Over the past year we carried out extensive research to understand student opinion on the current food, drinks and entertainment within our café and bar in University House on the Peel campus.

In summary, you told us:

• The bar needs to be more food focused - both in design and name
• We need to improve perceived value for money through better quality dishes, presented in a modern way
• We need to include more fresh, homemade, healthier and less snacky choices
• We need to use more ethically sourced, sustainable and local ingredients and reduce our carbon footprint
• The activities and events need to be more student led and student focused
• The café should always remain an alcohol free space
• Open the café in the evenings and allow it to be used for society and club events and meetings
• Reinforce the coffee shop influence
• Reduce drink prices and offer more deals, all year around
• Make it more female friendly in both ambience and food/drink offers.

In terms of design, you told us:

• More modern, designed with a WOW factor – to make it unique to Salford and even Manchester
• It should reflect Salford’s heritage and uniqueness
• More female friendly, lighter, cleaner and simple with a minimalist feel.
• Iconic, contemporary but not date. It needs to be modern and trendy but not achingly so
• Take influences from the Northern Quarter and independent business
• Something to embrace the whole student community, and in particular the creative talents of its students
• Zone areas within the space for sports, arts, drinking, relaxing and eating
• Modern, vibrant with an eclectic mixture of furniture
• Create a more flexible space which can be moved easily to create an impromptu dance floor, stage or DJ desk
• More cosier and comfortable areas suitable for chilling, including additional power recharge point for electronic gadgets
• Include theatre and front of house food preparation (We aim to install a stone ground pizza oven to answer this point!)

We heard you and are proud to present…

Salford is a metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, but for quite some time, has been recognised as a city in its own right. Salford has a lot of industrial heritage due to its location by ports and access to the sea. It was well known for many decades as a place of low quality Victorian terraced housing, made famous by iconic paintings by the artist L. S Lowry.

But by the late 70s, Salford began to gain a new heritage and began hitting the news for something completely new; its music.

Famous musicians and bands include Joy Division, whose lead singer Ian Curtis tragically committed suicide at 23, on the eve of their first USA tour in 1980. On the death of Ian Curtis, Joy Division became New Order and continues their cult punk/indie status even today. ‘Atmosphere’ is one of Joy Division’s best known singles.

Morrissey from the Smiths; The Happy Monday’s Shaun and Paul Ryder are all very proud Salfordians and like New Order, the Happy Monday’s also joined cult Manchester record label, Factory Records in the 1980s.

Factory Records was a northern British, independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, that featured several prominent musical acts on its roster, in addition to Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays. Names such as A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and James. Factory Records used a creative team (famously, the still local, graphic designer Peter Saville) to give the label and their recording artists, a particular sound and image. The label employed a unique cataloguing system that gave a number not just to its musical releases, but to artwork and other objects, as well.

Design Moods and influences

Factory Records and Peter Saville’s unique design style will easily be biggest influence on elements within the new social space. You will see such splashes in ‘Atmosphere’ like below. The clean backgrounds and use of tones within black and white imagery will give ‘Atmosphere’ a modern and fresh feel while paying homage to our great musical heritage.

We look forward to meeting you all in our new space and hope you enjoy your new student space!

Our thanks to all the students, Union staff and the University community who gave us their suggestions and feedback.