GM10: Seeking the ten best 20th century buildings across Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is the third largest metropolitan area in the UK with a population of 2.8 million. The Greater Manchester region is constituted of 10 boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the cities of Manchester and Salford. These 10 boroughs have inevitably shaped Manchester’s city region into a city recognised globally for music, art and football. Shelagh Delaney brought influence to drama from Salford, Brian Cox to science from Oldham. There are countless bands with roots in Manchester’s outer boroughs, for example Joy Division, New Order, Oasis and The Smiths. It’s time we acknowledge that Greater Manchester is more than Manchester city centre. 

The Manchester Modernist Society aim to do that with their new project, GM10.

GM10 is a new project from the Manchester Modernist Society: their mission is to find the top ten 20th century buildings in the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester. The Modernist Society is asking for the public’s help to seek out their favourite examples of 20th century architecture and each week the selected buildings will be posted on the GM10 website. www.gm-10.org

Jack Hale and Eddy Rhead of the Manchester Modernist Society said “From the Turnpike Library in Leigh, to the church of St Raphael the Archangel in Stalybridge, there are many 20th century gems across Greater Manchester, we’d love it if the public helped us find some that we didn’t previously know about”.

The website is currently live and accepting submissions for buildings in Wigan, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Oldham. Submissions will open for the other Greater Manchester boroughs in due time, so “hold onto your hats”.

Following this public call out for the best landmark 20th century building in each of Greater Manchester’s ten boroughs, the Manchester Modernists will lead a two-part bus tour of the chosen spots – with five buildings in five boroughs covered in each tour. Booking for both tours is now open on Eventbrite. The first tour will be on 27th May and the second on 24th June. Tickets are £10 each (not including booking fee).

The bus tour event will be part of the Humanities in Public Festival 2016/17, which this year explores the topic Greater Manchester and Northern Identity. Helen Darby of HiP at Manchester Metropolitan University said “our events will act as a celebration of every one of Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs and the different components of Manchester’s identity and they will also pose the question ‘what’s next?' for our city and its neighbouring regions.”

• Visit the website www.GM-10.org to leave your suggestions
• Post suggestions on Twitter https://twitter.com/modernistsoc @modernistsoc #GM10
• Post images on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/modernistmag/ @modernistmag #GM10
• Follow HiP on Twitter https://twitter.com/mmu_hssr and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mmu.hssr/ for regular event updates
• Join our mailing list or visit our website for more information about the festival http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/hip/join-our-mailing-list/