Manchester Craft & Design Centre

Creative Tourist

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Manchester Craft & Design Centre

17 Oak St, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 5JD
0161 832 4274
  • Monday10:00am - 5:30pm
  • Tuesday10:00am - 5:30pm
  • Wednesday10:00am - 5:30pm
  • Thursday10:00am - 5:30pm
  • Friday10:00am - 5:30pm
  • Saturday10:00am - 5:30pm

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

Manchester Craft and Design Centre by Joel C Fildes.
Manchester Craft and Design Centre by Joel C Fildes.
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One of our favourite places in Manchester, Manchester Craft & Design Centre is hands down the most reliable one-stop-shop for unique, but not over-priced, gifts in the city. Welcome to the mecca of all things beautiful, handmade and one-of-a-kind.

For those who are unfamiliar, MCDC is housed in a former Victorian fish and poultry market in the heart of the Northern Quarter. It has been going strong for over 40 years, providing a home to some of the region’s most talented independent artists, designers and makers, selling textiles, jewellery, ceramics, prints, fine art, sculpture and more.

More than just a shopping experience however, a visit to MCDC is also an opportunity to browse the units of this beautiful building and enter into conversation with the various resident artists and makers at work. Running alongside, its regular programme of exhibitions, events and workshops offers plenty of guidance and inspiration for those looking to get creative themselves, while the artisan café & bar BQ Bitesize is a great spot to relax and refuel.

What's on near Manchester Craft & Design Centre

Truly Madly Brutal - Jonathan Schofield Tours
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From £20.00
Craft Beer Tour Around Manchester
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Where to go near Manchester Craft & Design Centre

The exterior of Manchester Craft & Design Centre.
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Oak Street Café

Oak Street Café at Manchester Craft & Design Centre does fresh, healthy salads, soups, sandwiches, quiches and, best of all, cakes.

Common Bar in Manchester's Northern Quarter
Manchester
Bar or Pub
Common Bar

Northern Quarter stalwart Common Bar in Manchester serves excellent pub food, fine cocktails and decent coffee. It’s a firm Creative Tourist team favourite.

Manchester
Restaurant
Home Sweet Home, Manchester

Home Sweet Home in Manchester’s Northern Quarter is a cafe and milk bar that does a mean line in cake, puddings and all things sweet – but its savoury menu isn’t half bad either.

Deadstock General Store
Northern Quarter
Deadstock General Store

This small shop has a well-curated range of stock that focuses on vintage homeware and gifts. From Japanese hemp socks to botanical paperweights and HAWS plant misters, each object is beautiful, practical and well made.

Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Ziferblat Manchester

Ziferblat is a pay as you stay café in the northern quarter, where everything is free – except the time you spend.

Manchester
Restaurant
Sweet Mandarin

Gordon Ramsay-approved Northern Quarter restaurant run by three sisters, featuring some of the city’s finest Chinese cuisine.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
Cane & Grain

Essentially three bars under one roof, Cane & Grain encompasses a rib joint and tap room, hidden speakeasy, and Tiki-themed Liar’s Lounge.

Manchester
Shop
NOTE Thomas Street

The sister store to NOTE’s original Tib Street branch, here you’ll find footware, clothes and brands inspired by the skateboard scene. If it’s a new board you’re after, head to Tib Street.

Fierce Bar
Manchester
Bar or Pub
Fierce Bar

Highly-rated bar based in Manchester’s bustling Northern Quarter, seconds away from Common.

57 Thomas Street, Manchester. Courtesy 57 Thomas Street
Manchester
Bar or Pub
57 Thomas Street

57 Thomas Street is the third outlet belonging to Manchester’s best-known microbrewery, Marble Beers. Unlike the lavish decoration of the Grade II-listed Marble Arch (which also doubles up as a brewery) or the traditional pub layout of the Marble Beer House in Chorlton, this tiny Thomas Street digs has room for just two things: beer and food.

Culture Guides

A performer in a bright red costume sits on a snowy stage set, holding a large snowball between their legs with a surprised expression. The colourful winter backdrop features snowflakes, hills, a snowman, and a traffic light with glowing lights.
Family things to do in the North

Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.

Exhibitions in the North

This season, exhibitions across the North West feel attuned to the world beneath the world – the forces and stories shaping how we see, feel and imagine.

Textured portrait image of Jarman
Theatre in the North

Theatre across the North West splits between festive escape and sharp, urgent work exploring politics, power and resistance.

Music in the North

Manchester’s closing out the year – and looking to the new one – with a run of gigs from some of the country’s best underground exports.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Cinema in the North

There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.

Food and Drink in the North

Hear ye, hear ye. Take some eating-out tips from our wintertime guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.