Canal Street is now universally known as the centre point of Manchester’s Gay Village. It is located nearby to Piccadilly train station and lies opposite the new Kampus suburb. It is quite astounding how often these new areas spring up in Manchester, where I often have to peruse the map when I read about the latest one to identify where it is positioned geographically.
Canal Street first appeared when linked to the construction of the adjacent Rochdale Canal which was initially built in 1804. This naturally resulted in various pubs and businesses being built in that area. As canal trade waned in the 1950’s (post Peaky Blinders) the area morphed into a cotton factory enclave and by night was a red light district.
Canal Street. Image Credit Manchester Evening News
As the cotton era ended it became a dark decaying area and was used for furtive meetings between gay geezers. In the unforgiving 1980’s decade the Greater Manchester Chief Constable James Anderton accused homosexuals of ‘swirling in the cesspit of their own making’, sounds like a lovely open minded chap!
That statement mirrored the abhorrent rhetoric that was being peddled out at that stage by the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher. She also introduced Section 28 in 1988 which effectively banned homosexuality and this was only repealed in 2003 after a long campaign.
This also coincided with the shameful death sentence years of early AIDS, lovingly portrayed in Russell T Davies ‘It’s a Sin’ TV series, which even though set in London, was partially filmed in Manchester.
In 1990 the first bar opened called Manto which took over an old garage repair building, and they made the exceptionally brave move to not hide away behind unmarked doors and installed sizeable plate glass windows. It was a statement of intent but perhaps understandably did not prevent it from making a loss for the first six months as people were fearful of entering across the threshold. After those initial difficulties it began to thrive and remained there until its closure in 2013.
Manto. Image Credit Historic England.
Another event contributing to this gradual sea change of acceptance was the endorsement of the forward thinking council who were the first to support civil partnerships and supported many non-discrimination sexuality policies.
Many bars opened there in the intervening years, and it eventually became the most successful gay village in Europe. The location featured heavily in the 1999 ‘Queer as Folk’ and the very recent ‘Tip Toe’ TV series.
As the popularity increased it became more of a ‘go to’ destination for stag and hen outings and this introduced for a time the ‘gayness’ test. Uncle George one night fell foul of this criteria as I was allowed access, but he was denied entry as he was classed as ‘not gay enough’. I have obviously never mentioned this to him since!
On the musical front, the germination of what later became the Manchester Pride Festival commenced in 1985 with a grant of £1700 from Manchester City Council to sponsor the first event. In 2003 the Gay Village became the established location for what was by that stage a ten-day gathering.
I have never yet attended the festival but anecdotally I have heard from my festival mole Lottie that it has been marred over the last couple of years by been guilty of overselling and valid ticket holders have not even been able to access the event. Previous performers include Ariana Grande, Dannii Minogue, Rita Ora, Jake Shears, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Sugababes.
The street used to be a regular jaunt for a late drink in the 1990’s when we were creatively killing time prior to the 1.24am ghost train back to Preston after numerous gigs and the obligatory visit to Chinatown. In the last year Riggers and I have travelled over for the odd Friday night match to watch PNE and I have had a 30 minute gap at Piccadilly station before my last train home.
So, in October 2025 I decided to use that time productively and had a skelp down and wandered into Manchester The Church and there was a local act called the Alter Girls performing. The venue is owned by husband and husband team John and Antonia Hamilton who previously launched Poptastic in 1996 and also currently own Bar Pop, which is another thriving joint on the street.
The Church Bar. Image Credit gaymapper.com
I repeated the trick in March 2026 this time venturing into Manchester Via Bar where I saw an artist called Kayleigh playing. The Via has been open since 1995 and is known locally as the ‘grande dame’ of the street. Their website informs me that they will be an active participant in the 2026 pride event with performances there including Claire Richards from Steps, Una Healy from The Saturdays, Adam Rickitt from Coronation Street and Katie Price from Brighton!
