City Tower (formerly Sunley House) is a 30-storey
skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
situated in the
Piccadilly Gardens
Piccadilly Gardens is a green space in Manchester city centre, England, on the edge of the Northern Quarter.
It takes its name from the adjacent street, Piccadilly, which runs across the city centre from Market Street to London Road. The ga ...
area of
Manchester city centre
Manchester City Centre is the central business district of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England situated within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way which collectively form an inner ring road. ...
in England. As of 2022, it is the tallest office building in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
and outside London, and the
eighth-tallest building in Manchester, with a roof height of 107 metres (351 ft).
History
City Tower was completed in 1965, one of three buildings forming the Piccadilly Plaza complex which was designed by
Covell, Matthews & Partners and developed by
Bernard Sunley & Sons
Bernard Sunley & Sons was a British property development company.
It was founded in 1940 as Bernard Sunley & Son by Bernard Sunley (1910–1964) who "ranked alongside the most successful property developers of the 1950s property boom".
The compan ...
between 1959 and 1965.
[Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2004), ''Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East'', (The Buildings of England), Yale University Press, ; p. 326]
The Piccadilly Plaza was remodelled by Leslie Jones Architects in 2001-02. City Tower stands at right angles to Piccadilly and the north-facing wall is covered with designs based on circuit boards. During the remodelling of the building to the west of City Tower, Eagle Star House was replaced by a building whose roofs are a pale echo of the swooping roofs of the original.
[
The Tower has retail and leisure units on the ground floor and is Manchester's main radio transmitting station, which is located on the roof. The developer ]Bruntwood
Bruntwood is a family-owned property company offering office space, serviced offices, retail space and virtual offices in the north of England and Birmingham in the United Kingdom. They own several high-profile buildings in the Manchester area, as ...
sold City Tower to the asset management company Schroders
Schroders plc is a British multinational asset management company, founded in 1804. The company employs over 5,000 people worldwide in 32 locations around Europe, America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Headquartered in the City of London, it ...
for £132 million in 2014, but kept their headquarters in the building.
Description
The Tower has entrances on York Street (renamed New York Street in 2008) and Piccadilly Gardens (formerly Parker Street). A refurbishment programme was drawn up in the late 1990s, but this was never realised until Bruntwood purchased Piccadilly Plaza for £65 million in 2004. This plan is complete, with a new central ground floor entrance. The next phase involved repainting and fitting an atrium to the sides of the Tower. An advertising screen has been erected showing video clips to passers-by in the Gardens.
The Tower is one of Manchester's main broadcast transmission sites, hosting the antennae of local radio stations Radio X, XS Manchester
XS Manchester is an Independent Local Radio station serving Greater Manchester, broadcasting a mix of indie and alternative rock music, speech and news output. The station is owned and operated by Communicorp UK and broadcasts from studios at ...
and Capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
on FM and digital radio multiplexes Digital One
Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covered more than 90% of the population from 137 transmitters. Coverage was extended to Northern Ireland in July 2013. It conta ...
, BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
and CE Manchester
CE Digital is an operator of digital radio in the United Kingdom. It is the licensee for local DAB ensembles in London, Birmingham, and Manchester, and is a joint venture between Bauer Radio and Global Radio. It was originally a joint venture be ...
.
The penthouse on floor 28 differs from the other floors as it originally had a walkway around the perimeter. When Bruntwood acquired City Tower, they removed the walkway and installed wider windows. The redesign included an overhang with floor to ceiling windows.
Although City Tower is not the tallest building in the city, the 28th floor is the highest commercial office space in Manchester. This floor was occupied by UKFast
UKFast.Net Limited (trading as UKFast) is a business-to-business internet hosting company based in Manchester, UK. It is principally known for managed hosting, cloud services, and co-location. The business owns and operates its data centre comple ...
but now appears to be at least partly vacant.
See also
*Architecture of Manchester
The architecture of Manchester demonstrates a rich variety of architectural styles. The city is a product of the Industrial Revolution and is known as the first modern, industrial city. Manchester is noted for its warehouses, railway viaducts, ...
* List of tallest buildings in Manchester
List of tallest buildings in the United Kingdom
As of December 2022 there are 148 habitable buildings (used for living and working in, as opposed to masts and religious use) in the United Kingdom at least tall, 117 of them in London, 15 in Greater Manchester, 5 in Birmingham, 3 in Leeds, 2 ...
References
External links
City Tower, Manchester at www.skyscrapernews.com
BBC Highest office space in Manchester
City Tower Official Website
{{Manchester B&S
City Tower
Office buildings completed in 1965
Skyscrapers in Manchester
Skyscraper office buildings in England
Ralph Covell buildings
Piccadilly Gardens