Plans for 1,500 homes in historic Salford area once painted by LS Lowry

Plans to build four blocks – one towering 42 storeys – for more than 1,500 homes in a historic area of Salford once featured in a painting by LS Lowry have been submitted to the city council.

The first of three phases of the scheme will see 585 apartments on top of  20,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space in the highest building, which will be built at Greengate if approved.

Phases two and three will see a maximum of 518  and 444 apartments in other blocks, respectively, along with parking for 220 cars.

AQ Investments, a partner of Renaker Build Ltd, says it will be submitting a “hybrid planning application” to the city council, which includes a new public park.

Deloitte Real Estate has tabled an environmental impact assessment and scoping report ahead of more detailed proposals for Greengate.

Full planning permission is sought for phase one of the scheme on four acres of land bounded by Greengate to the north, Collier Street to the west, Queen and King Street to the south and Gravel Lane to the east.

The site is currently occupied by industrial units which are either vacant or let to small local businesses.

The submission by Deloitte says that the site lies on the fringe of Salford’s historic core, but is not part of a conservation area.

The area was developed between the mid-17th century and the 1740s and further in the early 19th century with shops and homes along streets and high-density workers’ housing together with the Greengate Brewery.

In 1800, Christ Church and an associated graveyard were established on King Street by the Reverend William Cowherd as a branch of the Swedenborgians.

The brewery was demolished in the early 1860s and its footprint redeveloped as the “Salford Improved Industrial Dwellings”, which were completed in 1870 to provide an early example of “model workers” housing that was built in anticipation of slum clearance in Salford.

Renowned Salford artist Lowry painted his picture “Entrance to the Dwellings” showing the Salford Improvement Dwellings viewed from Greengate in 1933.

Christ Church was dilapidated by the 1860s and replaced by a new church on Cross Street. The old church and graveyard were then leased out as timber yard, with the church being demolished in the early 20th century.

Most of the site was cleared after the 1930s, and was occupied subsequently by an extension to the Greengate Rubber Works and industrial units that were built from the 1960s.

The site of Christ Church and its graveyard is currently in use as a car park, although parts of the original boundary wall are still there.

A designated heritage asset, the Grade II-listed Eagle Inn pub is within the site.

Deloitte says a comprehensive archeological “desk-based” assessment has taken place and that the site “merits further archeological investigation in advance of, or during, development works”.

The submission goes on: “The scoping assessment of the site has concluded that the proposed development has potential to cause minor harm to non-designated buried archaeological remains, particularly potential remains dating to the late 18th and 19th centuries.

“This is based on an assumption that the scale of impact will be slight as any such archaeological remains that do survive are likely to be fragmentary.”