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FIND OUT MOREThe new media factory
Salford Quays, once the port that fed the industrial revolution, is now shaping up to lead the digital revolution with the development of the UK's first purpose-built media city. Regeneration guru Felicity Goodey talks Evie Lucas through her vision of reinventing Salford Quays as the cradle of creativity of the future.
When the BBC announced last summer that it had chosen Salford Quays over Manchester city centre as the new location of five of its programming departments, many were shocked. But the woman who led Salford's bid was not one of them. How did this journalist-cum-entrepreneur-cum-regeneration heavyweight score one of the most talked about media coups of the decade?
Felicity Goodey looks blissfully at home in the cosy office from which she chairs the Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company. She puts down her tea cup, leans back against her chair and smiles confidently. "Under the previous director general it was recognised that if the BBC was going to continue to justify the licence fee, it had to decentralise. Manchester wooed them and persuaded them that this was the right place to decentralise to. So the decision to move some BBC departments from London to Manchester was taken a long time ago.
"But although the new director general, Mark Thompson, endorsed that decision, he also recognised that the digital revolution is fundamentally changing the future of communications. So rather than just up sticks and relocate those departments to the existing BBC site in Manchester city centre, Thompson asked his team to look at other potential solutions. And they identified a number of sites across Greater Manchester, two of which happened to be in central Salford. So we entered a competition.
"I suppose because I come from a media background I worked out that the client was probably looking for a media solution as opposed to just a shiny new BBC building. So we pitched a solution that enables the BBC to start to completely reshape itself for the future; a vision of the BBC being the catalyst for the creation of a globally significant new media city, which will compete with the best in the world. And that is why the BBC made the decision to come to us as opposed to any other site."
Well, that and the fact that Salford's proposed MediaCity:UK - a 200-acre state-of-the-art waterside development - looked stunning.
The colossal scheme in Salford Quays, on land owned by Peel Holdings, centres around a new iconic building for the BBC sitting on the waterfront opposite The Lowry. It comprises office space, a huge studio block, post production facilities and a custom-built recording studio for the BBC Philharmonic.
MediaCity:UK will also cater for other media and media-related organisations, large and small, with office space ranging from posh to cheap and cheerful.
Also on site will be a media research academy and a media skills institute, led by industry professionals, offering training opportunities and courses.
But MediaCity:UK is not designed solely for the purpose of shifting the media centre of gravity in the UK. A modern cityscape with narrow streets, squares, roof gardens, waterside bars and a public plaza twice the size of Trafalgar Square, it will also be a stunning place to call home and a fantastic holiday destination. A four-star hotel, more apartments and all the facilities city dwellers need - including a new NHS walk-in centre, restaurants, cafes, dry cleaners, nurseries and health clubs - should be in place by 2010.
The plan also envisions an extension of the Metrolink to the very heart of the development and an increase in the frequency of the tram service to and from Manchester.
And what about those unusual floating stages in the canal? Will they serve as concert stages?
Felicity Goodey bursts into a mischievous laughter. "If I'm perfectly honest, they were a bit of fun which came off the architect's drawing board, but we haven't the faintest clue what we're going to put in them, so all suggestions gratefully received.
"We will also have water taxis, incidentally, which will connect the Trafford Centre to the Quays and vice versa, and the Quays to Manchester city centre - hopefully all the way up to Harvey Nichols."
A passionate ambassador for the North West, Goodey has a ready answer to the inevitable question about why Greater Manchester is the right place to lead the digital revolution:
"Greater Manchester is one of the world's most innovative and creative areas. This is the place where we invented manufacturing. This is where we invented the world's first computer. This is where we split the atom. This is where we experimented with broadcasting in its very infancy. Manchester was a major broadcasting hub from the very earliest days."
Come again? "This is the birthplace of what is now ITV- Granada was the pioneer in independent broadcasting. But even before that, all the great light entertainment shows in the early days of television were made here in Manchester.
"When I first came up to Manchester 30 years ago, there was an enormously vibrant media community already here. In the days predating the existing Manchester BBC site, when the BBC was in Piccadilly, we covered all the great stories and serviced London. And every national newspaper had a major office in Manchester.
"It has amused me hugely that a lot of people in London have suggested that the media has always been centralised on London and that by creating a media city outside London we would destroy the industry. Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember the fact that the media once was indeed decentralised.
"So the notion that we are doing something counterintuitive is absolute hogwash. What we are doing is once again acknowledging that there resides across the whole North West of England an enormous reservoir of talent."
Goodey is not alone in her enthusiasm. Everyone recognises that MediaCity:UK will have a huge impact on the region's economy - it is estimated to create 15,500 jobs and generate £1 billion over five years. It will be a media hub significant enough to offer serious career opportunities and stop regional creative talent from relocating to London and abroad. And its impact will be felt across the world.
Goodey explains: "This is a national/international project, which happens to be in Salford, Greater Manchester. What we are creating here is an environment which attracts and retains creative people, and provides them with the tools, infrastructure and stimulus to be creative and innovative.
"Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, described MediaCity:UK as the new media factory. If we get this right, we will have an impact on the future development of new media that will be of global importance."
So the world's first industrial powerhouse is set to lead another global revolution, proving that Manchester is not calling itself 'Original Modern' for nothing, as Goodey argues:
"'Original Modern' could almost have been invented for MediaCity:UK. The development is on the site of what was the port of Manchester, which was built to fuel the industrial revolution by importing raw materials and exporting finished goods all over the world, and in the course of it, it changed the world. MediaCity:UK is following in those footsteps - importing talent and ideas and exporting new ways of communicating all over the world."
MediaCity:UK is currently a frantic construction site and although it may be difficult to imagine that this place, so far away from London, will soon start to determine what we watch and how we communicate, Felicity Goodey is confident that it is only a matter of time. Just over two years, to be more precise.