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Witness to Change: A Personal View of East Manchester’s Regeneration*

I’ve lived in and around the Clayton area of East Manchester since 1979, at the dawn of Thatcher’s Britain. Over the years, I’ve watched this area evolve — sometimes slowly, sometimes dramatically — but always with a sense that something deeper was shifting beneath the surface.

In 2007, I began to notice a wave of demolition sweeping through the streets around the Eastlands Stadium. Houses were coming down, familiar corners were disappearing, and the character of old East Manchester was fading. It became clear that parts of the community I had known for decades would never be the same again.
I remember thinking: Someone should be capturing this

So I picked up my camera and began documenting the transformation — from the demolition of entire streets to the slow rise of new homes, businesses, and public spaces. This wasn’t just about bricks and mortar; it was about history, memory, identity, and the quiet resilience of a community living through change, as families uprooted and moved away.

This project is rooted in a place rich with history. Long before the stadium stood here, this land was home to Bradford Colliery — one of the region’s most important coal mines, a site of hard labour and working-class pride. Its closure marked the end of an industrial era, but it also created the space for something new.

That “something new” came with the 2002 Commonwealth Games, bringing fresh investment and, with it, the Etihad Stadium.
What was once industrial land became a symbol of regeneration, sport, and global connection. But the pace of change accelerated dramatically in 2008, when Manchester City Football Club was taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group. Backed by vast wealth, the club began to rise as a global football powerhouse — and with it came a new phase of transformation for East Manchester.

One of the most significant developments to follow was the creation of Manchester Life, a property development partnership between the Abu Dhabi Group and Manchester City Council.
This initiative aimed to redevelop large swathes of Ancoats and New Islington, extending the regeneration footprint and reshaping the inner-city residential fabric.
New apartment blocks, townhouses, and commercial spaces sprang up — a far cry from the terraced streets that once stood there. The skyline changed again, and with it, the identity of these neighbourhoods.

Yet even as investment poured in and the area became increasingly tied to Manchester’s global image, I felt it was vital to preserve a record of what came before — and what was quietly being lost along the way.

This collection of photographs is my attempt to honour that past while bearing witness to the present. It is a visual history of East Manchester’s demolition and rebirth — told not from the outside, but from someone who has walked these streets for over four decades.