Geograph - photograph every grid square

During the 1960s. ‘70s and ‘80s, Manchester was a run-down, dreary and depressing place. There were many derelict buildings, mainly ex-industrial mills and warehouses, but there was still some vibrancy to Manchester, especially in the Northern Quarter. It wasn’t until the 1996 IRA bomb that the widespread regeneration project finally began. However, compared to the relatively easily demolished or renovated areas in the rest of the city centre, the Northern Quarter sat on the historic border of industrial, commercial and residential life. Its history and architecture provided a unique and distinctive physical character so that demolition meaning regeneration of the Northern Quarter had to focus on ‘clean up’ rather than ‘build new’.

‘A New Broom’ is represents the “cleaning up” of the Northern Quarter in the 1990s. The painted steel and stone sculpture, by George Wyllie, stands on the corner of John Street and Thomas Street. It was commissioned by the Northern Quarter Project and Manchester City Council and unveiled in 1999 and as part of the public arts program to mark the end of the huge regeneration of the area in the late 1990s.