Category: Manchester

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!  

Manchester Venues 217 to 218

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!