Present-day
When it closed, Belle Vue left a gaping hole in the heart of the region that has never been completely replaced. It gave people a focal point, something to be proud of, a place where they could take their families and be sure of a great day out at a reasonable cost.
“ ”In 1963 the Top Lake, formerly known as the Great Lake, was filled in and a 32-lane tenpin bowling alley built on its site, just behind the Lake Hotel. Known as the Belle Vue Granada Bowl, it opened in 1965, advertised as "the north's leading luxury centre". In 1983, after the rest of Belle Vue had closed, it was sold to First Leisure Group, and bowling continued for a time. A snooker club was built in a corner of the car park in 1985. All that remains of Belle Vue as of 2010 is the greyhound stadium and the snooker club; the original gardens and amusement park are now an industrial and residential area. A road in the housing estate, Lockhart Close, was named after circus ringmaster George Lockhart.
In the aftermath of Manchester's failed supercasino bid in 2008, local groups began to lobby for the construction of a "linear park" in the area, building on "the legacy of Belle Vue". It would comprise a new zoo, deer park and amusement park.
Read more about this topic: Belle Vue Zoological Gardens
Famous quotes containing the word present-day:
“The most dangerous aspect of present-day life is the dissolution of the feeling of individual responsibility. Mass solitude has done away with any difference between the internal and the external, between the intellectual and the physical.”
—Eugenio Montale (1896–1981)
“The general feeling was, and for a long time remained, that one had several children in order to keep just a few. As late as the seventeenth century . . . people could not allow themselves to become too attached to something that was regarded as a probable loss. This is the reason for certain remarks which shock our present-day sensibility, such as Montaigne’s observation, “I have lost two or three children in their infancy, not without regret, but without great sorrow.””
—Philippe Ariés (20th century)