Visitors will soon be able to enjoy Manchester’s new sky park just five months after work began to transform a giant 330 meter steel viaduct into an elevated park with trees, plants and flowers.
Tackling the challenge of ‘greening’ Castlefield Viaduct and to celebrate this well-known, historic landmark, construction company MCC, Twelve architects, and four local partners (including ourselves) have been working with National Trust gardening specialists and apprentices to create the new park with thousands of plants, shrubs and trees planted over the past five months. The temporary urban park will open on Saturday 30 July for the next 12 months with green spaces stretching across the elevation.
The theme of the City of Trees partner plot is ‘Trees – Past, Present and Future’. It showcases a variety of trees, shrubs and flowers that have been used throughout the Industrial Revolution, as well as displaying trees which are significant in Manchester today, helping the city respond to climate change. Plant species include box, gooseberry, damson and comfrey amongst many others.
Jessica Thompson, Director at City of Trees, says:
“The Castlefield Viaduct is an amazing opportunity to be able to showcase the enduring value of trees to people and the environment through the ages.
“It’s ironic that timber from trees played such an important role in supporting the Industrial Revolution which has now led us down the path to climate change, however, trees are now a big part of the solution to making us less vulnerable to global heating – by locking up carbon, cooling our air and helping to intercept rainfall to reduce the risk of flooding. We hope that the sky park will inspire visitors to plant more trees and help protect the ones that we are already blessed with in Greater Manchester.”
Tickets to visit the viaduct are free and can be booked here.
Take a Detour with a Tree Tour
Following on from City of Trees’ partner plot on the new Castlefield Viaduct, we are excited to announce a series of guided tree walks around the Castlefield area – Take a Detour with a Tree Tour, with City of Trees leading an hour long walk, looking at the trees in the Castlefield area, learning how to id different species, details about the trees along the walk and with some fun facts about the history of this rich and varied part of the city thrown in for good measure! The walk also includes a visit to the viaduct.