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City welcomes fantastic Hulme campus

Diggers begin on £139m Birley Fields project

Professor John Brooks starts the digging with Richard McAlpine, Sir Richard Leese and Sir Howard Bernstein

SIR RICHARD Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council today described the University's £139 million Birley Fields Campus in Hulme as the "final major building block in one of the UK’s most successful regeneration projects".

After decades of investment in housing and regeneration it is hoped the new Manchester Metropolitan University campus will be an active centre-piece for the community – a heart for Hulme, he said.

Speaking as he ‘cut the first sod’ on the massive two-year project alongside University Vice-Chancellor Professor John Brooks, Sir Richard said: “Where we are now stood was one of the worst housing areas in Europe, it was unliveable.

“Now people have come back to Hulme and it is a place and a story that the people of Manchester can be proud of.

World class

“This campus will be the last major building block of new Hulme and what a fantastic one it’s going to be.

“We’ve seen what MMU have done with their new Business School and here the city will have another world class resource, this one for nursing, teacher training, social work and the health professions.”

Professor John Brooks said the campus which replaces MMU campuses in Didsbury and Rusholme would be environmentally sustainable and highly innovative with electric car ‘pumps’, novel heat generation and enviro-townhouses for student residences.

“I can’t think of a better place that this to base our work in education and health,” he said.

Around 100 guests including local councillors and residents gathered to witness the ‘dig’ at the site adjacent to Princess Parkway and the Hulme  Arch.

Published Tuesday, 11th September 2012