Salford made information public, twice
- England’s first free public library, 1850
- BBC moved north from 2011
- ITV Granada followed in 2012
- MediaCityUK: 200 acres at the Quays
How Salford grew
A library, a canal, and a broadcaster moving north.
The first free public library
The Royal Museum and Public Library opened — generally recognised as the first unconditionally free public library in England. No subscription, no gatekeeping, open to anyone who walked in.
Two attempts at making information public
In 1850 Salford opened the Royal Museum and Public Library, generally recognised as the first unconditionally free public library in England. The principle was radical at the time: knowledge available to anyone who walked in, with no subscription and no gatekeeping.
A hundred and sixty years later the same borough took delivery of MediaCityUK, and from 2011 the BBC moved whole departments north — Sport, 5 Live, CBBC, then Breakfast. It remains the largest relocation of national broadcasting Britain has attempted.
Salford has now twice been the place where the country decided information should live somewhere other than where it always had.
What that means if you trade in Salford
Salford is a city in its own right that is constantly mistaken for a part of Manchester, and local businesses feel it: customers search for Manchester and the Salford firm never appears.
The practical answer is to claim both deliberately — be findable for the city you are in and the one people search for.
What Salford businesses ask us for
Claim Salford and Manchester
Customers search for both. A page that names only one loses the other.
MediaCity is its own market
The Quays and Eccles or Swinton are different customers entirely. Choose.
Show you are established
A fast-changing city makes people check. Years trading and real reviews do that work.
The media cluster here
Salford’s digital economy is not a general one. It is built around a single site: MediaCityUK, roughly two hundred acres on the Quays, where the BBC began moving departments in 2011 and ITV Granada arrived in 2012. Two of the country’s largest broadcasters now sit on the same waterfront.
That concentration produces a particular kind of local supplier base — production companies, post houses, freelance crew, studio services — and a particular kind of customer. People here are used to seeing work done properly, and to being pitched by people who talk about it well. The bar for presentation is higher than the size of the borough would suggest.
The University of Salford has a campus on the site itself, which keeps a supply of media and technology graduates arriving into the same square mile. If you sell to businesses in Salford, a meaningful share of them either work in media or serve people who do.
Where people work
The Quays hold the visible economy. The rest of Salford is a working city with its own trade, and the two barely overlap.
MediaCityUK
Around two hundred acres on the Manchester Ship Canal, with the BBC and ITV Granada as anchor tenants and a dense layer of production and technology businesses around them.
University of Salford
Runs a campus at MediaCityUK itself alongside its main Peel Park site — media, technology and creative courses feeding directly into the cluster next door.
Salford Quays
The former docks, redeveloped around the Lowry and the Imperial War Museum North. A visitor economy, an office economy and a residential one sharing the same water.
How Salford businesses use their sites
Two markets in one city. If you serve the media cluster, you are selling to people with professional standards about how things look. If you serve the rest of Salford, you are selling to an ordinary Greater Manchester customer base who mostly want to know whether you cover their area and whether you will turn up.
Trades and home services
Say which parts of Salford you cover — Eccles, Swinton, Walkden and Irlam are a long way apart, and customers check.
Clinics, salons and studios
Online booking, and prices on the page. The Quays population is young, well paid and will book at eleven at night.
Shops, cafés and hospitality
The Quays trade on footfall from the Lowry, the museum and the studios. Opening hours that match event nights matter more here than usual.
Media and creative services
You are being judged on craft. Show the work, keep the page fast, and be specific about what you actually do rather than listing everything.
Why FastSites works here
A city that twice decided information should be freely available is a reasonable place to publish a price rather than hide it behind a form. Ours is on the page.
One page, live in days, built mobile-first. If you trade on the Quays, say so; if you cover the wider borough, name the districts. In Salford those are two different pitches and it pays to pick one.
How well do you know Salford?
Five quick questions. Get all five right and you win a 10% off discount code for your website. Every answer is somewhere on this page, so have a read if you get stuck.
Salford quiz · 1 of 5
What opened in Salford in 1850?
Common questions
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Sign-up takes about 3 minutes and the build questionnaire about 5. Most sites are then designed and built within 21 hours, and live within days of the brief being answered.
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