New Islington is Manchester’s Millennium Community programme, a 15 year project to convert a ‘sink estate’ on the edge of the city centre into what the developers hope to be the ‘best place to live in Manchester’.
In From the Ground Up: New Islington 2001 – 2007 photographer and writer Len Grant follows the whole process from pouring over Will Alsop’s masterplan in the local pub to the first residents moving into their award-winning new homes. ‘It’s my dream home’, says one new resident. 'It’s bleeding Legoland!’ declares a passer-by.
Interviews and comments from architects, local residents, engineers and contractors add to the chronology of imagery that makes this book an important record of 21st century sustainable regeneration. From the Ground Up follows Cardroom Voices (2004), in a series of publications about the development of New Islington.