Category: Manchester

Manchester Venues 221 to 222

It has been cited here previously that there were many sections of Manchester in the 1980’s and 1990’s that were still harking back to the Industrial Revolution era. An example of this was the large Spinningfields space located in a square bordered by Bridge Street to the north, Quay Street to the south, Deansgate to the east and River Irwell to the west. It consisted of a suite of grubby back alleys and tenement buildings and even the name was derived from the dark satanic cotton mills heyday.

The Manchester bombing of 1996 resulted in a comprehensive regeneration programme across the city including Spinningfields which went through a £1.5 billion gentrification phase over the next decade and was labelled by the marketeers as the ‘Knightsbridge of the North’. It was loaded up with various bars, restaurants and boutique shops over the 22-acre (89000 square metre) site with 16000 punters employed. The old magistrates court and the Manchester Evening News buildings amongst others were demolished as a result.  

Spinningfields. Image Credit Visit Manchester.

So, if you enter via Deansgate your first landmark is the impressive John Rylands Library which is well worth a visit and beyond there are the Australasia, Hawksmoor and the sorrowfully named Sexy Fish restaurants.

Nearby is a posh cocktail bar called Manchester Dear Sailor with three separate menus and drinks called Pecan Mai Tai Yuzu Meringue Martini if either of those delicacies happens to float your boat! Their blurb outlines they are inspired by the premise of 1930 Tokyo speakeasy bars and there are gentle house rules including that gentlemen cannot approach ladies unless they have already made the first move.  

One afternoon I happened to be trundling past on my way to the train station after work and the doors were wide open and live music assailed my lugs. I hung around for a spell and caught a portion of the Steel Band Boys set and their Caribbean influenced beats.

Dear Sailor. Image Credit spinningfields.co.uk

As you continue your circuit onto Quay Street you roll past Schofields Bar and the Opera House and then reach No 1 Spinningfields. This structure was built in 2014 and gained a highest new entry placing as the fifth highest building in Manchester and they house various accountancy and law firms and also have a large M&S food hall on the ground floor. At the top of the tower block you would find 20 Stories restaurant.  

In the central thoroughfare behind there is the Manchester branch of The Alchemist and The Ivy, the latter which Gill and I attended after her graduation. Further down New Quay Street you reach River Irwell and there is the obligatory branch of Slug and Lettuce.

There is a bridge over the river to the New Bailey estate taking you past the long gone Mark Addy pub and through to Salford Central station. However, the bridge has been closed for a couple of years now whilst awaiting repair thereby making my work commute slightly longer. This is also the location for commencements of tourist boat trips down the River Irwell.  

Onto Bridge Street you then alight outside the award winning People History Museum which after several previous homes settled in its current location in 1994. Artefacts there include Peterloo Massacre memorabilia, ex-Spitting Image puppets and Michael Foot’s inimitable donkey jacket. Last year it was included in the city’s art trail with all 48 of the instruments in the guitar trail exhibited there with additional donations from Oasis, Doves and New Order. Our new prime minister Andy Burnham recently chose the venue to deliver his first major speech after announcing his Labour Party leadership bid.  

You then pass the Civil Justice Centre which opened in 2007 and is known locally as the ‘filing cabinet’ due to its design shape. It was quite a ground breaking venture as it was the first major court complex built in Britain since 1882.  On that main drag there is the grand old freemasons Manchester Hall building and the Indian restaurant Dishoom with their breakfast Bacon Naan Rolls.

The ‘Filing Cabinet’. Image Credit insidehmcts.blog.gov.uk

To the rear of there is Manchester Oast House, which is designed based on a resemblance to an olde-worlde Yorkshire barn and was a brick by brick rebuild of a reclaimed 16th century oast house which was located in Kent, for which its original use was for brewers when roasting hops. It was originally a pop-up temporary location when it opened in 2011 but proved to be so popular it became a permanent venue. I have attended a couple of Christmas do’s there, one in the indoor building and another in the marquees that they install for the winter season.   

Oast House. Image Credit morningadvertiser.co.uk

There is a large outdoor seating space with two alfresco bars and a bespoke bandstand for live music, and they hold monthly festivals that are very well attended. I have seen seven acts there, either on post-work drinks or a cheeky Sunday visit on sunny days and they have all been comprised of cover acts.

Manchester Venues 219 to 220

In 2017 a new variation of the ‘Mackie Mayor’ food hubs, or perhaps more so a mirror of the BoxPark in Shoreditch, was opened by Bruntwood Property Group on Oxford Road which was named Manchester Hatch. It is situated just beyond the old BBC buildings and lies underneath the Mancunian Way motorway bridges.

My first memory of those bridges was in 1985 as part of a very early morning trog back into the city centre from the Manchester International venue after a fabulous seminal Husker Du gig. The reasons behind that particular march were there that there no late trains in those days and the walk was followed by a restless kip in Manchester Victoria station waiting rooms before subsequently catching the 6am train home.  

Hatch complex. Image Credit manchestersfinest.com

Hatch lived up to its name as it was comprised of a suite of around thirty colourful repurposed shopping containers which housed various local and independent food and drink traders including Kongs, Parmogeddon, House of Habisha and OL Brewery. There were three separate bars and in the middle of the central space there was a large food courtyard where I once grabbed some tea prior to a gig at Castlefield Bowl.

The name also implied that it was specifically for small pop up businesses to then be able to grow into more bespoke bricks and mortar sites. It was open seven days a week from 12 noon, and the contracts stipulated that each trader was required to be operational when the overall venue was open and their retention was desirable to endeavour to create favourites for footfall to return regularly. Due to their close proximity to the universities, they were a key component of Freshers Week.  

At one stage the overall business was achieving a £3.5m turnover, however in the summer of 2023 it all came to an abrupt and inglorious end. The traders were initially given a very short notice closure period, which was subsequently extended after an understandable backlash to October 2023 and this then transpired to be its final closure date.   

It was then scheduled to be taken over by STACK who already have existing sites in Leeds, Middlesbrough and Newcastle, the latter directly outside St James football stadium.  Initial plans were for it to open by the end of 2024 after a full refurbishment with the original Hatch traders being given first refusal within the revamped site, but to this day the area remains closed.

Venue nightclub. Image Credit Manchester Evening News.

They also incorporated a small stage where live performers would play on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday whilst you were dining or imbibing and I saw two such acts there on different occasions, they were namely Reggae Collective and The Events. At other times a DJ was employed from a local record shop to provide the tuneage which apparently included ‘non-offensive hip hop’ which instantly reminds me of the Parental Advisory label initiative instigated by Tipper Gore in 1985.

I will then move across the city to take you to the Manchester Venue nightclub located at 29 Jacksons Row just above Deansgate. It is a student based establishment that first opened its doors in December 2006 and has no dress code apart from an aversion to football tops and has a 400 capacity.  

It is open from Wednesday to Saturdays with a theme event each night, namely Jam Wednesdays (including live gigs), DISORDER Thursday, Live Forever on Friday and Independence Saturday. To be honest, I was barely aware of its existence until it became a surprising addition to the 2019 Dot to Dot festival roster, so naturally I had to make a visit alongside the other twenty one gigs attended that day, it was a proper shoe leather erosion event!  

We arrived there about 5.30pm on a sunny day and headed down the stairs into the sparsely populated dimly lit basement with the obligatory sticky carpeting. I recall a large poster on the wall with a musical version of the Usual Suspects picture including David Bowie and Iggy Pop amongst others.

Stanleys kitted out. Image Credit facebook.

The band on stage was The Stanleys, a four piece from Wigan and they are supporters of their local footy team, so much so they appeared in the recent 26/27 home kit launch. They have released a slew of singles and appeared on the Strummerville stage at Glastonbury in 2025. It is refreshing that on their upcoming tour they are supporting their local venues by performing two nights at the Snug in Atherton, unsurprisingly both already sold out.

It is always very odd attending nightclubs in the afternoon, thus after their set we re-emerged from the dingy den looking like vampires squinting into the bright light!