Artist’s impression of Albert Square David Fricker. Courtesy of Darnton EGS
A mysterious space underneath Manchester's Arndale shopping centre has been identified as the initial stages of a long forgotten underground railway through the city centre. According to Martin Dodge from The University of Manchester and Richard Brook from the Manchester School of Architecture, the `void' was the beginnings of a station intended to be part of a 2.3 mile-long route. The space - forgotten for decades and closed off to the public but rediscovered by the two lecturers - is under Topshop about 30 feet below the surface and was built to link the Arndale to the new station. A new book published today containing Architects' drawings and previously unseen maps of the "Picc-Vic" tunnel form part of a special exhibition curated by the two academics. The exhibition - called Infra_MANC - shows how Manchester was a stone's throw away from a brave new world of helipads, multiple urban motorways, tunnels and moving pavements. The proposals for Manchester's tube railway advanced over 20 years, culminated in the receipt of Parliamentary powers in 1972 and formal plans to commence construction works in September 1973 with a target completion date of 1978. Three underground stations below the Central Library, Whitworth Street and a brand new station under the junction of Market Street and Cross Sreet to serve the Arndale Centre and the surrounding commercial area would have been built.
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