MediaCityUK

MediaCityUK sits on Salford Quays, the redeveloped dockland on the north bank of the Manchester Ship Canal in the City of Salford, part of the wider Greater Manchester conurbation. The land was formerly part of the Port of Manchester's Manchester Docks, which closed as shipping declined; Salford Quays as a whole was one of the UK's first large-scale waterfront regeneration projects [1][2]. The BBC signalled its intention to move jobs out of London in 2004, and in June 2006 it selected the Salford Quays site for what became the "BBC North" project [1][3]. Developer Peel Media, working with contractor Bovis Lend Lease, won planning permission in 2007 and began construction the same year on a 200-acre mixed-use scheme spanning the boroughs of Salford and Trafford [1]. The first 36-acre phase was completed in 2011. Three BBC buildings on the site, Bridge House, Dock House and Quay House, designed by Wilkinson Eyre, provide around 450,000 square feet of office space [1]. Five London-based BBC departments transferred to Salford from 2011: Sport, Children's, Learning, Future Media and Technology, and Radio Five Live, followed by BBC Breakfast the same year [1]. The BBC Philharmonic orchestra's purpose-built Philharmonic Studio at dock10, completed in October 2010, became the orchestra's permanent home from May 2011 [10]. ITV followed the BBC north. ITV Granada completed its initial relocation to MediaCityUK on 25 March 2013 [1]. Separately, Coronation Street production moved from the long-standing Granada Studios site on Quay Street in central Manchester to a new purpose-built set on a 7.7-acre site at Trafford Wharf, next to the Imperial War Museum North; the move was approved by Trafford Council's planning committee in February 2011 and filming began at the new set in 2013 [4]. Around 750 ITV staff work at MediaCityUK today [1]. Television and radio production at MediaCityUK is centred on dock10, a purpose-built studio complex officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012, combining ten studios totalling more than 43,000 square feet, the largest purpose-built TV studio complex in the UK [9]. The University of Salford is the only UK university with a campus inside MediaCityUK; its School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology moved teaching to the site from October 2011 and now runs Film, TV and Media, Creative Digital Media and Gaming, and Journalism degrees there, in the 11-storey Orange Tower designed by Sheppard Robson, which it shares with ITV [1][8]. MediaCityUK connects to Trafford Wharf by the MediaCityUK footbridge, a Wilkinson Eyre-designed cable-stayed swing footbridge that opened in May 2011 [1]. The development's five-acre piazza has a public screen and hosts community events through the year, including the annual Lightwaves Salford light-art festival each December and the summer "We Invented the Weekend" event [12]. The wider Salford Quays waterfront, of which MediaCityUK forms part, was built around the former dock basins of Manchester Docks. The Lowry, an arts centre on Pier 8 overlooking the water, opened to the public on 28 April 2000 and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II that October; it houses the 1,730-seat Lyric Theatre, the 466-seat Quays Theatre and a smaller Studio space, alongside galleries holding a major collection of work by the Salford-born painter L. S. Lowry [5]. Next to it, the Lowry Outlet is a discount shopping centre with around 80 stores, a food court and a cinema [13]. Across the water on Trafford Wharf Road, in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford rather than Salford, the Imperial War Museum North was designed by architect Daniel Libeskind around a "shattered globe" concept of three interlocking shards and opened to the public in July 2002, the first branch of the Imperial War Museum built in the north of England [6][7]. Salford Watersports Centre, based in the docks at Salford Quays, runs open water swimming, wakeboarding and stand-up paddleboarding sessions and hosts triathlon training and events in the water once used by cargo ships [11]. In November 2024, ownership of MediaCityUK passed from Peel Group to Landsec [1]. Sources: [1] MediaCityUK, Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaCityUK [2] MediaCity and Salford Quays, Salford City Council - https://www.salford.gov.uk/planning-building-and-regeneration/regeneration/mediacity-and-salford-quays [3] BBC North, Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_North [4] Coronation Street move approved by Trafford Council, BBC News - https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12433377 [5] The Lowry, Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lowry [6] Imperial War Museum North, Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_War_Museum_North [7] Getting Here, IWM North - https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-north/getting-here [8] MediaCity, University of Salford - https://www.salford.ac.uk/salford-school-of-arts-media-and-creative-technology/mediacity [9] Her Majesty the Queen Officially Opens The Studios at MediaCityUK, dock10 - https://www.dock10.co.uk/about/news/her-majesty-the-queen-officially-opens-the-studios-at-mediacityuk/ [10] BBC Philharmonic, Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Philharmonic [11] Salford Watersports Centre - https://salfordwatersports.com/ [12] Events, MediaCityUK - https://www.mediacityuk.co.uk/events/ [13] Lowry Outlet Mall, Visit North West - https://www.visitnorthwest.com/malls/lowry-outlet-mall/

Photo: MediaCityUK buildings at Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, viewed from the waterside by Rept0n1x, CC BY-SA (multi-license: CC BY-SA 3.0/2.5/2.0/1.0 and GFDL 1.2+)