Victoria North: Manchester’s new city centre park officially opens

St Catherine’s Wood, Manchester’s latest city centre park, has officially opened to the public.

Transforming the previously underused wooded area, the major green space has been completed as part of the Victoria North regeneration programme.

The park forms a central part of plans for the emerging Red Bank neighbourhood, becoming a natural anchor for the future developments that will surround it in the coming years. New residents have already begun moving into the area, with proposals in place for over 5,000 more homes, as well as support for community and commercial uses.

The park signals the first phase of 113 acres of interconnected green spaces that will thread through the entire Victoria North regeneration programme, and future phases will include play equipment for young people as local homes are delivered.

Located alongside the River Irk, the park features fully accessible paths lined with gabion walling that wind up through the wood to an elevated plateau above, reached via stepped and circular walkways, with open spaces for relaxation and small events.

Boses say that the park promotes the ‘Wild Urbanism’ approach, a concept that will run throughout the Red Bank neighbourhood, and one that celebrates a more natural approach to green spaces, supporting biodiversity and expanding habitats for wildlife whilst blending the benefit of sustainable, urban living.

This includes significant new trees, featuring three endangered Manchester Poplar Trees, and a range of flowering plants and shrubs – while also retaining and protecting hundreds of existing trees across the park. The restored woodland has been designed to create a healthy, resilient and biodiverse environment across a layered structure that creates habitats for birds, insects and mammals.

The park also celebrates the history of the area, including retaining the original bridge access point over the River Irk on Collyhurst Road. Information boards share more about the plants across the site and the history of the neighbourhood, including the ‘Impossible Bridge’ made famous by L.S. Lowry, and the original church that closed in 1966 before being demolished, which gave its name to the wood.

Salvaged stone from the Our Town Hall project has also been saved and stored at the park to be used in future phases of the City River Park project.

Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Housing and Regeneration, said:   “This is a triumphal milestone for the Victoria North regeneration programme that is transforming this part of Manchester, while creating the latest city centre urban park.

“We know how important access to brilliant green spaces is to our residents and St Catherine’s Wood is the green heart to the major development across the Red Bank neighourhoods – as well as Collyhurst and Cheetham that are both on the doorstep of this fantastic new park.

“But this is just the first phase of the green investment. St Catherine’s Wood is the beginning of 113acres of green spaces that will make up the ambitious City River Park connecting the seven new and emerging neighbourhoods and 15,000 new homes over the next decade.

“Victoria North is a new town in our city – and St Catherine’s Wood is only a taste of what’s to come.”

Featured image: Red Bank

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