Why are companies leaving MediaCity?

On a “filthy day” in 1981, Felicity Goodey stood at the edge of Salford Docks and watched, in her words, the water “bubble with all sorts of noxious substances”. To anyone looking out at the abandoned docks, the idea that anyone might want to build anything here was bordering on insanity.

The architect Peter Hunter disagreed. “Look at the sky, look at the water,” he told Felicity. “This could be the most wonderful waterside development.” 

Hunter had a dream; not a humble dream. Where most saw an abandoned dockside wasteland, all abandoned warehouses and grimy waters, he saw the future, the sort of community most developers now strive to capture in their CGI renders; 30-somethings with media jobs and rictus grins strolling along by the water’s edge, outdoor swimmers, weekend paddleboarding, little rows of cafés and bars and people enjoying pints in the sun. 

Hunter’s optimism for Salford Docks could occasionally appear delusional, even to his own colleagues. Steven Pidwill, one of those colleagues, remembers the water in the docks was so polluted it would occasionally catch fire. “Most people thought the scheme was a hopeless, wild idea,” he told Place North West. It took the best part of three decades to get there (Salford City Council agreed to take on over two hundred acres of land and water for £30 million from the Manchester Shipping Canal Company in 1981, appointing Hunter to draw up a masterplan), and after years of dedicated effort, MediaCity was born from the fruits of those labours — home to five major BBC departments, ITV, small independent production companies, the Imperial War Museum North, the Lowry Centre and a cocktail bar that looks a bit like a spaceship where you can get drinks that for some reason come served in Bunsen burners.

 And so, when I catch up with a production executive working in Media City over the phone, I’m a little surprised to hear the following: “I think it’s failed. They never got the critical mass of companies and vibe — bars, restaurants.”