10 Years!

It’s nearly 10 years now since we celebrated our restored Arcade, achieved after nearly £100k was raised from local residents, businesses and owners, Manchester City Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund to carry out the essential repairs needed to prevent its total collapse.

In the last 10 years, we’ve welcomed a number of new businesses to Lapwing Lane Arcade and this little section of West Didsbury is now a popular destination in its own right. The amount the unit owners contribute has doubled in this period to reflect the increased desirability of this area.

More recently the need for some further minor repairs has been identified. Four spandrels (made from resin) had either disintegrated or were on the verge of disintegration and therefore needed replacing.  It was agreed new spandrels would be cast in aluminium. Once the experts examined the Arcade another resin spandrel was also identified. There are 42 spandrels in total!

We also discovered that 5 spandrel joiners also needed recasting in aluminium. These are the bits of metalwork that join the spandrels at each apex.

Originally we thought £4,300 was needed for the required work, but this sum has increased in line with the additional work mentioned above and the need for some cleaning and other maintenance.  Mike, our Secretary, successfully applied for a Manchester City Council grant of £1500, which when added to the donations we’ve received from: people like youselves; people buying the ‘FOLLA at 10’ mugs; and the annual maintenance payments paid by the owners of the units along the veranda; has raised £3,060.

This means we still need £2,500 to cover the outstanding amount.  We’re in the process of exploring other grants we might be eligible to apply for, but realise we also need to continue to reach out to our local community for contributions.

Here are our bank details if you feel inclined to donate:
Co-op Bank
Account name – FOLLA
Sort code – 08-92-99
Account number – 65882098

As we reach the 10-year mark since we originally celebrated Lapwing Lane Arcade’s renovation, it feels fitting we should have another celebration, so keep an eye out for news about this, probably a Quiz/Auction evening early in September followed shortly after by a Sunday afternoon party ‘under the arches’.

We’ve just got an Instagram account (Friends_of_Lapwing_Lane_Arcade) which we’ll also be using as another method to keep the local community (well, those on Instagram) updated about the Arcade.

A short video made for our original contractor Coppell’s, who did the restoration work, can be seen below: