Over the next ten years, the landmark 24-acre Mayfield site around the disused Mayfield Station near Piccadilly will be transformed into a vibrant, inclusive mixed-use gateway destination, comprising 1,300 homes, 75,000 sq m of office space, a 350-bedroom hotel, retail and leisure facilities.
Development partner and regeneration specialist U+I say Mayfield will be ‘a place that reverberates with history and is invigorated by contemporary creativity.’
A team from U+I attended a conference in France this week where they outlined their vision for Mayfield and premiered a specially-commissioned film and a poem by local performance poet Argh Kid.
The film and poem are an interpretation of the vision for the transformation of Mayfield, which has been largely derelict for 30 years.
“The poem sums up everything Manchester means to me and is – Utopia with attitude,” says David Scott aka Argh Kid.
“I love this city and its people. The poem was a collection of writing over the years. I write lines as and when they arrive and then sit down to put them together in a jigsaw style and this was a collection of my ‘snapshots’ of Mancunia over the years.”
Manchester’s Sprawling
Clouds Burst in the Grey-Slate Skies… Creativity Rains, Possibilities Pour
over the population of This United City, that has so much to answer for.
Manchester’s Sprawling…
A Haven for Heathens. Hoodies and Hipsters. Hijabis and Hebrews.
Highbrow Intellectuals and How-ever-you-sex-uals … It’s Home for All.
And All’s Welcome, in this migrant’s melting pot where every smell, sound and taste is on tap.
From Jamaican Jerk to Gourmet Chip Barms
We do things differently, we do it with Rebellious Charm
Radical Courage; Riotous Class.
An illustrious future built on an industrious past:
Welcome to Manchester – Catalyst Capital of Earth.
Where Brains Meets Balls to birth World Firsts.
Cotton Mills, Canal Boats, Peterloo, Ancoats, LS Lowry and Steam Trains
Bouncing Bombs, Burning Bras, Henry Royce, Pankhurst and Marx – paved The Mancunian Way
Now Miraculous Medicinal Machines, Music, Art and Graphene break new ground today
For innovation, audacity and imagination is the make-up of our DNA
And Tomorrow? Who knows, but as the saying goes
History likes to repeat herself, so in the future who’d be anywhere else
Than here…
Where everyone has the Power of Possibility
Where ideas and ambitions are probability
Where things get done for others to follow
Where opportunities flow and communities grow…
Defiantly Mancunian.
Globe Defining.
Definitely Mayfield
Follow David Scott (ARGH KiD) @arghkid