New Islington. Manchester's Millennium community.


Development schemes

Old Mill Street

Old Mill Street is the ‘marketplace’ of New Islington. It is where a lot of the local shops will be and the window into the village for passers by.

We’ve already delivered massive transformational change to this existing street. It’s much wider, but not for the reason that roads are usually widened - we wanted it to be a pleasant space to walk or cycle through, so we made more space for these people. Cars have enough space already.

Old Mill Street links the different New Islington spaces - the park, the water, the local shops. So it has a different feel in different places. Some of our ideas are new, others are taken from roads which we like in other places. The important thing is that they all work together to create a space that is pleasant to spend time in - rare for a city street!

Old Mill Street is where all the shops will be that you’d expect to find in your local community. The chippy, the newsagent, the launderette, the greengrocer, the betting shop, the off license, the post office.

We want to make sure that all these shops are the best they can possibly be, so when they’re ready we’re going to make sure that the best chippy in the country takes space there.

The stunning ‘new’ Old Mill Street opened in September 2005 following a special street party held for the local residents.

All of this is possible at Old Mill Street because of English Partnerships, the national regeneration agency, which has provided the development platform and funded the infrastructure works.

Contact name: Richard Hattan
Developer's: Homes and Communities Agency
Designer's: Martin Stockley Associates, Grant Associates

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Project part-financed by the European Union. European Regional Development Fund.