Explore Ancoats Food & Drink Tour

Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor

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Explore Ancoats Food & Drink Tour

The Horsfall, Ancoats
30 July-17 December 2021
Date
Time
Session Features
30 Jul 2021
1:30 pm-5:00 pm
06 Aug 2021
1:30 pm-5:00 pm
13 Aug 2021
1:30 pm-5:00 pm
20 Aug 2021
1:30 pm-5:00 pm
27 Aug 2021
1:30 pm-5:00 pm

See website for more sessions

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Image courtesy of Scranchester Tours
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Fascinated by Manchester’s rich history and also love food? The Explore Ancoats Food & Drink Tour is the one for you. Based in and around Ancoats, the world’s first industrial suburb, this walking tour takes you on a culinary journey of the district recently named one of Time Out’s 50 hippest neighbourhoods in the world.

Hear gripping tales of Victorian street gangs, Italian ice cream empires and satanic mills

And that accolade is well-deserved. True to Manchester, it’s a melting pot of cultures and experiences, from an award-winning chip shop (The Hip Hop Chip Shop) to Mana, Manchester’s revered Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant.

The Ancoats Explorer food tour tells the story of how a rural landscape on the outskirts of Manchester, with a scattering of farms and cottages, was transformed into one of the most densely populated industrial landscapes in the world with multi-storey steam-powered mills which were hailed as a marvel of the Late Georgian era. This is your chance to hear gripping tales of Victorian street gangs, Italian ice cream empires and satanic mills, along with many more.

Fascinated by Manchester’s rich history and love food? This is the tour for you

Of course, by the end of the 20th century, the industry had gone, the mills were empty and the area rundown. The reverse of this decline started with the New Islington housing project and the area can now be found on lists of ‘hippest’ neighbourhoods (Ancoats was listed in Time Out’s 50 hippest neighbourhoods in the world). Ancoats is now home to some of the city’s best independent eateries and bars and the Explore Ancoats tour will show you around the best of them, starting off from the Horsfall Gallery. Make sure you come hungry!

Where to go near Explore Ancoats Food & Drink Tour

Manchester
Restaurant
Viet Shack Restaurant

Arguably Manchester’s most well-known Vietnamese restaurant, Viet Shack started out as a hugely-popular street food stall before opening this restaurant in Ancoats.

Manchester
Restaurant
Blue Eyed Panda

Manchester is home to many delicious Chinese food restaurants, and Blue Eyed Panda is no exception. Moreover, it caters gluten free.

Ancoats
Shop
Ancoats General Store

Ancoats General Store serves the local community as a sustainability-focused convenience store stocking craft products, locally-sourced wares and top tier vegan produce.

Manchester
Restaurant
The Jane Eyre

The Jane Eyre is a high-quality neighbourhood bar in Ancoats, Manchester. We check it out after a recent refurb.

Image of Rudy's Neapolitian Pizza, Ancoats
Ancoats
Restaurant
Rudy’s Pizza

Founded in 2015 by Jim Morgan and his partner Kate Wilson, you’ll find Rudy’s Pizza in cities all over England these days. But there can only be one original…

Image of Halle St Peters from across Cutting Room Square in Ancoats, Manchester.
Ancoats
Music venue
Hallé St Peter’s

Grade-II listed church recently renovated by the Halle Orchestra to be used as a venue and rehearsal space.

Ancoats
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The Edinburgh Castle Pub

The Edinburgh Castle is one of the standout venues in Ancoats, with a laid-back pub on the ground floor and the amazing Bangkok Diners Club taking charge of the restaurant.

Manchester
Restaurant
Erst

Perfectly-formed, eye-catching small plates with a focus on environmentally-friendly practices.

Manchester
Restaurant
Canto

Modern Portugese food from the team behind the mighty El Gato.

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