City Tower (formerly Sunley House) is a 30-storey office

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

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, England, within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way, which collectively form an inner ring road. The City Centre ward had a ...

in England. As of March 2025, it is the second-tallest office building in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

after the CIS Tower (), the third-tallest outside London after CIS Tower and

103 Colmore Row 103 Colmore Row is a 108-metre tall, 26-storey commercial office building located on Colmore Row, Birmingham, England. Completed in 2021, this building replaced the former National Westminster Bank, NatWest Tower designed by John Madin and compl ...

in Birmingham (), and the joint 22nd-tallest building in Greater Manchester with Embankment Exchange, with a roof height of .

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 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 sold City Tower to the asset management company

Schroders Schroders plc is a British multinational asset management company headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1804, it employs over 6,000 people worldwide in 38 locations around Europe, America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It is traded on ...

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

(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. A new central ground floor entrance was subsequently installed. The next phase involved repainting and fitting an atrium to the sides of the Tower. An advertising screen was 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, Radio X 90s and

Capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

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 ...

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and CE Manchester. 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 is now split in two halves, with one half, the Skylounge, open-access for City Tower residents.

Gallery

File:Manchester Portland Street New York Street 1107.JPG, View of part of the Piccadilly Plaza, including City Tower File:Piccadilly, Manchester skyline on a grey July evening.jpg, City Tower as seen from Piccadilly Gate (beside Piccadilly station)

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 Modernist architecture in England

History

Description

Gallery

See also

References

External links