Urbanism
Environment
Design

info@urbed.coop

URBED were commissioned by Trafford Housing Trust, Trafford Council and Old Trafford Neighbourhood Management Board to prepare a masterplan for Old Trafford. The strange geography of Manchester means that the study area is adjacent to Hulme and within a few hundred meters of the city centre. It incorporates a variety of estates - ranging from Victorian terraces to 1970's tower blocks and Radburn style layouts.

The Old Trafford neighbourhood is a relatively impoverished but largely stable community that has avoided many of the problems that have historically affected the neighbouring areas in Manchester such as Hulme and Moss Side. The physical structure of the area is however very poor and the aim of the masterplan was to use the twin opportunities of Growth Point funding and Decent Homes spending to completely restructure the area, integrate it with its surroundings and turn it back into the sort of lively urban neighbourhood that it was in the past.

URBED’s approach to this type of work is to undertake it with the local community. This was very much part of our brief and was central to the study. The process started with a workshop in May 2008 and the masterplans were drawn up through a series of hands-on community workshops in June 2008 which resulted in plasticine models for each part of the area. As part of this we organised a bus tour for local people to take them to see other redevelopment areas in Greater Manchester. The models were developed into a series of options that were used as part of an exhibition and drop in sessions in September 2008. We also presented the options to the area partnership and to other local groups. Based on the findings of this work we arrived at the preferred option that is described in report.

The masterplan considered the future of nine tower blocks and concluded that 4 should be demolished (those known locally as the Bird Blocks) and five refurbished. This involved the demolition of 386 social housing units The masterplan proposed to replace the demolished apartments like-for-like but spread the new social housing apartments throughout the area to avoid a concentration in one area. Overallthe plan includes 1,358 new homes so that after the demolitions there is a net gain of 972 units. Of these units 834 were houses, 386 were social housing apartments and just 138 were new private apartments.

Since the completion of the plan a detailed viability plan has been undertaken funded by the HCA which has confirmed the viability of the proposals. The blocks to be demolished are being emptied and work has started on the refurbishment of the blocks to be retained.  

**UPDATE August 2016**: Across the masterplan around 300 new homes have been developed, helping to repair the urban fabric of the area. Four tower-blocks have been demolished and a further five refurbished at Tamworth Park. The demolished apartments have been replaced with new social housing spread throughout the area, to avoid concentration.

A new Church and Refectory have been built on Shrewsbury Street and a mixed use development (assisted living, housing, nursery, community and health centre) called Limelight is under construction next door, due to be completed in 2017.

62 new homes 29 houses and 33 2-bed flats have been built at Essex Way and new apartments have also been built across Stretford Road called the Rivers, with a further 36 under construction at Lucy Street/ City Road. 

Trafford Housing Trust's own website holds a useful overview of what is happening in each estate: http://www.traffordhousingtrust.co.uk/your-community/old-trafford-master-plan/