Don't call it a comeback,i've been here for years! Hey,hey folks,it's me! Back from the dead again. What's 4 years of inactivity between friends? Nothing,that's what! So what have you all been up to? Nothing? I wish I never asked...... I figured I should make a comeback with The Gardens,not the surrounding bits but the gardens themselves. I'm one of those lost souls that you have probably tutted at on a Saturday afternoon as you walk past PG and see the whole of humanity laid bare before you. People with dogs? Check. Surly teens? Check. One legged pigeons? Check. A dude shouting about Jesus through a megaphone? Check. People showing that Spice is the variety of life? Check. Little kids playing in the fountains? Oddly,check. Me,Mrs Z and some of our friends who have popped into Morrisons for some cans before probably heading to a gig somewhere to get our Metal on? Check.. I love people watching and the gardens is the best place to do it on a nice sunny afternoon (both of them)... It's a bit (a lot) different after dark so should only be tackled by experienced moody dodgers.. The Manc microcosm.. read more

Piccadilly Gardens - At least 10 of them have only one leg.. - Parks Near Me - Manchester, XGM

I walked past here during my time in Manchester. I did not know what it's called untill now :) i was here during summer so it was full of people and rides. The metro trams go through which I think looks good. I never stayed for long so I don't know much else around. Looks like a good place to sit and just relax, watching people, have your sandwich and watching the trams go by. read more

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At the North-West corner are a number of huts selling street food. I had a small box of Chinese food containing salt and pepper chicken, fried rice and noodles with a chicken based sauce and a veg spring roll - all for 7 GBP. read more

British tourists in foreign cities always go find a square or park with a fountain. Its like a magnet, you just can't resist. Yet somehow a lot of us have been resisting Piccadilly Gardens as a place to hang out. The weather. Aha, of course. You're not going to go take a picnic and eat ice creams on the grass in a downpour are you? So they have had to work harder to hold our attention so we don't just walk right through. There is the Manchester Real Food Market on the second and last weekend of each month (Friday and Saturday) - cute little white tents selling fresh fruit and veg, flowers and tons of local produce. Buying local cheese from the market - tres francais non? We have also just had a weekend of dance, parkour and street theatre called Platform 4 Piccadilly, with Xtrax, complete with the Mancunian steel band Hi-Tech. This outdoor festival also happened last year and is just the kind of thing you seek out in Spain or Italian cities on balmy nights, so why not our own? Watch this space, literally, for more of la meme... read more

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Piccadilly Gardens is not my cup of tea when it comes to a place I would like to sit and relax. The place is rammed packed during the summer months around the water fountains with screaming children and tired mothers. I hate to spoil the impression that has been given in previous reviews but from my perspective this is not an idyllic place from which to observe Manchester. I appreciate this place attracts some great outdoor markets but I believe a backdrop of Primark and Starbucks is not a place I want to spend too much time hanging around in. Each to their own though eh. read more

Piccadilly Gardens - Parks Near Me - Manchester, XGM

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Less of a park to come and sunbathe or play Frisbee in, Piccadilly Gardens is more a pleasant place to eat your lunch without having to trek away from the centre of Manchester. With places like Rice, Kro and Pizza Express around the small gardens, and lots of places to grab a sandwich, you could do a lot worse of a hot lunchtime than sitting on a bench here and watching a few square meters of grass for your 30 minute lunch break. Think of the alternatives. Arndale food hall? Probably not. What's refreshing about Piccadilly Gardens is that the fountains do actually work. So many of these new fountain things in Britain's cities just don't. Well, they do here. But to save water they don't always turn them on which is a fair enough policy. When they are on, there's always some stupid teenagers pushing their friends into them and getting them wet. Classic. Piccadilly Gardens becomes a venue for the Christmas Markets and other various events around the year. A great addition to the city. read more

Piccadilly Gardens - Parks Near Me - Manchester, XGM

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Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens was the original site of the Manchester Royal Infirmary. The infirmary occupied the site at Piccadilly from 1752 to 1910 (when it moved to its current site on Oxford Road); the lowered area (as before 2000) of the gardens arose from the hospital's basement. In 1914 the infirmary had been fully removed from the site, and after several years of trying to decide how to develop the site, it ended up being left and made into Manchester's largest open inner city green space. The square at Piccadilly Gardens is currently the central hub of Manchester's public transport system. The square is only 5 minutes' walk from the mainline Manchester Piccadilly railway station and 10 minutes walk from Manchester Victoria railway station. Queen Victoria statue with Piccadilly Plaza in the background The square was revamped in 2001 2002, after a design by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando, to include new green space and fountains, although the original statues all remain. The redesign was part of the massive construction process that covered Manchester in the build up to the city hosting the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Previously the square was becoming increasingly run down and was considered unsafe. At a contract cost of around £10 million Piccadilly Gardens was renovated and ended up being shortlisted in 2003 for the Better Public Building Award. read more

Piccadilly Gardens - Parks Near Me - Manchester, XGM

I have a very mixed review on Piccadilly Gardens, Its quite a large area which has Shops,Restaurants,Coffee shops,Supermarkets,Hotels, a huge bus station, Tram Station and a large observation wheel, Its lovely sat in one of the Coffee shops or bars what overlook the area of the gardens, Caffe Nero is nice and Kro Bar is lovely to sit outside on those summery days, or just sit on one of the large benches and people watch, The area is safe in the day but at night it does attract a not so desirable crowd so i would stay away at night but in the day its great for people watching and just enjoying the lovely days of the summer. read more

Piccadilly Gardens - Piccadilly gardens wheel - Parks Near Me - Manchester, XGM

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This is a great place to sit in the sun and watch the world go by. Their shops restaurants. Just wish the council could sort out the big wall that divides the Picadilly gardens from the bus station. But a great place to sit and eat your lunch when the sun is out. read more

This public space is always packed during the day even more so on the weekend when the weather is fair. There you will find children romping through the fountains, people enjoying their take-away on the grass, and the high number of homeless or nearly homeless looking for a pound or two. Close to Piccadilly Station and the Northern Quarter you can find just about anything within a few blocks radius of this wonderful public square. read more

It's a much needed little bit of green amongst the concrete and cobbly bits, but there isn't much of it. It varies entirely day to day as to how pleasant is it. Sometimes it is just lovely to sit on the steps or the grass in the sun and chat. Maybe with some food from one of the very many eateries surrounding it. It's got even busier since becoming a Pokemon go stop (and you can tell my the phone fixed masses as you approach). It's normally pretty clean, and is a good transport hub, but the bit of random roof (which has terribly done drainage for rainy Blighty!) is often filled with the smell of weed. How the cafes don't just move them on I don't know, maybe hoping for more munchies caused custom... read more

Hahaaaa, Kirsten is so right! One of my most treasured memories of first year of Uni is of me and Tea Snob Friend trying to 'summon' the fountains at Piccadilly Gardens, at 3am, by singing Wuthering Heights. Needless to say, it didn't work, but I still insist that when drunk, I can sing Wuthering Heights perfectly. Anyway, the fountains at PG are a big feature, and it sends a big maternal twang through my tum-tum when summer rocks around and the fountains are full of tiny little people (child-er-en, I think they call 'em) having a fantastic time. Not so keen on the shouty teenagers that also enjoy these big jets of water, but that's because I'm a grumpy curmudgeon. I also hate getting wet, and fear trips and slips, so I've never frolicked among the (switched on)jets. In fact, I was quite chuffed when they *didn't* come on during our 'summoning exercise'. As well as fountains, PG plays host to a veritable melting-pot of Manchester. You've got your 15-year-old emos, and your 11-am-drunks and your occasional crusty-acoustic-guitar-boy, all sitting around and (generally) minding their own business. During the day at least. At night, PG is a different story. Unless you're heading into the warm doughy bosom of Pizza Express, avoid PG, as it quickly becomes the refuge of braying 'lads' and the archway between Nero and Rice becomes a veritable hot-box of weed fumes. Not nice unless you want to be called "darrrrrliiiiin!" or get second-hand-high. Or first-hand-high, if you befriend the youths. Hey, it's a free country (though you'll probably have to pretend to have glaucoma to avoid arrest, which throws up myriad ethical questions, and is not advisable...) Overall, it's not a nice park, but it's an alright place to while away an hour or so, and once I found two £2 coins in the grass, like treasure. It made my bleedin' week, it did (better than the time I found £100 in London Victoria, HONEST!) read more

This area is fabulous for your restaurants and bars, also located central for the shops. A BIG advantage is Anytime Fitness gym is launching on February 15th which is great for a "stop-off" workout for employees at local businesses before/after work & also on their dinner breaks. Any queries click on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AnytimeFitnessManchesterPiccadilly/ or contact our female PT katie.mitchell@anytimefitness.co.uk read more

PIccadilly Gardens must not suffer a low rating for the dingoids that hang out there. It's a pretty nice stretch of grass and there is a pret near by and a Kro bar so its got that going for it. It has fountains which on a sunny day attract ne'er do wells from the four corners of greater manchester who like to run their pasty bodies through it. If you can stomach that then I suppose it's a lovely place to be. read more

Do fountains enthral you? They do me. I spend hours staring at them, suddenly and inexplicably needing the loo (in fact I do now), wondering who comes up with all those strange shapes and sizes. The water features at Piccadilly Gardens dominate it somewhat with in addition to your regular, normal-looking fountain - you know, big stone pond with a statue what spits out water, you've got an entire expanse of concrete slab with tiny little jets of water shooting out. As you can imagine this is popular for kids who want to give their parents tension headaches by racing across it in their panties in summer. Kids and water, as Rolf Harris said. It's a great central point in which to get away from the town throngs, with its neat greenery, its water features and its many restaurants and bars. It has its own tram stop as well as being adjacent to the Northern Quarter, the train station and the main shopping areas. Kro is one of my favourite bars and resides there alongside a nice Pizza Express, the fabulous Barburrito, Rice and many more. You're spoilt for choice in terms of beverages and eats. Meanwhile it happens to be the host of some great events, including the Hungry Pigeon Festival which I attended last summer. It's a great place to watch live music al fresco and enjoy a few pear ciders if the weather holds up, which luckily for us it did. Just be wary that in the summer months the place can get a little crammed at weekends, with the various 9-5ers desperately seeking a bit of sunshine with their pint. read more

Piccadilly Gardens, love it and hate it depending on the time of day you pass it . 4am after a sociable night out, hate it. 2pm on a sunny afternoon, love it. Well, now that depends, if you're standing there, pleasantly mindlessly minding your own whilst your ears are plugged up and you're waiting on a few friends in front of one of the benches, has anyone not been approached by a JoHo or a Mormon, getting ready to preach the good word of the Lord and convert you and all of your sins? I can't have been the only one this has happened to, and it's happened about three or four times now? I'm starting to get traumatised about the whole affair. Anyhoo.... Fountains and children, adorable or a pain in the arse, depends on your whole perspective about kidlets...depends what day it is as to how i swing on that. Nice days and it's convenient and purdy enough and grassy enough to grab a sarnie and a mate and sit your bad self down and just chillax for a few moments. If the grass and prospect of piddle don't do it for you, then pick a bench in the local area and sit down on that. Being central to the pathways of daily life in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens provides an excellent channel for those who like to people watch. I am a people watcher, and the goings and doings of daily life truly fascinate me. Love it or loathe it, it's there, and it's been done up, and it's a good pod that leads off to the train station, shopping high street, theatres, eatieries etc and when a kid gets blasted by a fountain....entertainment central! read more

I have seen some mad people running through these fountains barely dressed and its snowing! In summer, I get it and have done it. This is a great place to chill out either with your friends or on your dinner break. I am a people watcher so its nice to watch people run around or are late for work. Rain or shine, this place brings entertainment from markets and music. Its a nice change from being indoors and as we are use to the poor weather up in the North, there is no need to shy away from such a lovely place! read more

At some point in their life every Manchester dweller has run through the fountains here. OK, maybe not everyone. On my postcard of Lowry's picture of the Gardens (in times when there was more green and less concrete) there is certainly no-one frolicking in the fountains. But that was in 1954 when people walked their dogs there rather than using it as a cut through between the railway station and Primark. Personally I quite enjoy a spot of people watching in Piccadilly Gardens during the summer months. Especially when unsuspecting people get pushed into the fountains. Schadenfreude? Never. However, there have not been many times when I've been left to people watch in peace. Particularly at the side of the Gardens which houses Rice and Caffe Nero, there are always people (men) who like to start a conversation with passers by. In my experience they're best avoided. There are various events here throughout the year including the food markets, the annual creation of a huge mural made of flowers and the sledging slope in December. Just stay away from the giant plastic urinals. They certainly did not appear on Lowry's picture. read more

Not the cleanest of public areas i have visited. Although i have been spoilt with Sheffield's magnificent public squares in recent years. However, it is the central hub of Manchester really, both transport wise and as meeting place. read more

Piccadilly Gardens is disgusting and dirty. When you are in it all you can see is a big ugly wall and a cafe Nero's. Round the corner there are even outside urinals! Thumbs down! read more

I suppose these days we should be grateful for any greenery in our city centres -- at least Piccadilly Gardens offers that! However it also offers, bizarrely, some metal statues of trees -- why couldn't they have planted more of the genuine articles instead? The area itself is a wide-open space used for a variety of purposes. A small Farmers' Market is set up here on Saturday mornings, and a temporary ice-rink is sometimes put in over the Christmas period. I've even seen a large balloon take off from the site to celebrate the opening of a new branch of a high-street bank, although I guess that won't be happening again for a little while And of course there's a very convenient tram station there as well. All in all, it's a pleasant enough area, but a bit more greenery in an area referred to as gardens wouldn't go amiss. read more

Piccadilly Gardens is an area in the centre of Manchester which is home to the main Manchester bus terminal and a Metro Link station. It also has the so called gardens which is basically some small patches of grass around a water feature. Manchester city centre is very lacking in green spaces and Piccadilly Gardens does little to make up for it. In summer shopper and shop workers crowd the area to eat their lunch and get some sun. Around the edges of Piccadilly Gardens you will find lots of shops, banks and cafes. My favourite is Barburritos which is a Mexican fast food restaurant. read more

Fountains, weird preacher people, people relaxing in the sun and or rain which is usually the case in manchester. Its basically your all access point to the town I live in. Market street, Arndale, Afflecks, Northern Quarter, Oxford Road etc all within walking distance from this point. At night it gets full of drunkards and people pissing in the street but name me a town centre that doesn't have this and I will move immediately. I only pass through here to get to somewhere else not spending much time here so forgive me if it doesn't fill me with joy. read more

Piccadilly Gardens is now a lovely reformed area. There are many seats, a grassed area and a modern water fountain. It is lovely in the summer, children enjoy playing in and around the fountain and the grassy area is perfect for sunbathing. At christmas time an ice rink is built in the centre, making it look like a scene from a movie. There are surrounding pubs, bars and cafes alike, nice for sitting and people watching or resting after a hard days shopping! read more

Gardens is quite a generous way to describe this area which is essentially just a few patches of grass. The area can look quite nice in the summer when the fountains are working either side of the bridge and there are workers eating their lunches on the grass in the sun. However apart from that whilst it could be described as 'urban' it can look a bit too 'concretey'. There are also outdoor urinals on one side of the large concrete wall which whilst might be practical i've never seen anyone using anytime i've walked past! The gardens are home to the bus station and metrolink station which newly built are very modern and look great and are also close to the main Market Street shopping area of Manchester so in the summer can be quite a nice place to have a sit down inbetween shopping. read more

Piccadilly gardens, before the IRA bomb used to be a wonderful sunken garden with flowers, bushes and lots of greenery. Now, after the big revamp it has changed drastically. It is mostly concrete with two large patches of grass. It is very minimalist which is a design feature I like but unfortunatly I think it was better before when it was what it said on the tin-a garden. It gets very busy in summer and is a good place to meet friends but sometimes it is just too over crowded. The fountains are a nice feature but look very bleak in winter and I think they have a standard design as I have seen replicas in other cities-no individuality. I would recommend going to the gardens to socialise but not as good as back in the day. Thumbs down Im afraid. read more

I tend to agree with Lipgloss.with reference to Piccadilly Gardens as I am from East Sussex and spent the Christmas period up there visiting my step daughters and one day whilst I was waiting for them I decided to take a few pictures of the ice statues that were around the perimeter of which I found very interesting as it must have taken the person who sculptured them a long time to do and was most probably a cold couple of days for him/her. Now with that aside, although I said that I was from East Sussex (which I hate), I did spend ten wonderful years in Manchester and am trying very hard to get back up there to the part of the country I love read more

Piccadilly Gardens has changed dramatically after its refurb. I can see the logic in developing the area, but i feel the area could have been made with more 'green space' than it has now. The gardens now have a very 'urban' look, if it wasn't for the history of the 'gardens' it would be more rightly named Piccadilly square. The one plus side for 'the square' is the development of the shops, bars and restaurants that surround it. They include a variety of cuisins from Mexican to noodle bars. Overall though i think the people of the city would have liked to have seen more 'green space' included in the designs. read more

Bustling, busy, always filled with loads of people, definitely worth walking through if you're in the centre. Normally some form of music being played throughout the year. I personally just like going for a sit in this area just to see what's happening around the centre. During the Xmas holidays, this space is temporarily renovated into a Christmas wonderland with giant advent calendar, outdoor bars and other such Christmas stalls. read more

Even if I don't want to, I need to hit Piccadilly Gardens everyday. In my way to work, on my home, on my way to have some fun. Always the Gardens. In the winter, I must say it's pretty grim. Few people walking around, in a rush, with no smile on their faces. As soon as the spring comes, and we have a bit of sun, things are way different. You walk around with your partner, hand in hand. You stop by the little fountains and exchange a nice kiss, you buy yourself a cup of coffee from the local shops and stay there for the rest of the afternoon, on the grass, getting a tiny little tan. I've noticed that even lots of business men, in their suits, come here to sit and look around while smoking a cigarette and eating their lunch. Lots of kids playing around, being loud and running to catch the pigeons. When my mom came to Manchester, she said she loves this place. Full of live, always giving you the impression that time never stops. It's a great spot if you fancy having a chilled one. Just come and join the rest of the Britons in a hot sunny day. read more

Come a cross Piccadilly gardens, it was great place to relax for a hour having your tea with friends!

best place to go in the summer and run through the water after a day of hard shopping.

newly transformed area, no longer full of pigeons & tramps! it now has posh cafes & a great water feature. still a few pigeons though & the odd tramp, & watch out for the trams! read more