G-Mex

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This article is about The convention centre in Manchester. For for the Hip hop artist, see G-Mex (Hip hop artist).

The GMEX centre

The G-MEX centre or Greater Manchester Exhibition centre is an exhibition and conference centre housed in a former railway station in Manchester in England. The building was granted Grade I listed building status on December 18, 1963, but has since been downgraded to Grade II* status^[1].

1 History
- 1.1 Manchester Central railway station
- 1.2 The G-Mex Centre
2 Notable events
3 See also
4 Reference
5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Manchester Central railway station

The complex started life as Manchester Central railway station, one of the city's main railway terminals.

It was built between 1875–80 by the Cheshire Lines Committee, a joint collaboration between three companies: Great Northern Railway, the Midland Railway and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, being officially opened on 1st July 1880.

The building consists of a huge wrought-iron and glass segmental vault spanning 210 feet, and 550 feet long, because of the 1877 design's comparatively low cost, and was built by Handysides of Derby. The substructure and masonry partition was provided by Robert Neill and Sons of Manchester. The engineers were Richard Johnson, Andrew Johnston and Charles Sacré for the three companies. An earlier temporary station used from 9 July 1877 by the CLC and Midland Railway was converted to become Manchester Central Goods.

The Midland, in particular, at last had a secure Manchester terminus for its services, including its expresses to London St. Pancras. Beginning in 1938, it ran two prestige expresses, The Palatine and the Peaks, the former stopping at Chinley, Millers Dale, Matlock, Derby and Leicester.

Between 1960 and 15 April 1966, during the electrification of the West Coast Main Line, Central station was the terminus for the The Midland Pullman, a streamlined blue six-coach diesel multiple unit. This stopped only at Cheadle Heath (now closed), before running fast to St Pancras.

Services through Millers Dale finished in 1968 when the line was closed. The station continued to provide local services for a while, but finally closed to passengers on 5th May 1969, when remaining services were switched to Manchester's Piccadilly station.

[edit] The G-Mex Centre

In 1982 work commenced on converting the former railway station into an exhibition centre, and the G-Mex opened in 1986 ^[2]

In 2001 the Manchester International Convention Centre (MICC) was added to the complex, with an 804 seat auditorium plus breakout rooms and Great Northern Hall. During 2005 the company running the G-MEX and MICC was bought by Manchester City Council. In September 2006 it was announced that the venue would regain its old name of Manchester Central in 2007^[3]. Plans are currently being drawn up to extend the frontage down to the road boundary on Windmill Street^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Notable events

The G-MEX Centre used to host high profile rock concerts, e.g. Factory Records Festival Of The Tenth Summer in July 1986 celebrating the 10th anniversary of Punk (appearances of The Smiths and New Order) and Manchester's own James in a 1990 performance. In June 1992 Irish band U2 played the final indoor show of their elaborate ZOO Tv Tour at the G-MEX Centre. The concert also doubled as an event to close down the Sellafield Nuclear Plant. G-MEX had a seating capacity for 9,500 people for end stage concerts. However it was expandable up to 17,500 for standing events. The G-MEX centre stopped hosting concerts in 1997 (the last one being performed by Oasis in December 1997), due to the popularity and size of the nearby MEN Arena which is Europe's biggest indoor concert venue. After a 9 year break, the venue was once again used as a concert venue in December 2006 with 2 shows by Snow Patrol, followed by 2 homecoming shows by Morrissey.

The G-Mex was also the venue for gymnastics, weightlifting, judo and wrestling during the 2002 Commonwealth Games. In September 2006 it was used by the Labour Party for their Annual Conference, moving away from the traditional seaside venue of Blackpool, Bournemouth or Brighton. In addition to the Labour Party, this venue has hosted such prestigious clients as the CBI, Ecofin, Lib Dem Party and, in April 2006, the Conservative Party. The centre will hold the 2008 and 2010 Labour Party conferences^[3]