St. Georges Island

Manchester has seen significant regeneration and development over the past few decades with a particular focus on the upper reaches of the Manchester Ship Canal which, with the downturn of the Manchester Docks, became surplus to operational requirements. Much of this activity has been focused around the Castlefield Basin area.

St. Georges Island is the next major area of redevelopment located between Castlefield and Cornbrook / Pomona areas. The area has a direct frontage to the Manchester Ship Canal albeit that the construction of heavy and light rail viaducts have significantly impacted upon the area’s permeability.

Areas of the St. Georges Island have already seen significant development, most notably for residential use. The remainder of the site at present remains undeveloped, consisting predominantly of the viaducts which are owned by Peel. Peel’s aspiration is to bring the area back into a vibrant mix of uses making the most of its location in terms of proximity to major centres and the waterside environment. We are promoting circa 10,000 square metres of managed workspace and a leisure scheme to complement those areas which have already been completed.

The area is extremely important to the linkages along the Canal corridor. It is already one of the major crossing points linking Salford and Manchester and also one of the key linkage areas into the city centre.

There are already a number of initiatives to promote the improvement of these areas. The principal scheme is Irwell City Park and the completion of a scheme at St. Georges is a key catalyst to this initiative and to the improvement of security and permeability.

Peel will continue to work with all the Public Sector Partners to promote this area for high quality mixed use development and to bring this under utilised asset back into use as a significant economic driver to the Ocean Gateway.