Life on top of the Beetham Tower

by Richard Turner

Ian Simpson takes a look at the building he designed

For someone who lives in the highest apartment in Europe, architect Ian Simpson is surprisingly down-to-earth.

Brought up in Heywood near Rochdale, his father demolished mill chimneys for a living.

Yet despite a background of knocking down Manchester's tallest structures, Ian now puts them up.

With No.1 Deansgate and Urbis already to his name, it's the iconic Beetham Tower for which he's best known - and where he's made his home.

When I designed this building I knew that it could give me this wonderful space that I wouldn't get anywhere else Ian Simpson, architect

So what's it like living there?

"It's a bit of an oasis in the sky," he said.

"It's only 45 seconds away from the bustle of the city centre. But when you get up here, it's very tranquil, it's very light and you can look around the city, so you can isolate yourself.

"And that's the sort of thing that I think is really special about high level, high rise living."

Views

By any measure, Ian Simpson's penthouse apartment is breathtaking.

Firstly, at 160m above ground, it has incomparable views of Manchester.

The city's former landmark structures - Central Library, the vast roof of Manchester Central, and Alfred Waterhouse's Manchester Town Hall are all revealed from this new vantage point.

Further afield, Ian Simpson, his partner and their cat can gaze out in all directions across the entire region where, on a clear day, Snowdon, Jodrell Bank, Blackpool Tower and the Liverpool skyline are all visible.

"The views are outstanding," he said. "Although I don't like it when it's stormy. The wind blows so hard that it's almost like being at sea. It can get quite scary."

'Tranquil'

The olive grove had to be lowered in by crane during construction

Secondly, there's the apartment itself.

Occupying the top two floors - 47 and 48 - this vast living space with its lofty ceilings is filled with natural light, in a way that other loft apartments are not.

But its most stunning feature is Manchester's most talked about, and possibly only, olive grove in what Ian calls his 'garden.'

A grove of 27 mature olive trees imported from Italy were installed before the completion of the building and are thriving despite their unusual location.

"What we've tried to create is almost a Mediterranean space," he said. "The whole thing is arranged so that it get's the sun all day. So it's a very tranquil, very peaceful space."

Dynamic

On a clear day, Blackpool Tower and the Liverpool skyline are visible

Mr Simpson admits that the Beetham's bold and dynamic design isn't to everyone's taste, but believes that 'it's something that many Mancunians take pride in,' representing the future and ambition of the city.

So does living in one of his own buildings make the Beetham special?

"Definitely," he said. "A lot of architects like to design modern buildings, but live in Georgian ones.

"When I designed this building I knew that it could give me this wonderful space, with the height and the light that I wouldn't get anywhere else.

"Put it this way, I'm not planning on moving. This is it now. This is home."

Ian Simpson was talking as part of the Changing Cityscapes series on BBC News