basque city of Bilbao, northern Spain.

The development, due to open in late June just off Deansgate, is based inside two Grade II listed Victorian buildings which formerly housed the Upper and Lower Campfield Market Halls.

Michael Ingall, chief executive of Allied London, boasted the building will be so trendy people will want to be seen there.

Frank Gehry's masterpiece on the Nervion River is often cited as a rare example of a building loved by experts, critics and the public.

"When you go to Bilbao and see the Guggenheim, people just hang around these buildings," Mr Ingall said.

Originally built in 1882 and 1878 respectively, the Campfield buildings became a barrage balloon factory during World War Two.

From 1985 the lower hall housed the Science and Industry Museum's aerospace collection, but the museum left in 2021 as the hall needed "substantial" restoration.

In the four years since the shutters came down the lower hall has been renovated and will feature workspaces for media firms and a café-bar.

The smaller upper hall will become Campfield Studios, complete with media studios and an atrium, developers said.

Between the historic buildings is Castlefield House, an office block constructed on the site of St Matthew's Church, demolished in 1951.

It is being repurposed into a media post-production hub.

Funding for the new campus has come from a government levelling up grant, part of a wider £1bn project centred on the St John's neighbourhood.

Bev Craig, Manchester City Council leader said: "Campfield is a much-loved historic site that has sat empty and underutilised for so long.

"It's great to see this scheme come to life."

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