{"id":458170,"date":"2025-09-28T15:27:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/458170\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T15:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:27:21","slug":"i-visited-the-uks-greenest-city-piccadilly-gardens-has-a-lot-of-catching-up-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/458170\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I visited the UK\u2019s greenest city – Piccadilly Gardens has a lot of catching up to do’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not trying to shame Piccadilly Gardens but, let\u2019s be honest, it\u2019s hardly serving its purpose these days\"Adam<\/p>\n

Adam is a senior What’s On and LGBTQ+ reporter for the Manchester Evening News, covering new restaurant and bar openings, food reviews, gig reviews, and issues that matter to the LGBTQ+ community. Adam joined the M.E.N in 2019 as a Facebook Community Reporter and also runs the LGBTQ+ Bulletin newsletter. <\/p>\n

\"PiccadillyPiccadilly Gardens could learn a few things from the UK’s greenest city<\/p>\n

Just a couple of months ago, it was announced that Piccadilly Gardens<\/a> could be about to get its groove back. And, by that, I obviously mean that it could be getting some new flowers.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, I may have undersold it all but the truth is that things are still very much up-in-the-air or, at least, they are for now.. The council said it is \u2018something we\u2019re working hard behind the scenes on\u2019, and we can expect the plans to come out very soon<\/a> about what they have in mind.<\/p>\n

The council has already said it plans to bring back ‘features people liked in the old days\u2019’ – perhaps along the lines of what those 1960s photos<\/a> of an almost-unrecognisable area filled with rose gardens and flowerbeds once depicted. But, surely, it’s going to be better either way than the chaotic concrete patch of grass we have now.<\/p>\n

But, I\u2019m told, Sheffield<\/a> is a prime example of a city that has managed to find a healthy balance between having nature and greenery at its core, whilst still satisfying its city dwellers, office workers and party goers.<\/p>\n

Stay connected with our City Life newsletter here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Sheffield'sSheffield’s Peace Gardens are a place for tranquility<\/p>\n

In fact, Sheffield was last year named the second-greenest city in Europe after Oslo. It’s something that I still don’t quite believe today. 61% of the Yorkshire city is dedicated to parks, woodlands, and gardens, including the Peak District National Park, and it even has more trees than people. Let that sink in.<\/p>\n

Just so happening to be in Sheffield earlier this month, I decided to check out some of its green spaces there to see what could be in store for Piccadilly Gardens if we want to take a bit of inspiration from the UK’s greenest spot.<\/p>\n

The Peace Gardens, situated outside Sheffield Town Hall, are perhaps the city\u2019s closest version of Piccadilly Gardens. It has water features, it has benches, it has patches of grass. Whilst I\u2019d say it is slightly smaller by size, it also has trees, a small selection of plants, and actually felt quite tranquil and relaxing when I visited.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe indoor Winter Gardens feature some 2,500 plants and trees<\/p>\n

But whilst serving as a stunning backdrop, what with the gorgeous town hall at the centre of it all, there were still the odd patches of grass which could do with some TLC when looking up close. That felt very Piccadilly Gardens to me, and did kind of make me feel that surely this can’t be as good as it gets in Sheffield.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the star of the show in terms of Sheffield\u2019s nature buzz was undoubtedly the Winter Gardens, which are just a few short yards away from the Peace Gardens.<\/p>\n

Basically a large walkable greenhouse, it is full of plants and trees from all over the world. There\u2019s dogwoods, banana trees, coffee plants, and orchids, and even some snake and elephant sculptures to find dotted around the place.<\/p>\n

\"Manchester'sManchester’s Piccadilly Gardens in the 1980s(Image: Manchester Libraries and Local Archives | MEN)<\/p>\n

Boasting some 2,500 plants, the building itself is 70 metres long and 22 metres high and is also cited as being one of the largest temperate glasshouses to be built in the UK. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II back in 2003.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s quite random, maybe even bizarre, to be situated within Sheffield, but it\u2019s lovely.<\/p>\n

I managed two visits there during my overnight visit to the city and it was full of people both during the day and night, with people stopping by the benches with friends, others just sitting reading or admiring the surroundings and others just walking through to get around the city.<\/p>\n

\"Sheffield'sSheffield’s Peace Gardens also have a number of water features<\/p>\n

Open from 8am to 8pm on most days, it was an added charm to an already pretty charming place.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a side entrance to the Millennium Gallery, a caf\u00e9 selling jerk chicken, and a viewable glass window looking into the Gardens from the opposite Ego restaurant (which is also worth a visit, by the way).<\/p>\n

Honestly, I can\u2019t see a grand greenhouse being built in Piccadilly Gardens – nor could I imagine it\u2019s something that most people would actually want – so I can see how some might think I’m comparing apples to oranges.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe nearby Ego Mediterranean restaurant also offers a unique perspective of the Winter Gardens<\/p>\n

But the Winter Gardens is a prime example of a city project that has nature and green spaces at its core focus. Admission is also free, so money is clearly not the primary objective here. But it\u2019s still well kept and well attended.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not trying to shame Piccadilly Gardens but, let\u2019s be honest, it\u2019s hardly serving its purpose these days. Most people pass through it with trepidation at night, whilst others avoid it all together.<\/p>\n

Even recently, there’s been incidents where people have felt threatened<\/a> by large groups of people.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Winter Gardens were a free and accessible walk though nature<\/p>\n

We could do something which celebrates the world we live in and maybe even teaches a few things to us visitors. We also need something that is an attractive (and free) attraction to visit in the city centre.<\/p>\n

But it does need to be a solid commitment, one that will stand the test of time as well as being something that we can be proud of.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t even need to be a major project – just a few trees, plants, and shrubs could do a wonderful job in transforming Piccadilly Gardens from what it is today (there is, however, another argument to be made about how long such a project would last before people tried to tear it down\u2026).<\/p>\n

In a city full of offices, skyrise buildings and more takeaways than we could possibly ever need, we certainly could do with a bit more greenery – and I’m keen to see what the council have in store when it comes to the future of Piccadilly Gardens.<\/p>\n

Join our Manc Life WhatsApp group HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m not trying to shame Piccadilly Gardens but, let\u2019s be honest, it\u2019s hardly serving its purpose these days…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,12232,393,4884,2465,8828,16429,1620,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-458170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-days-out","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-council","14":"tag-piccadilly-gardens","15":"tag-sheffield","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115282631796420298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}