Kampus - Site of the Former MMU Aytoun Campus





The corner of Aytoun Street and Chorlton Street is a building site.  It used to be home to Manchester Metropolitan University's Aytoun Campus and the site of a rather attractive white business school building with a brise soleil. 




Behind it stood a much less attractive tower block, presumably housing classrooms. 



When I visited the site on December 18, 2017, the white building was gone and the tower had been stripped back to its concrete skeleton.



Information on the hoardings around the building site indicated that this is a development by Henry Boot in collaboration with Capital & Centric to create a £200m mixed-use proiject to be known as "Kampus"



An article on the Henry Boot website, dated September 27, 2016, explained that, "... Designed by architects, Mecanoo and shedkm, the first phase of the development will see the creation of 478 PRS units, 30,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space on the ground and mezzanine floors beneath two 12-16 storey new buildings. It will also include the comprehensive refurbishment of the existing 1960s former Aytoun Tower with a roof top village of timber Dutch townhouses.  Adam Brady, Development Director for Henry Boot Developments, comments: “This is a real landmark moment for KAMPUS and brings the regeneration of this neglected part of the city centre one step closer to fruition. From the outset we wanted to work with the site’s existing buildings and spaces to create a real neighbourhood feel and not just something new and shiny that lacked soul. We’re very excited about the 1960s tower conversion, which will create some of the most unique apartments in the city, it’s going to be very cool and a great place to live.”
Kampus in August 2019






The architect for the project is the Dutch practice Mecanoo.  They say of the development that, "... The buildings are horizontally divided into three distinct elements: a podium with dark profiled metal cladding, a mid-section with rough textured red brickwork, and a roofscape characterised by Dutch houses clad in weathered vertical timber slats.The podium anchors the new build and tower elements in a consistent base while creating a defined edge to the street. A transparent plinth will provide views into a variety of bars, shops and independent establishments that will breathe life into the scheme and create a unique sense of place. The pocket parks mark the entrances of KAMPUS and the interesting spaces between the buildings will draw people into the heart of the scheme; a unique ‘secret garden’ that forms the perfect backdrop for afternoon and early evening social events. "
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Earlier images from the construction phase.













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The MMU Aytoun Campus was once the site of the College of Commerce which became part of Manchester Polytechnic in 1970 and MMU in 1990.  Pevsner described it as, "A twelve-storey tower and podium clad in grey precast concrete."  It was designed by S. G. Besant Roberts, the City Architect.









Facing out onto Fairfield Street was the MMU School of Business,  on the left below.  It had 5 storeys and was clad in white powder-coated aluminium panels.  It had a brise soleil to shade the computer room.  The building was designed by Mills Beaumont Leavey and Channon in 1993.







This Business School, on the Aytoun Campus, was replaced by a new building erected on the Grosvenor Square Campus, see below.




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The Aytoun Campus site was once a canal basin running southwards from the Rochdale Canal in the vicinity of Lock 86.  The canal spur ran between warehouses lining Chorlton Street and Minshull Street.



You can see the site in 1953 in the aerial photograph below.  The canal spur appears white, the result presumably of the sun reflecting off the water.  The red arrow points to the location of today's MMU Business School.



It seems that the old Manchester Ship Canal Company warehouses, that I have outlined in the image above,  are still standing and can be seen in the photographs below.  The images were taken in sequence along Chorlton Street then down Canal Street.





The building below is Minshull House which Pevsner says was probably built in the mid 19th Century.  They describe it as a, "Canal warehouse with a huge rusticated semicircular arched entrance (now infilled) in a slightly projecting central bay flanked by tall round-headed openings."





Next door is Number 45 Chorlton Street, a mid or late 19th Century warehouse.



And then just before you reach Canal Street there is a lock house that straddles the canal.  The one you see there today is probably not the original building but one rebuilt in the early years of the 20th Century.









Behind Minshull House a car park marks the location of a former coal wharf, that belonged to the Grocer's Company.




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