The iconic Old Granada Studios (OGS) – a key cultural and commercial asset within Allied London’s St. John’s masterplan – received revised planning consent from Manchester City Council on 21 May 2018. The revised application supports Allied London’s plans to retain and refurbish the original television studios, allowing new operational business All Studios to further flourish, as well as featuring new workspace elements.

Allied London, Chief Executive, Michael Ingall commented:
“This is a second consent for the building and is important as it will enable us to now realise our more defined and focussed plans to revive the former home of ITV and transform the iconic studios in to a new creative, digital and cultural hub. We are now going to greatly expand the TV and Film studios activity to create something that will have national prominence through our All Studios platform. Our ABC and Bonded Warehouse projects, due for completion this year, will form a big part of this cluster and both encourage use and promotion of the studios and are already attracting big names in the media industry.”

He added: “Our vision with St. John’s and the unique inventory at Enterprise City is to build a sustainable new creative, tech and digital cluster for Manchester. Development on the first phases of Enterprise City in St. John’s has begun with ABC and Bonded Warehouse, and OGS will follow this summer. With our inventory plus the surrounding Factory arts centre, All Studios, adjoining plans for Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) and links to Piccadilly through the Fire Station, St. John’s is going to be a special place and our most diverse and successful development to date.”

The celebrated studios 02, 06, 08 and 12 will be retained and refurbished to provide a unique suite of multi-functional filming, production and studio facilities. All Studios will operate the space and has already enticed Peaky Blinders, Safe, Wanderlust and Snatch to film at the studios. Modular workspaces will be developed to foster the growth of start-ups and the new spaces will be linked by an arcade known as the M1 corridor.

A new nine storey workspace / residential building will replace the old annex building and will consist of retail units, workspace, and residential space. The new destination will foster business growth through the Enterprise City brand, which looks to provide workspaces for digital, tech and media industries. A range of spaces will be available to facilitate knowledge and expertise sharing for creative businesses that range from SMEs right through to fully established companies.

Allied London breathed new life into to the Old Granada Studios when it acquired the site in 2013 by creating co-working spaces and populating the vacant workspace, food and beverage spaces (F&B) and studios with new tenants, many of whom will relocate to the Bonded Warehouse, also part of Enterprise City at St. John’s. Construction is set to begin in Summer 2018.

For more information, please visit the St. John’s website.