Case Study: Breathing Life Back Into Soil
Where Even Weeds Wouldn't Grow
Situated in Manchester’s bustling city centre, Sackville Street Gardens is the location for numerous events during the year - most notably, the city’s gay pride celebrations over the August Bank Holiday.
The site was purchased by the City Council in 1900 and today is a valuable and vibrant green resource for city-centre workers, local residents and visitors.
Sackville Street Gardens has a formal ornamental garden character comprised of amenity grassland, trees, herbaceous bedding areas and structural flowerbed planting. The site accommodates access routes and is home to a life size silicon bronze memorial to computer pioneer Alan Turing, presenting him sitting on a bench.
City workers, tourists, city centre residents and students predominantly use the site as a relaxation garden and for hosting small and diverse cultural events. The park experiences significant wear and tear.
Pre-2004, the Gardens had deteriorated badly and the quality of the soil was so poor – “even weeds wouldn’t grow there” ( Barry Noble, Head of Leisure, Manchester City Council).
