Salford Quays development gets LED sign

The Soapworks development on the Salford Quays has been endowed with a brand new, large scale LED sign, which will shine out and make it one of the most recognisable places in the area.

The Soapworks was originally a factory complex owned by Colgate and Palmolive and used to manufacture their products, but it has since been bought by a number of investors and has subsequently been developed into office and retail space spanning over 400,000 square feet.

The LED sign is arranged vertically on the side of the 26 metre chimney, which towers over the Boilerhouse building, within which there is 20,000 square feet of space for any number of purposes.

Although in the short term the LED sign will be used to advertise the name of the building, the owners are looking into using it as a multimedia display, which will be open for sponsorship by local businesses and worthy causes over the coming months and years. This will mean that the sign will come to feature a number of different campaigns.

One of the reasons an LED sign was used for the Soapworks installation is because of the low energy consumption associated with the technology. Obviously using static lettering might have been an option, but the inflexible and power hungry nature of this signage would have been untenable in the long term, according to spokesperson Ben Du Boulay.

The Soapworks is not yet complete, but organisers expect it to be open at some point next year. The chimney stack and its LED display are now a proud feature of the Salford Quays area according to Manchester Confidential and the owners hope that with affordable rental prices and a prime position it will be a real highlight once it is totally operational.