Save Library Walk

Submitted ahead of the Public Inquiry 21 October 2014



7 August 2014



Dear Madam

Ref: FPS/B4215/5/8

STATEMENT OF CASE REGARDING THE CITY OF MANCHESTER LIBRARY WALK FOOTPATH, MANCHESTER CITY CENTRE PUBLIC PATH STOPPING UP ORDER 2014

I wish to object to the closure of Library Walk, as a Manchester resident and library user for a number of reasons. Firstly, I believe its proposed closure represents a loss to the public realm of the city. Secondly, the manner in which it is being carried through sets a very bad precedent for the protection of public space. Lastly, the link which has been constructed across the right of way damages the architectural integrity of one of the finest ensembles of twentieth century urban design in Manchester.

Having reviewed the statement produced on behalf of Manchester City Council I have the following points to make.

Improving Access to, Interconnectivity between, the Central Library and Town Hall Extension

In the Council’s statement (4.1.1) the original Library entrance is referred to as a ‘bottleneck’. Bearing in mind that the security of the Library collection is a significant factor in controlling the exit points the new link is itself likely to produce more ‘bottlenecks’. Presumably there will have to be security barriers from the Library building, and there will be users pausing to decide whether the services they require are located in the Library or Town Hall Extension, interrupting the proposed flow between the two buildings. There will also be the continuance of pedestrians and mobility impaired persons exercising their right of way along Library Walk while negotiating two sets of doors. This situation would appear to be the definition of a bottleneck, especially as the Council’s statement anticipates increased use of Library Walk during opening hours.

Visible New Entrance

While the statement makes the claim that the new link will improve access to the Library and the Town Hall Extension it would appear to be a contradiction that the new link is described (4.4) as ‘unlikely to have any visual impact’. Given the importance placed on the siting of the new tram stops and the importance of visibility from them, the present entrance to the Town Hall Extension and the magnificent portico of the Library will remain the more visible entrances to both buildings.

Retaining Library Walk’s Architectural Heritage

The premature construction of the glazed link has allowed some chance to assess the damage done to the seamless experience of Library Walk enjoyed by Mancunians and visitors for several decades. Broadly the link is darker and heavier than pre-construction images indicated. The intrusive ceiling of the link blocks a key view of the sky, and the reflections in the curved glass walls create a degree of distracting visual disturbance which introduces an alien element into the prospect from St. Peter’s Square. It is reassuring that the effects of this unfortunate construction can be reversed as described under 4.4.

Crime and Disorder

The potential risk of crime and anti-social behaviour which is cited as a reason to close Library Walk between 10.00pm and 6.00am every night will surely be minimised by the 24 hour Greater Manchester Police presence in the new facility within the Town Hall Extension itself, on the corner of Mount Street and Lloyd Street (4.6). If incidents occur the police response should therefore be speedier and it might be assumed that the GMP presence on site will itself have a deterrent effect.

Objections

Because the planning proposals to construct the Library Walk Link were published sometime after the footpath was closed for the building works related to the listed buildings, the route was already effectively closed meaning that the full impact the proposed arrangements would have was obscured. The premature construction of the link has alerted many individuals to a potential loss of their rights of way.

It is unclear what the situation will be regarding the opening of Library Walk on Sundays and Bank Holidays when the Library and Town Hall Extension are both closed. It would be useful if this could be clarified during the Inquiry.



Yours faithfully





Eamonn Canniffe MA Dip. Arch. (Cantab)




photograph: Rebecca King

Objection to the stopping up of Library Walk, Manchester

26 February 2014

Liz Treacy
City Solicitor
PO Box 532
Town Hall
Manchester
M60 2LA

Ref L/NJM/EVD5001/1080


Dear Ms Treacy

I write to express my unwavering opposition to the CITY OF MANCHESTER LIBRARY WALK FOOTPATH, MANCHESTER CITY CENTRE PUBLIC PATH STOPPING UP ORDER 2014.

Library Walk is an integral part of E.Vincent Harris's projects to enhance the civic quarter of Manchester, and his two buildings (both now listed as Grade II*) exert through their materials, forms and silhouette a strong impact on the broader cityscape. The space which joins his two powerful buildings should not, therefore, be regarded as an accidental oversight which requires remedying, but as the conscious creation of a beautiful pedestrian walk between two fine and contrasting elevations which unfold before the observer. Depending on the route taken, Library Walk acts as a dynamic frame both for St. Peter's Square, currently undergoing a major redesign, and the facade of the Friends Meeting House. This urban sequence is a unique feature of Manchester's townscape which the city can ill afford to lose.

The proposed gating of Library Walk and the insertion of a glazed link within it will clearly hinder access to this hitherto public route in the city. The unfortunate decision to create a link at ground level, in addition to the new link created between the Library and the Town Hall Extension below grade in the recent refurbishment projects, is both superfluous and detrimental to policies to enhance access to public space and the permeability of routes within the city.

During the construction process for the Library and the Town Hall extension it was necessary for Library Walk to be closed to public access. Following the successful completion of the projects it is therefore the duty of Manchester City Council to return Library Walk to full public use, and not the limited hours proposed in the Order. Failure to do so will lead to a very bad precedent being set in regard to its continuing role as a planning authority.

As an experienced academic I have had the pleasure over decades of taking hundreds of international visitors around Manchester and showing them many great buildings and, inevitably, a few horrors. Library Walk was always a highlight, and the groups confirmed that it was a uniquely delightful urban space which has few precedents. Should the Stopping Up Order be approved this innovative spatial experience will be lost to visitors and residents alike, in favour of creating yet another example of dead public space, which, when its gates are open, will inevitably be occupied by smokers banned from the neighbouring buildings. The recent installation of the misshapen roof of the link, which is visually much more dominant than was shown in the architects' drawings, demonstrates very clearly the folly of closing up this public right of way, and I hope this Order will not be approved.

Yours sincerely


Eamonn Canniffe MA Dip.Arch. (Cantab)
Programme Leader
MA Architecture + Urbanism
Manchester School of Architecture

from a photograph by Shirley Bainbridge

Regarding the proposed obstruction of LIBRARY WALK

Dear Sirs

I wish to object to the proposed plan to construct an obstructing pavilion in Library Walk, thereby rendering this important pedestrian route redundant. I write as an internationally recognised expert in urban design, but more importantly as a citizen of Manchester, and it is the civic amenity of Library Walk which I wish to defend from an act of wholly unnecessary vandalism.

Since the construction of the Central Library and the Town Hall Extension this route has been a convenient path for citizens between two major public places, namely Albert Square and St. Peter's Square. It was a pedestrian route decades before pedestrianisation became a vogue in urban design.

But E.Vincent Harris's skill went beyond the prosaically utilitarian. Citizens were offered a unique aesthetic experience which Manchester City Council should seek to protect. The narrowing of the space adds a sense of anticipation to the route in either direction, because it is clearly a very carefully integrated piece of architectural and urban composition of the highest calibre. The controlled views that terminate the route, either that of the restrained nineteenth century neoclassicism of the Friends' Meeting House or the sublime and timeless monumental composition of the Cenotaph are a unique twentieth century contribution to Manchester's genius loci. The unfolding view was identified as a key attribute to townscape and here Manchester has a supreme example if the City Council would but realise it.

As architectural designs Harris's two buildings are completely resolved in their own terms despite their differing aesthetic languages, a level of completion which was entirely typical of the era in which they were built. The careful geometric composition of the urban space between them is also fully resolved. This completion leads to aesthetic problems for any proposed intervention since it will inevitably take the form of a dissonant and jarring obstruction in an environment which is governed by proportion.

The current proposal commits a number of errors, providing ample opportunity for litter to gather in the narrow corners created, relying on the transparency of the glass to reduce the visual impact of the obstruction when precisely this material will attract pollution staining, and the inevitable visual clutter of warning signs and administrative detritus which will accumulate. But the worst error of all is that the proposal creates cul de sacs, types of space which are fundamentally anti-urban in character. Permeability of urban fabric is a key tenet of successful urban design, a lesson which this current proposal has not learnt, and which will be negated by the proposed construction of gates.

I therefore urge Manchester City Council to reconsider, and furthermore to recognise that Library Walk is a unique urbanistic asset where Harris was right first time.

Yours faithfully

Eamonn Canniffe M.A. Dip. Arch (Cantab)
Programme Leader, MA in Architecture + Urbanism
Manchester School of Architecture