The Factory is part of the immense St John’s Street development. The whole development will take several years to complete and offer this area of Manchester a completely new landscape, with over 18 buildings to be completed, space will be created for apartments, commercial & living space, and the Factory that Manchester City Council has now given the final approval for one of the largest purpose-built cultural spaces in the world gets the green light to be built for opening in 2020.

This is the second time The Factory has gone to planning, because the council had to invest more than £1m to change the design last year. This was because it was discovered that the exterior of the £110m building would cause issues with the acoustics, plus the orchestra pit was too small.

“The Factory will provide space for the greatest artists from around the world to create work of extraordinary ambition and scale, work they always dreamed of making,” added John McGrath, artistic director and CEO at Manchester International Festival.

“It builds on the city’s brilliant heritage as a centre for production, for radical ideas and for doing things a bit differently. It firmly underpins Manchester’s reputation as an internationally important city for culture, creativity and technology.”

Source: Prolific North.