Manchester Millennium
On Saturday 15 June 1996, the largest bomb ever detonated by the IRA on mainland Britain exploded on Corporation Street, between Marks & Spencer and the Arndale Centre. The blast damaged a large part of the city, destroying more than 1.5 million square feet of retail and office space. Remarkably, no lives were lost.
While devastating, the attack ultimately triggered one of the most ambitious urban regeneration projects of its time. In many ways, the post bomb regeneration of the city centre became a catalyst for much of the development that followed – accelerating the transformation of a city that already had ambition and aspiration for the future, as evidenced by bids for the 1984 and 1990 Olympics and, successfully, for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the ongoing (in 1996) regeneration of Hulme, and the successful public / private delivery of landmark projects such as the Bridgewater Hall, the Velodrome, and the new arena at Victoria Station.
In the aftermath of the bomb, there was a collective determination to seize the opportunity for further transformation, not simply to rebuild what had been lost, but to reimagine this part of the city entirely. Manchester City Council established the Manchester Millennium Task Force and within days of the bomb the Deputy Prime Minister, Sir Michael Heseltine, had announced an international design competition to find a team to guide the city centre’s reconstruction. They sought a range of ideas and imaginative concepts to take the city into the new Millennium.
The Competition & Masterplan
We gathered a team including landscape architects / urban designers EDAW, engineering consultant Alan Baxter (Martin Stockley), retail specialist Benoy, and regeneration consultant Johnson UDC to respond to the competition invitation, and were one of 5 teams shortlisted and given 6 weeks to produce design proposals. Our winning proposal established a clear and deliverable vision that sought to address not only the repair of the damage, but also long-standing issues within the urban fabric.
We took the opportunity to create New Cathedral Street, a new pedestrian connection between the modern day commercial core and the historic medieval centre of the city, around Hanging Ditch and Manchester Cathedral, which had been broken by the monolithic ‘Shambles West’ development in the 1960’s. It was this simple and clear move that caught the attention of the jury.
The regeneration also looked to provide extensive open public space, creating a new setting for valuable historic buildings and significant new developments.
The creation of Exchange Square and New Cathedral Street, alongside the reimagined Millennium Quarter, introduced a network of open, accessible public realm. Two historic buildings - The Old Wellington Inn and Sinclair's Oyster Bar - were carefully moved into a new location, facilitating the new connection, and allowing them to sit within a more coherent and legible urban setting.
The strategy combined retail, commercial, residential and civic uses, creating a mixed-use environment designed for a contemporary city. It was as much about experience as it was about infrastructure - prioritising walkability, connectivity and the quality of public space.
The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment would later describe the Millenium Masterplan as an “unmitigated success in terms of public space, cultural, leisure, shopping, residential and business uses […] greatly rewarding the confidence and vision displayed in this rare comprehensive redevelopment within a commercially vibrant city centre.”
Rebuilding a Living City
Sites within the core were optimised and new uses introduced, but the regeneration was not just about buildings - it was about people. At the time of the bombing, fewer than 400 people lived in Manchester city centre. The masterplan seized the opportunity to promote residential development as a fundamental component of the city’s future and proposed the first new build private residential development of scale and height in the city centre. We were appointed to design this project, which was ultimately delivered as No.1 Deansgate for Crosby Homes. It would be the tallest building in the city since construction of the CIS building in 1962, and a trailblazer for the significant expansion of the city’s residential population that was to follow.
We were also successful in winning a separate open international competition, seeking a design team for a cultural building to mark the Millennium, with proposals for Urbis, a museum of the modern city, with cascading internal galleries and expressive glass envelope creating a dynamic civic landmark. Completed in 2002, Urbis, which later became the National Football Museum, embodies the ambition of the city’s post-1996 regeneration and helped to position Manchester as a cultural destination.
A Lasting Legacy
The speed and ambition of Manchester’s reconstruction were widely recognised. The rebuilt city centre was delivered to universal acclaim, demonstrating how a clear and confident masterplan could drive the recovery of a devastated urban area.
More than that, it set a new trajectory.
The regeneration accelerated Manchester’s broader ambition to reinvent the city as a destination - not only as a centre for commerce and retail, but as a place to live, work and experience leisure and cultural activities. It embodied a distinctly Mancunian resilience: a “can do” attitude that embraced change and turned adversity into opportunity.
Today, the impact of the Millennium Masterplan is unmistakable. It established the framework for the ambitious, globally recognised city that Manchester has become - a place defined by connectivity, diversity and continual evolution.
We are honored to have played a part in the City’s transformation into one of the UK’s most dynamic, resilient and fast-growing cities.
Manchester Then & Now – Photography Exhibition
A photographic exhibition is taking place throughout June to showcase how Manchester has evolved throughout the three decades since the IRA bombing. The exhibition has been developed by Euan Kellie Property Solutions in collaboration with Luma Marketing and is being hosted at the Material Source studio.
Visit the exhibition from 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday, at Material Source Studio, 1 Federation Street, Manchester, M4 4BF, from 4-30 June 2026. No booking required. Full details.