A derelict brownfield site next to a former railway yard is now brimming with life as Manchester’s first new city park in a century
WORDS MOLLY BLAIR PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD BLOOM
Manchester is proud of its industrial heritage, but the city looks towards the future as well as honouring its history. It has a target of reaching carbon zero by 2038, 12 years earlier than the national target, and in 2019 the city declared a climate emergency. So when plans were made to develop Mayfield, an abandoned industrial hub where dye works and breweries once flourished, it was clear that it needed to reflect this dual character that is uniquely Mancunian. Over the next few years, this district near Manchester Piccadilly Station is set to be rejuvenated as part of the Mayfield Partnership, a public-private collaboration between several organisations including Manchester City Council and regeneration specialists LandsecU+I. What makes this development stand out, and something that could create a blueprint for developments further afield, is the fact that the landscape was prioritised and built first. The six-and-a-half-acre Mayfield Park opened its gates in September 2022 as the city’s first newly built city-centre park in a century.
Duncan Paybody from Studio Egret West, who led the landscape team that designed the park, says that when they first visited the site, they found an old station on top of a depot building. “The track beds were flourishing with buddleja and all these self-seeded species. There was a really strong sense of the past with these rusty beams and old railway tracks, but nature was finding its way and starting to take over the site,” he says. “In our eyes, it was already really beautiful, and it had something that Manchester is severely lacking in the city centre – open sky and nature. We saw the potential.”
The River Medlock is the focal point that ties the park together. Previously, it was largely covered by concrete culverts; stagnant and filled with everything from car batteries to toilet seats. Now, it’s more in keeping with its name, which means ‘meadow stream.’ In heavy rainfall, the river floods into the lower levels of the park, where bridges and jetties allow visitors to observe the new habitats that are now home to ducks, geese, herons and b
