The Mancunian Way: Manchester’s Guggenheim (2025)

The building that will be so cool ‘people will just hang around’ outside PLUS Last man standing in the way of demolition

Hello,

Like me, you’ll probably remember Castlefield’s Lower Campfield Hall as the home of the Museum of Science and Industry’s aerospace collection.

You could easily while away a few hours among the Bensen B-7M Gyrocopter, the Yokosuka Ohka and the Rolls-Royce Merlin at the Air and Space Hall. And like most Mancs, I was gutted when it closed in 2021.

In the four years since the shutters came down, the Lower hall has been renovated by Allied London. And bosses say it will be so cool once it’s finished that ‘people will just hang around’ outside.

As Ethan Davies reports, they’ve likened the Castlefield landmark to Bilbao’s Guggenheim museum - an art gallery which has stood as a symbol for the Spanish city since it opened in 1997, to acclaim from architects, locals, and visitors.

Allied London say the new ‘campus’, at Campfield Market in Castlefield, will have such strong cool credentials people will want to simply soak up the atmosphere, like hipsters do around the Basque gallery.

It will feature workspaces for media firms, and a central cafe-bar called 'Campfield House' serving 'artisanal coffee and light bites’ in the day, ‘world class cocktails’ and wine in the evening. Markets are set to return with food stalls at the weekend.

The grade-II listed Victorian buildings were once used as an exhibition and market halls, became a barrage balloon factory during the Second World War and later hosted the Science and Industry Museum’s aerospace collection.

It’s now understood the revamped Campfield will open in late June.

You can read all about the plans here.

Last man standing

It’s a lonely existence for Andy Roche and his partner, who are the last ones living on Rochdale’s so-called ‘sink estate’.

The flats at the Lower Falinge estate are set to be bulldozed - but Andy has no intention of going anywhere. He’s lived in the Zedburgh block since 1988 and he’s the only thing stopping it from being demolished.

Landlord Rochdale Boroughwide Housing wants to demolish the Ollerton, Newstead, Romsey, Quinton, Ullesthorpe, and Vaynor maisonette blocks. Their plans would see them grassed over whilst they prepare the next stage of redevelopment. They say the 1970’s buildings are no longer fit for purpose.

But Andy told reporter George Lythgoe the alternatives he has been offered just aren’t as good.

“The former Prime Minister David Cameron called us a sink estate in 2016, which was a bit offensive. He meant we were the poor people that can’t go anywhere else.

“Me and my partner don’t work because we’re both autistic and find it very difficult. For us these flats are ideal, because we have ground floor access and my partner has mobility issues.

“We get to have a one-bed flat, there are no communal areas, we can access them straight away. We like the layout of these. We’re not against regeneration, per say, but it’s about what their plan actually is and we just don’t know.”

You can read all about Andy’s campaign to save his home and life as ‘the last holdouts’ here.

Secret codes and tough conversations

Have you forgotten what it’s like to be a teenager? Dipti Tait says we all have to some extent and that’s why the prospect of what children are doing online seems so scary.

The psychotherapist and hypnotherapist has been speaking to reporter James Holt about her years working with teenagers and their parents following the national conversation started by the Netflix drama Adolescence.

"The internet and technology that so many fear isn't really the problem,” she says. “The problem is that adults have totally forgotten what it was like to be a teenager. I remember how it was, and all of those feelings you have.

"I didn't have the internet growing up like children do today, but I remember having secret codes, ways and means to get out of the bathroom window. We all had our ways of not letting our parents know what we were doing, much like today.

"It isn't the internet that has done this to the teenage brain. It's always been the same. For a neurotypical teenager, the normal brain function is that they are natural rulebreakers. None of them want to be controlled, repressed or stopped. Teenagers are natural thrill-takers, are defiant, and are rebellious.

"If you talk about the word 'safety' it isn't an interesting conversation for them. They will shut down and switch off. The big mother or father is talking about dangers again and they won't want to hear it. So, they stop respecting. And when we lose respect, we lose trust."

Dipti has provided some useful tips and advice to parents, teachers and guardians about how to approach difficult conversations with children and the science behind those rows. You can read them here.

A ‘catastrophic failure’

An alleged attack on prison officers by Manchester bomb plotter Hashem Abedi has been labelled a ‘catastrophic failure’ of duty by the Justice Secretary in a letter from one of the survivors.

Martin Hibbert says he was ‘absolutely disgusted – beyond words’ to hear about the attack at HMP Frankland in County Durham on Saturday.

The Ministry of Justice said it will carry out a review after three guards were attacked with hot oil and homemade weapons. Access to kitchens has been suspended for inmates in separation and close supervision units.

In an open letter to Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Mr Hibbert said the attack was ‘a catastrophic failure of your duty to protect prison staff and the public from an unrepentant terrorist’.

“I’m not just angry. I’m broken by this,” he wrote in a letter posted to social media. “And I am furious that the pain of survivors like me is being so blatantly disrespected by your inaction.”

You can read more here.

Trick of the eye

There’s a tiny little museum on Market Street - and it’s the perfect place to take the kids during the Easter holidays.

Our Parents editor Emma Gill has been down to have a look and says The Museum of Illusions is well worth a visit. It boasts exhibits ranging from holograms and optical tricks to full-scale illusion rooms and playful mirror displays.

Read all about it here.

Headlines

Fine: A TikToker was fined after ‘parking for six minutes with the wrong ticket’ in Manchester. Creator Zoë Bread parked on Collier Street, in Castlefield, last week and received a £50 fine for making what she calls a ‘common’ error. She’s now working to get it cancelled.

Disruption: People who are planning to travel by train over the Easter weekend are warned to ‘check before they travel’ as there will be disruption in Greater Manchester due to engineering works. More here.

Tower: A ‘landmark’ building in Oldham could be transformed into a hotel. The 15-storey Civic Centre tower could soon host more than 120 visitors, if plans submitted to the council are approved. Details here.

Weather

Thursday: Sunny intervals changing to partly cloudy by nighttime. 14C.

Roads: A572 St Helens Road southbound, Leigh, closed due to roadworks from A578 Twist Lane to Bonnywell Road until June 30.

Worth a read

With women's underwear hanging from the ceiling, a skeleton in a coffin and a toilet in the middle of the bar - Tommy Ducks was a place unlike any other.

Nostalgia writer Lee Grimsditch has been looking back at Manchester’s most infamous pub, which was reduced to a pile of rubble overnight, much to the horror of its regulars.

You can read all about the much-loved and much-missed place here.