TWO decades after it was derided as a failed experiment, high-rise living is back -- only now it is designer led and expensive. Andrew Mosley reports

IN the late 1950s, high rise living was seen as the future. Onwards and upwards they went, the tower blocks and streets in the sky, designed with space-saving in mind.

Based on a Scandinavian concept, these high-rise blocks were quick to build, but quicker to fall.

At first these shining beacons of modern urban and suburban living, created with the aim of housing Britain's quickly-expanding population, were lauded as ground-breaking, the praise for the architects and planners as high as the blocks they built.

Within 20 years, however, they were viewed as monstrosities and, by the 1980s, the bulldozers were called in to demolish these by now vandalised and crumbling buildings and the short-lived communities that went with them.

They went unloved and unlamented by most, but over the past five years they have started to make a comeback, albeit wearing the shiny mask of designer urban living.

Trendy new apartment blocks are springing up all over the North-west, many in previously rundown areas and often being developed in former factories and warehouses.

Manchester's skyline has been dramatically altered over the past five years and Bolton, where the only real concession to old-style high rise was the recently demolished Skagen Court, is set to follow suit.

Tom Bloxham, chairman of Urban Splash, was the first to exploit this town's development opportunities when he teamed up with the Irwell Valley Housing Association to build shared ownership apartments in Clive Street, off Bradshawgate.

That project, the Arches, is now completed with one-bedroom flats selling at just below £90,000.

An application to build another block of flats in the area has been submitted to Bolton Council and plans are also afoot to demolish the former cinema in Bradshawgate and build 36 apartments with car parking space.

Obviously, these developments do not compare in size with some of those in Manchester but the message is that apartment living is back.

Urban Splash, one of the leading developers in the country, has been involved with projects in Manchester and Liverpool, where trendy apartments have risen from the ashes of previously derelict mills and neighbourhoods.

Tom Bloxham says he wants to bring city-style living to the town, which he believes has a wealth of development opportunities.

"Bolton has some fantastic buildings and now that canals are being restored it opens up a whole range of possibilities in places previously overlooked," he said.

Among its many local projects, Urban Splash worked on the new Timber Wharf development in Castlefield, Manchester -- once a run-down area of the city but now thriving with homes, bars and restaurants. One bedroom apartments start at £160,000.

On top of all that, almost literally, Beetham Tower, a new £150 million 47-storey glass structure, is set to become the highest living space in the UK -- and the tallest building in Manchester.

The spectacular addition to the city's skyline combines residential apartments, office space and a 285-bed five star hotel, and will take apartment living in the UK to new heights.

The development will include 219 apartments and penthouse suites from floors 25 upwards, most of which are already sold.

Opinions on the return to high-rise living have generally been quite positive and it is hoped a similar increase in continental-style apartment living in Bolton -- perhaps not so high, though -- will make the town centre more attractive to shoppers and investors.

Website comment suggests jealousy from people in other cities where the buildings are not yet scraping the sky.

Rob Mackie, in Leeds, writes: "This is the first true skyscraper in the UK outside London, but Leeds, then Liverpool and now even Newcastle have proposals for towers of 47 to 50 storeys.

"Manchester certainly leads but others will follow. High-rise living in the North has finally arrived."

Neil Bond, in the same city, says: "This (Beetham Tower) is a great building for Manchester. Along with Spinningfields and many other developments, Manchester has shown it is the capital of the North without a doubt and has really put Leeds and Birmingham in the shade."

Urban Splash's long-stated aim is to take the best architecture of the past and combine it with the best contemporary architecture and design.

He said: "Urban living is the vogue for the future. Our whole purpose as a company is to transform rundown urban areas and create modern living environments which make urban living once more a real choice.

"Urban Splash is keen to help Bolton create a modern, exciting and forward-looking town centre."