But on its doorstep, work is underway on a £500million new attraction, which is expected to bring in millions of visitors per year and be the first of its kind in the UK.
Spread across 28 acres, Therme Manchester is centred around the principles of ‘play, relax and restore’, with everything from a 25-metre water slide tower to high-tech cryotherapy facilities fit for Premier League football teams.
The project has been dubbed a ‘mega spa’, but the team behind it believe it is much more than that.
We were invited to take a look at the construction site to find out whether construction is progressing and what it could mean for Greater Manchester.
Therme Manchester will be the largest wellbeing resort in the UK (Image: Newsquest)
Therme Manchester is being built on the site formerly occupied by EventCity, next to Trafford Palazzo.
Its ambitious and futuristic design consists of a central circular hub connected to glass pavilion-like structures, which will help keep indoor temperatures to a tropical 33 °C.
Some of the areas will be family-oriented, with water slides, wave pools, an all-season urban beach and family dining area. However, the ‘restore’ and ‘relax’ areas of the site will be adult-only.
The ‘relax’ areas of the resort will include indoor and outdoor pools, mineral baths and waterfall showers, while the ‘restore’ area will offer nutrition and wellbeing therapies, spa therapies and ‘experience showers’.
The site will include, wave pools, an urban beach, water slide, as well as a variety of therapies (Image: Newsquest)
The first part of our Therme Manchester tour took place inside the company’s site office, where we had the chance to study an intricate model of the structure, led by Therme UK CEO Professor David Russell and CCO Jonathan Lingham.
They believe that Therme Manchester is not just a “shiny spaceship”, but a “social infrastructure” project, one that Mancunians will not only want, but need in terms of physical and mental health.
Professor Russel said: “We’re in it for the right reasons. We’re building this with Manchester and for Manchester.”
Therme UK have already set their sights on a second UK site in Glasgow as part of the “90 to 90 vision” of 90 per cent of the country’s population living within a 90-minute drive of a Therme resort.
A 3D model of Therme Manchester (Image: Newsquest)
Sustainability is also an important factor in the project. For example, all the furniture is being 3D-printed using crushed pallets from construction.
One particularly eye-opening detail Mr Russell highlighted was the robot-operated lockers, which have been designed to help economise on space.
He explained that once visitors are ready to enter the resort, they will place their belongings in a locker box, the robot arm will transport them to be stored, and it can be accessed again at the end of the visit by scanning a wristband.
I also learned a new word, Aufgussmeister, or sauna master, of which there will be 30 employed at Therme Manchester. As I found out, the role involves more than just maintaining temperatures in the sauna and requires elements of performance and ritual.
Therme Bucharest – which is currently the largest Therme venue, but will be half the size of its new Manchester counterpart – is also the host of the Aufgussmeister world championships.
The next part of the tour took place at the construction site, where earthworks are nearing completion.
Therme Manchester (Image: Newsquest)
While the construction phase is still in its early days, the tour of the site allowed us to get a sense of the magnitude and sheer scale of the project
As we walked around, we were given an idea of where the various elements would be located. At one point, we were told: “You are now standing in the wave pool”, and another: “This is where the urban beach will be”.
It will be just over two years before anyone will get to stand in the actual Therme Manchester wave pool. Although it’s too early to tell just how the development will impact the region, there’s definitely a buzz around the project.