Arndale Centre

Despite the need for development, the Arndale was, alongside projects like Birmingham Bullring, one of the worst aesthetic disasters to be smashed into a Northern city. It wreaked further damage on the surrounding streets. It soon gained nicknames, least worst of which was ‘the cream bun’. However, the Arndale represented reality. It’s been very successful, to this day. In 1996, the largest bomb detonated outside WWII blew the facade of this immense structure to fragments. Representatives of the city council have argued they were moving to reconstruct the centre, but the Arndale again became a symbol in the story that this event was where a rebuild started. It’s often forgotten that the Arndale is the eighth largest shopping centre in the UK. Nowadays it has the remodelled facade, inside is clean and bland, with representation by every high street store in England. It has also an undeniably huge 41 million footfall, so is perhaps the most honest symbol of Manchester as is.