Following what very well may be "the summer" we had a stroll around New Islington in the sunshine. It's safe to say that although building sites are slowly springing into life once more, even if for most their immediate fate is to become yet another car park, New Islington has a long way to go. But with the park opening in summer this year and work starting on MAE's affordable housing scheme (visit website) there is at least some action after what has felt like a long time in hibernation.
The advertising boards happily display "the cunning plan", a contemporary master plan jam-packed with everything one would need in a community close to the city centre. But amongst others, the promise of "the best place to eat and drink in Manchester" shows no signs of fulfilment, although, on a day like today the area certainly comes to life with a quiet gathering of cyclists and picnickers claiming their spot by the canal. As for the fruits of the cunning plan, we will have to wait a few years yet to see.
Yesterday, there was an open day at ISIS development, Islington Wharf. Though the apartments don't have the same intelligence applied to their spatial configurations, the upkeep of the building as a whole has been much better managed than neighbouring Chips. Over the past 18 months, the Will Alsop designed block has slowly become a target for vandals inside and out, a monthly residents meeting often with a local police officer in attendance offering an alternative to Islington Wharf's Friday lunch time residents get together and generous communal garden area.
Which brings me onto my next thought. In general, the area as a whole is well respected by residents old and new but issues are rising as a result of dead building plots. Some weeks ago, graffiti on ISIS billboards read "I cannot sleep in this sea of concrete", to be covered hastily by the developers prior to yesterdays event. This is a rather apt metaphor for the New Islington we see today, a banal canvas decorated with a few semi-successful developments, covered with a promise of greenery, nature and community in order to sell apartments aimed at young professionals. Even now as I look out of the window there's action on the building site but it's safe to say it's not the builders! (although, admittedly, it does look like fun).
