Salford City, the heart of media, creativity and entertainment! Some may question this, but it is the home of Coronation Street, so is there really any question?
In his book, Cities and the Creative Class, Richard Florida discusses the three T’s in which creative cities are characterised by:
- “Talent – identifying a highly educated and skilled population.
- Technology – the infrastructure necessary to fuel an entrepreneurial culture.
- Tolerance – a diverse community, which is inclusive and accepting of different cultures, lifestyles and new ideas.”
Do you think Salford fits under all three T’s? The MediaCityUK in Salford has clearly demonstrated them as it is the heart of television. Oli Mould argues in his book Urban Subversion and the Creative City, that Salford’s bid for the new extended home of the BBC was “very much influenced by Florida’s thesis…the pervasive ideology of the creative class…was very much at the forefront of the campaign.”
Mould claimed that these aspects would bring the “all important creative ‘buzz’ that is needed to catalyse economic activity.” By bringing forward concepts of creativity to catalyse urban development, it would generate economic growth.
Florida’s theories argue that creativity and his concept of ‘the creative class’ are engines of economic and cultural growth. According to Florida, the creative class itself is a class of workers whose job is to create meaningful new forms and people may relocate themselves to areas where creative jobs are. Or vice versa, jobs may move to where the creative class is located. This will boost economic growth – ideal!
Further according to Richard Florida, the quality of a city also determines whether it can be categorised as a Creative City – by having aspects that make it attractive to make people want to move/visit there. In one of Helen Pidd’s article on the Guardian, she claims that “over 60,000 people work in the creative and digital industries in Greater Manchester.” This is only covering the people that work there, not even including those who live or visit there.
Due to the high population of the creative workers in Salford, Pidd explains there will be a “£1bn expansional of Salford Quays – TV studio and production space as well as shops, offices, a 330-bed hotel and over 1400 new homes.” This will be within the plan for Salford Quays/Media City to double in size over the next 10 years.
Charles Landry is an author best known for his works on his book The Creativity City. In this book, Landry identifies a common feature that appears across all creative cities. This common feature is the city recognising “the importance of creative responses to urban problems.” Landry explains in his book, that by cities doing this, “it shows how to think, plan and act creatively in addressing urban issues.”
Despite all this greatness about Salford, there are arguments that there may be an identity threat to the city. In chapter 3 of Max Wind-Cowie’s book, Escape Velocity, he argues although MediaCityUK is based in Salford, the identity of Salford isn’t as strong, or is stuck between the identities of Media City and Manchester.
He further claims, for Salford to gain more of an identity as a Creative City, it needs to “attract new institutions and a broad creative supply chain” directly to Salford and not just relying on MediaCityUK.
What do you think? Is Salford creative enough to be deemed as a Creative City? Is it a dark horse in the industry?
CREATIVE CONVERSATION 