Mayfield Manchester – a Hive of Activity

The early part of the year saw the Mayfield Partnership bring forward a revised Strategic Development Framework for the transformation of Mayfield over the next 10 years.

Essentially a blueprint for the future development of the site, the plans proposed the creation of a new 6.5 acre public park alongside world-class residential and office development over a number of phases, each subject to their own detailed planning applications.

The process gave us a brilliant opportunity to talk about our plans – and listen to your feedback and ideas – as we welcomed hundreds of Mancunians from all walks of life at our Public Consultation events in Ardwick, Piccadilly Gardens and in Mayfield’s Arches. We were delighted to meet so many people and build our understanding of what Mayfield means to the people who will live, work and play here over the coming decades.

The formal approval of the new regeneration framework for Mayfield from Manchester City Council came in May and was the start of an exciting new chapter in Mayfield’s history. It came just 11 months after the re-opening of part of the Mayfield site as GRUB food fair,

GRUB, which returned to the Gatehouse on Baring Street in the summer, continued to be an incredibly popular destination for the region’s most exciting street food traders, and of course a magnet to more than 85,000 hungry foodies in 2018, an increase of more than 20% on 2017.

2018 will of course be remembered for the long hot summer and by Mancunians for the swarm of more than 100 giant multi-coloured bees, whose journey across Manchester began here at Mayfield.

The iconic, eye-catching and individual bees were decorated by artists before at their hive – one of the empty warehouses on Mayfield – before they went on show to the public for the Bee In the City trail – a fund-raising public art exhibition.

Bee In the City was an incredible success story and really captured the imagination of people, from Manchester and beyond. A recent report into the economic and social impacts of Bee in the City found that more than 3 million people saw Manchester’s art trail of Bees, which had a total economic impact of ￡33.5 million, contributing ￡10.2 million of GVA to the local economy.

After the nine-week trail the giant Bees were auctioned for the Lord Mayor of Manchester’s We Love MCR Charity, raising an incredible £1.1m.

Through the autumn and winter Mayfield continued to an important location for culture and entertainment.

First, thanks to our ongoing partnership and support for Manchester International Festival we were delighted to host the world premiere of German artist Heiner Geobbels’ Everything That Happened and Would Happen’ in October.

Described by one reviewer as a “mesmeric multimedia piece encompassing more than a century of European warfare and societal shifts”, ‘Everything That Happened’, was followed soon after by a sell-out gig from Bugzy Malone – the Manchester-based rapper, known as The Grime King of the North.

Our busy autumn schedule continued with the terrifying temporary invasion of Mayfield Station by Octoplasm – one of a number of giant monsters who landed on iconic buildings in Manchester for Halloween.

Then, before the festive season began the Depot hosted Man on a Bench – an important new piece of work curated by the Museum of Homelessness – exploring the link between art and homelessness.

As the thoughts turned to Christmas, part of Mayfield was transformed into a stunning winter wonderland for the Magical Christmas Movie Experience.

The Mayfield Partnership was again delighted to be ‘Mission HQ’ for Hits Radio’s annual Cash for Kids charity appeal. During November and December thousands of toys and gifts arrived at Mayfield from across the North West for distribution to the less privileged members of our community.

The attraction proved to be hugely popular with visitors of all ages. One highlight for us was the special showing of Polar Express for 100 children from Medlock Primary School in neighbouring Ardwick.

It’s been a fantastic year for Mayfield, and we wish all our visitors, both physical and to this site a great Christmas and happy new year.

See you in 2019.