The madness of Piccadilly Gardens

SPECIAL REPORT: Piccadilly Gardens has an image problem and a reputation for trouble - James Holt spent an afternoon people-watching to see if that notoriety is deserved. He found a circus of crime, drug-taking and drama in the heart of the city.

A police officer runs across the grass screaming at people to get out of the way. Above him an air ambulance appears and rapidly descends into the gardens. Gusts from the slowing rotor blades launch plastic chairs from a nearby cafe through the air, some hitting the watching crowds and our photographer.

A few minutes earlier it was relatively calm as I watched groups of friends lounging on the grass in the sun. Things can change very quickly here.

Piccadilly Gardens has an image problem, and it’s easy to see why. Even on an ordinary weekday, it’s a hive of police activity.

I had found a concrete step to sit on and observe the comings and goings of people on what was initially a quiet sunny Monday afternoon.

Then the police arrived. Blue lights flashing. Two vans raced to the scene and were abandoned at the roadside as officers chased a man across the gardens.

Wearing a dark green jacket, blue jeans and carrying a shopping bag, he sprinted towards Market Street to make his escape, but he was rugby-tackled, thrown to the ground and bundled into the back of a vehicle.

Suddenly, a group erupted into a row. A woman in ripped leggings swayed from side to side yelling incomprehensibly at a man before stumbling away.

YouTuber Charlie Veitch was also on the scene, filming the incident while being surrounded by a mob of onlookers who seemed thoroughly entertained by the latest criminal floor show.

Some - likely a crew of his half a million subscribers - even stop to take selfies with him amid the chaotic scenes.

In some cases attracting hundreds of thousands of views, the self-shooting vlogger has previously posted videos titled ‘Crackie goes too far in Piccadilly Gardens’ and ‘Very big trouble in Piccadilly Gardens’.

Put simply, Piccadilly Gardens these days is a circus - often with a baying audience.

As all this played out, a pair sat hunched over on a nearby step smoking cannabis. The thick smell lingered over the gardens.

Turning to my right a dishevelled man faced a wall and publicly urinated on it. A pigeon carcass was pecked at by another bird.

A group of young boys in black hooded coats and wearing balaclavas ran past me shouting ‘run, quick, run’.

I found myself questioning - is this really what an open space in the middle of our city has to offer? Is this one of the first things we want people to see when they arrive in the city?

Moments later, patrolling police officers shouted at people to move back. Large crowds surrounded the perimeter of the gardens. The sounds of police sirens wailing in the distance edged closer.

An air ambulance appeared over the city buildings and began to descend into the middle of the gardens. Paramedics and police were responding to reports of a stabbing just yards away on nearby Oldham Street.

Aside from the obvious societal issues that police and the council are desperately trying to tackle in the gardens, there are also more simple aesthetic ones.

Towering grey concrete walls surround the bus station-side of the gardens. Cracked slabs pave the walkways. The nearby Wellington statue is daubed in graffiti.

Fairly or unfairly, the current iteration of the gardens is compared unfavourably with the open green spaces of yesteryear.

The rose garden of old wasn't immune to issues and also had its problems.

But the trees and vibrant hanging baskets and foliage of old are fondly remembered as a calm haven, a utopia away from the bustling city streets.

A once sunken garden with vibrant grass, a striking central water fountain, and rows of colourful flower beds is a distant memory.

It is now a sea of dark and muted tones, concrete slabs, and bald patches of dehydrated, down-trodden grass. During our visit, it was impossible to count the amount of disused cigarette butts and litter on the ground.

"We call it Crackadilly gardens"

“We call it Crackadilly gardens”, Sandra Davies said. “To be honest, it’s a sh**hole.”

She has lived in Manchester her whole life, and, now aged 63, fondly remembers summer afternoons sitting in the sunken and flowery gardens.

“There’s always drug-dealers congregating in one corner. The other day I saw a man urinating up the wall and he was caught.

“I remember how it used to be; there were flower beds everywhere and it felt so safe in those days. But now, there’s just groups all drinking and taking drugs.

“We need more police on the beat making a difference and making it a comfortable space for everyone again. They know where the problems lie.

“The grass is grey, there are pigeons absolutely everywhere and it’s dull and lifeless. It’s sad to see.”

Friends Carol Grundy and Anne Jackson were meeting up at Piccadilly Gardens with a coffee before strolling round the city for some shopping.

Both from Bolton, they equally took an adoring trip down memory lane as they remembered visits to the city centre as youngsters.

“Oh it’s absolutely horrid now,” Anne said. “Me and my mum when I was younger would come into the city centre as I’d drag her in for shopping.

“We would come to Piccadilly Gardens and there were rose trees, flowers and so much colour, and benches you could sit on.

“The area where the fountains are was all lawned but now it’s just lifeless, grey and dirty. The old gardens were beautiful, it was like a haven in the city.

“I don’t come up here now. Everyone is begging and there are so many people taking drugs. There is so much crime around here. I don’t like it at all.

“It has so much potential. There used to be a lot of high-end shopping down this end with Debenhams, so we have lost a lot really.

“I’d always walk through, day and night, and it always felt safe, but I wouldn't dream of doing that now.”

Her friend Carol echoed a similar sentiment. She rarely visits the city centre - and usually avoids Piccadilly Gardens.

“It used to be lovely, didn't it? It was a proper garden which was cared for. It’s in such a good location, with eateries and public transport, but why couldn’t it have just been left as it was? Somewhere pleasant to be, and sit,” she said.

“Over the years it’s just been ruined. There’s no colour.

“It seems to be so busy with young people but doesn’t seem pleasant in the way it used to, being somewhere in the middle of a city to sit and relax. There’s no plants, no hanging baskets and it’s not lawned.”

University students Harvey Adams and Tayla Bryning came to meet up in Piccadilly Gardens having not seen each other for some time.

The pair, both from Cumbria and near the Lake District, are now at separate universities and have visited Piccadilly Gardens only a handful of times.

Despite both initially describing it as a ‘nice place to sit’, they both let out an audible gasp after looking at pictures of the gardens in years gone by.

“It’s a nice place to sit down, because we were going to just sit on a kerb so it’s at least somewhere for us to go,” Harvey said.

“I was looking around at the slabs on the ground which have all just been filled with concrete. Things could definitely be done to improve it. The grass is so dirty.

“It needs more greenery. It used to be so much prettier. I understand it can’t be perfect, but it’s very busy and a good place for people to meet up or sit out.

“People from Manchester will have a different view. We are from Cumbria, near the Lake District, which everyone who visits thinks is an amazing place.

“But when you’re actually from there, people don’t think it’s all that. If I’d have lived here, I’d know Piccadilly Gardens was so much worse than it is now.”

Another woman, who would not be named, was visiting Manchester for the first time from Telford. She said that although it provided a ‘good place to sit and people watch’, and that it was ‘fascinating and diverse’, it was in need of a facelift.

City centre spokesperson, Councillor Pat Karney said work is still being done to generally improve the gardens - both with the police and through a ‘radical’ overhaul to its appearance due to be announced.

But he said it would be ‘stupid to say there isn’t a problem’ that persistently blights the area.

“I was in Piccadilly Gardens over the weekend and so many people were out and enjoying the sun and having a good time. I live in the city centre and walk through there day and night,” he said.

“But it would be stupid to say that we don’t have a people problem in Piccadilly Gardens.

“Without funding for services for drug and alcohol support in the last few years, it has grown a very bad reputation because of the issues associated with it - the drugs, alcohol and other anti-social behaviour.

“But a lot of work is being done and we are continuing to work with GMP. We are also planning a radical new transformation to the area.”

'We can't do it on our own'

Following my afternoon in Piccadilly Gardens, we attended a walkaround with Greater Manchester Police and other city-partners to hear about what’s actually being done about the issues.

As a number of officers huddled together for their briefing, a woman walking with her dog abruptly interrupted.

“What are they gonna do about these gardens, eh?” she yelled. “You want to see it at night. You don’t wanna come through here. People are frightened.”

An officer ushered her to one side. She continued: “There’s people drinking, doing drugs, smoking that wacky-backy. It’s a disgrace. An utter disgrace.”

Throughout an hour-long walkaround, officers and council teams spoke with four rough sleepers. A man, sitting in the corner of the gardens, had an injured hand and just a tatty carrier bag of belongings beside him.

Another young woman, who spent her childhood in care before recently finding herself homeless, was also signposted to support services after being found with injuries.

A group of officers struggled as they pinned a man to the ground. Moments earlier he had been heard shouting and swearing in front of passers-by.

He was arrested for a public order offence. Another man was then handcuffed.

This was all at 10am on a regular Wednesday morning.

Following Operation Vulcan, a targeted 18-month long operation to ‘root out’ drug dealers and tackle crime in the Piccadilly Gardens area, a new dedicated police team now patrol the area day and night.

As Superintendent Nicola Williams told the M.E.N, her team’s policing tactics rely on a mix of regular visible patrols, community meetings and briefings, and ‘targeted activity’ - such as weapon or drug sweeps.

Much of the police activity happens at night - when people have reported feeling the most unsafe in the area. But Sup. Williams admitted: “The police alone can’t address all the issues. And there is work to be done.”

She said: “We have a dedicated team of eight officers, and we have tweaked the shift patterns to work later evenings, when the public were telling us they were witnessing anti-social behaviour, rough sleeping, drug dealing, drug use and that feeling of not being safe when walking through the area.

“We track what’s going on in terms of intelligence coming in, and we also have regular meetings about the gardens and the wider city.

“We have bi-monthly partner and community meetings where we invite everyone along. We speak to the council, residents, business owners and people who work here who all tell us about what their experiences are.

“The main priority is anti-social behaviour. I am very conscious that is what most people are bothered about here in Piccadilly Gardens.

“It’s very much our job to be that visible presence, to deal with anything that we see, but also speak and engage with people and services to solve the problems, followed by targeted activity where necessary.”

Nicola said the force relies on partnerships with TfGM, the council, CCTV footage and the public to report issues and be ‘the eyes and ears’ on the ground and to ‘give people confidence that the police are doing something’.

Aside from just arresting suspects, police can work with the council to secure criminal behaviour orders against repeat offenders - to effectively ban them from returning to Piccadilly Gardens or the wider city area.

“I don’t underestimate the challenge we face,” she admitted. “I am realistic. I have worked in neighbourhood policing all my career. Piccadilly Gardens is a particularly challenging space because of the footfall that passes through it every day. It’s 24/7. And I recognise we can’t be here 24/7 too.

“We are adopting a zero-tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour here, so if someone is here behaving in that manner, we will deal with it. If they’re begging, they will get arrested. If they’re smoking a joint, they will get arrested. If we see someone dealing, they will get arrested.

“I am committed to that because those are the things that really impact people coming to Piccadilly Gardens about their daily business. We don’t want to smell cannabis, see someone who has perhaps been sleeping here all night and potentially under the influence, it doesn’t help people feel safe.

“Where we can identify that someone is behaving in that manner here and have committed a criminal offence, and it’s impacting negatively on the lives of others, we can look to secure a criminal behaviour order. We will put conditions on that, excluding them from this area or the whole city.

“Everyone wants Piccadilly Gardens to be safe, feel safe and pleasant, and that’s our aim. We want Manchester to be a safe place.

“It’s a case of continuing our work, continuing to build on those relationships and giving people the confidence in the police to believe we are going to do something.

“I do feel we are making good strides but we are absolutely not there yet and there is a lot of work to do.”

"We know how important Piccadilly Gardens is"

A Manchester City Council spokesperson said: “We know how important Piccadilly Gardens is to Manchester. There have been ongoing improvements to Piccadilly Gardens, which are gradually beginning to make a difference to this busy public space, but we are under no illusion that challenges remain and there is still more to do.

“We are listening to and acting upon public feedback - and Piccadilly Gardens is changing. In recent times we have demolished the free-standing part of the unpopular wall, which we owned. L&G, who own the pavilion structure, also removed further sections and took away the concrete roof linking the two sections of the pavilion.

“Extensive police intervention through Operation Vulcan, supported by our community safety teams, and ongoing days of action have brought crime levels down while a series of events such as Easter and Christmas Markets have attracted thousands to enjoy the space. It’s also been busy during the recent sunny weather.

These improvements help us on our way but we want a revamped Piccadilly Gardens for people to spend time in and pass through which ultimately will make Manchester proud. We are striving behind the scenes to realise our ambitions for the future of Piccadilly Gardens - and deliver something truly transformational – but is a complex process which we are working on with partners, including TfGM. We are also striving to secure the necessary funding and wider investment to improve the area.

"We aim to come forward with an update on this vital piece of work later on in the year to make sure Mancunians have the chance to shape the plans we bring forward”