Culture Guides
Destination Guides
Seasonal Guides
Ancoats, just off the Northern Quarter in Manchester, is one of the city’s most increasingly desirable neighborhoods. We pick out our top highlights of the area.
Layer upon layer of history makes Ancoats, an Area of Conservation since 1998, really special. Once home to the textile mills that established Manchester’s reputation as ‘Cottonopolis’, the district was also a centre of manufacture for machinery, glass and newspapers, with a population of over 50,000 in the mid-1800s.
The street signs are named after the notorious street gangs, or ‘scuttlers’ who once patrolled and fought here; so Bengal Street for the Bengal Tigers, Angel Meadow for the Angels. As industry moved on, however, the area declined, leaving 80% of business space vacant in the 1990s. Now, the beautiful red-bricked factory buildings are being renovated as flats, and small, independent businesses are opening again.
Ancoats is undergoing a period of rapid change – it may well look very different in just a few years’ time. In the meantime, it’s a fantastic area to explore; if you know what you’re looking for. Keep an eye out for Grade-listed churches, small cafés, an independent theatre and even a TV studios. Cutting Room Square is currently Ancoats’ hub, a wide open space with public art and benches that used to be where bales of cotton were cut.
Hope Mill Theatre, Hope Mill, 113 Pollard Street, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M4 7JA - Visit now
Hope Mill Theatre is a risk taking independent theatre and a welcome addition to both Ancoats and Greater Manchester. We love their shows and the general feel good vibes this place gives off.
Companio Bakery, Unit G.06 Flint Glass Wharf, 35 Radium Street, Ancoats, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M4 6AD - Visit now
Started by artisan baker Russell Goodwin, Companio Bakery sells freshly-baked bread from a small unit in Manchester’s Ancoats. They are open Tuesdays & Thursdays from 9am to 3pm, and then from 4pm to 6pm at Victoria Train Station where homeward bound commuters snaffle up any remaining bread.
St Michael’s, 36-38 George Leigh Street, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 5DG - Visit now
Also under the management of the Hallé, St Michael’s was founded in 1859 and became the heart of Ancoats’ Little Italy Community. Now it plays host to some unmissable events.
Cask Ancoats, Cottonfield Wharf, 2 New Union St, Manchester, M4 6FQ - Visit now
The sister venue to the original Cask on Liverpool Road is a very welcome addition to the area. Situated in one of the many, many new-builds in Ancoats and New Islington, Cask Ancoats doesn’t retain much of the original’s shabby chic, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing and the beer choice is brilliant.
Psappha’s 2020–21 season explores the sharpest and smartest sounds in contemporary classical music, presented in concert and streamed online for free.
Spotlighting an instrument that usually remains in the concert hall shadows, Psappha invites sitar virtuoso Jasdeep Singh Degun to join them at Hallé St Peter’s.
Psappha explores the full range of the lesser-spotted cimbalom with a varied programme that features several world premieres.
Black Milk, the penultimate concert in Psappha’s 2020-21 season, features a world premiere by Mark-Anthony Turnage plus two Viennese chamber group classics.
Joining Psappha, world-class accordionist Miloš Milivojević guides us through a variety of music written for this unexpectedly versatile instrument.
POSTPONED: This event has been postponed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. We will bring you more information on the new dates of the festival as soon as we have them.
The Medieval Quarter, or Cathedral Quarter as it is sometimes known, is one of the oldest parts of Manchester and home to some historic gems and cultural must-sees.
Burton Road is the heart of West Didsbury, a beautifully maintained leafy hubbub of shops,…
A laid-back mix of gift shops, independent outfitters, restaurants, pubs and parks, on a sunny weekend afternoon it’s heaving.
Follow Oxford Road South through the Curry Mile, along Wilmslow Road, past Platt Fields Park…
Chorlton is a left-leaning suburb a few miles south of Manchester’s city centre (and only…
As an area, Cheetham Hill gets a pretty bad rep. The foreboding architecture of Strangeways…