The Gentrification of Consumption: A View from Manchester

This article gives some insight into the processes underpinning the exclusion of small traders from of the redevelopment of Manchester after the IRA bombing in 1996. This is achieved by drawing upon interviews with former traders of the Corn Exchange. This is a small subsection of a broader set of qualitative data which was gathered (between 2001 and 2002) from past and present everyday users of the Millennium Quarter. I claim that through regeneration the Millennium Quarter has experienced intense gentrification in which it has been reconfigured as an exclusive site of consumption (Smith 1996, Zukin 1995) which caters for the needs of the affluent. This gentrification is not only influenced by the middle classes who it is designed to attract but by private developers (Hackworth 2002) and often state intervention (Hackworth and Smith 2001). I draw on literature reflecting the experience of American cities (Betancur 2002, Hackworth 2002, Hackworth and Smith 2001, Zukin 1995) and more recent work about the rebuilding of Manchester (Holden 2002, Mellor 2002, Williams 2000). Whilst a significant body of literature exists regarding British cities (Atkinson 2000, Butler and Robson 2001, Hamnett and Randolph 1984, Robson and Butler 2001, Rosenburg and Watkins 1999) much of this concentrates on housing and residential areas. This paper is about the Millennium Quarter which is primarily a retail site in the central urban core and it adds to a growing literature regarding city centre redevelopment (e.g.; Chatterton and Hollands (2003); Low (2000) Van der Land (this collection).