It was billed as a rival to Disneyworld… on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal.
In the early 1990s, developers unveiled an incredible plan to build a £70m theme park on wasteland at Pomona Docks. Space City, as it was dubbed, was set to include a 5,000 seat arena, two nightclubs, a roller coaster, a 3D cinema and an astronaut school.
Hoping to attract more than 1m visitors in its first year alone, it was to be based on the adventures of Mancunian spaceman Dan Dare, hero of the 1950s comic The Eagle, and his battles with his arch rivals the Mekons. Visitors would spend ‘luna credits’ instead of pounds at the 35 acre park, which would be split into four different worlds – Red Moon, Atlantis, Mekonta and Interplanetary Headquarters – linked by a monorail.
And to protect against the notorious Mancunian weather the whole thing was going to be undercover.
‘Dan dares to turn docks into a theme park’, read a Manchester Evening News headline as the plans were unveiled in 1992. The article quoted a spokesperson who boasted Space City would be Britain’s top theme park and create 700 jobs.
“The park will offer a galaxy of rides including some of the solar system’s greatest experiences,” they added.
Trafford council were similarly enthusiastic and in December 1992 granted outline planning permission for the ground-breaking proposal.
A model of the planned theme park
In a BBC Newsround report from December 1992 filmed at Pomona Docks, a clip of which is still available on the YouTube channel of comic book site Down The Tubes, over a backing track of the Prodigy’s Out Of Space, presenter Paul Welsh explained: “This piece of wasteland in the heart of Dan Dare’s home city is about to be turned into his ‘space city’.
“Permission’s just been given for the £70m scheme to go ahead. Looking at it now it’s hard to believe, but they reckon in just over three years this place will be full of Dan Dare-themed attractions from rockets rides to a real space school.
The 35 acre park, which would be split into four different worlds – Red Moon, Atlantis, Mekonta and Interplanetary Headquarters – linked by a monorail
“And on days like this with smashing British weather they are promising it will all be undercover.”
Pomona had a rich history as the playground of industrial Manchester and Salford. In the 19th Century it was home to Pomona pleasure gardens and later the short-lived Royal Pomona Palace.
Seating up to 30,000 people, it was the largest concert hall in the country and almost four times bigger than the Royal Albert Hall. But in 1887, just 12 years after opening, an explosion at a nearby chemicals factory left the building damaged.
And when Pomona was identified as an ideal dockland the palace and gardens were closed for good.
Pomona pictured in 2019. It’s now home to hundreds of new flats
(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Fast forward nearly a century, and with the docks long shut down, everything seemed in place for Pomona to once again become of a place of leisure. Work on Space City was due to begin in 1993 with an opening date in 1996 to coincide with the planned release of a new Dan Dare film.
It seemed like the theme park was all set for lift-off. But after the initial blaze of publicity it all went quiet.
It’s not clear exactly what happened, but 1993 came and went without a shovel breaking the ground. Neither the theme park or the film materialised.
Space City Limited, the company set up to develop the plans, was dissolved in 1997. Manchester’s dreams of an intergalactic theme park were lost in space.