Trafford Wharfside Masterplan

The transformation of Trafford Wharfside represents one of Europe’s most ambitious urban regeneration projects. Centred around Manchester United’s proposed new stadium and developed together with Trafford Council, the masterplan sets out a long-term vision for transforming 150 hectares of former industrial land into a new mixed-use district for more than 30,000 residents, thousands of workplaces and millions of visitors each year.

SLA has led the landscape strategy and public realm framework, placing nature, water and public life at the heart of the regeneration. Rather than treating landscape as the spaces left between buildings, the masterplan uses landscape as the organising structure for the entire district—guiding urban development, restoring ecological systems and creating a distinctive identity rooted in Wharfside’s industrial heritage.

A district shaped by landscape

Trafford Wharfside has long been defined by movement and production. The Manchester Ship Canal, Bridgewater Canal, railway infrastructure and docklands made the area one of Britain’s great industrial engines. Today, these same assets become the foundation for a new landscape framework.

The masterplan reconnects waterways, green infrastructure and neighbourhoods through a coherent network of parks, streets and public spaces that support biodiversity, climate resilience, active mobility and everyday life.

Instead of erasing Wharfside’s industrial history, the landscape celebrates it. Former rail alignments become ecological corridors. Dock edges become public promenades. Robust industrial materials are reused to create a public realm that feels unmistakably of Trafford rather than imported from elsewhere.

From grey infrastructure to green socialstructure

At the centre of the vision lies Central Midfield – a new 3-hectare city park connecting Manchester United’s proposed stadium with the Imperial War Museum North while stitching together the Manchester Ship Canal and Bridgewater Canal landscapes.

Created on former industrial land, the park establishes a new civic heart for Wharfside. Existing traces of infrastructure are preserved and reinterpreted alongside generous tree planting, biodiverse habitats, flexible public spaces and everyday recreation.

Beyond the park, the landscape framework transforms the area’s oversized industrial road network into green, walkable streets. Trafford Wharf Road, Wharfside Way and Europa Way evolve from traffic corridors into tree-lined urban streets prioritising pedestrians, cyclists and public life.

The Ship Canal waterfront becomes a continuous recreational promenade, while the Bridgewater Canal develops into a green social spine supporting biodiversity, recreation and everyday movement across the district.

Together these interventions establish an interconnected blue-green infrastructure that manages stormwater, improves urban resilience and creates healthier neighbourhoods while supporting the area’s long-term growth.

Raw. Blue. Green.

The landscape vision is guided by three defining qualities that make Trafford Wharfside unique.

Raw celebrates the area’s industrial legacy through the retention of railway traces, dock structures and a robust material palette that creates identity and legibility.

Blue embraces the Manchester Ship Canal and Bridgewater Canal as major ecological and social assets, strengthening public access to water while reconnecting the district through continuous waterfront landscapes.

Green builds upon Wharfside’s remarkable self-grown ecology. Existing spontaneous vegetation and habitats are protected and expanded to create a resilient urban landscape where biodiversity and public life coexist.

Rather than replacing the site’s wild character, the masterplan enhances it – allowing nature to remain visible, productive and integral to everyday urban life.

Nature as the framework for urban growth

As Trafford Wharfside evolves over the coming decades, landscape becomes the constant that connects individual developments into a coherent place.

The public realm framework ensures that every new neighbourhood contributes to a larger ecological network while creating spaces for recreation, movement, community life and climate adaptation. Green infrastructure is designed not simply as amenity, but as essential urban infrastructure that supports both people and nature.

By allowing ecology, waterways and industrial heritage to shape the future city, the Wharfside Masterplan demonstrates how landscape can become the primary driver of regeneration – creating a destination that is resilient, distinctive and deeply rooted in place.