What's on near Off The Square
This walking tour explores the neighbourhood’s streets, stories and hidden corners, offering a closer look at the places and people that have made Manchester.
From £12.00
Create stunning pottery, jewellery, sketches, watercolours and more with the vast array of craft workshops at MCDC.
From £45.00
After a sold-out night earlier this year, Me Gusta Collective is back at Band on the Wall for the big one: New Year’s Eve.
From £10
Band on the Wall bring people together to make, as well as watch, music. Join them to learn folk tunes from all over the world.
Fusing West African funk and disco with modern post-punk and electro, Ibibio Sound Machine inject some much-needed energy into January.
From £29
Join Craft Beer Tour Manchester for a journey through some of the cities best local breweries and artisanal beer serving bars. Discover the personality of Manchester’s beer through a diverse
From £45
Marcos Kueh explores labour diasporas and Manchester’s industrial history at his first institutional solo show.
Free entry
Join Joe Feeley a Mancunian through and through, who guides you into Manchester’s two pillars of cultural excellence with his Rock and Goal tour.
From £9.99Where to go near Off The Square
A new lifestyle store, supporting independent design.
Soup Kitchen is a superb communal cafe by day and an excellent live music venue by night. The perfect choice for a quick drink or a great night out.
The latest iteration of long-standing Malaysian restaurant Ning, Penang is a small tastefully-lit space with eye-catching purple floral decor, based in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
This rock n’ roll greasy spoon on Stevenson Square in Manchester’s Northern Quarter is the place to be weekend mornings.
A pub with a 200 year-long history on Oldham Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, the Castle Hotel has a musical past.
Whether you’re a die-hard comedy fan or just after a spontaneous night out, there’s something here for everyone. Open 7 nights a week.
The original restaurant in the Bem Brasil chain. Expect barbecued meat from a traditional Brazilian grill.
A quirky bar, paying homage to the unfortunately deceased Blockbusters video rental stores, with aptly named cocktails and a great atmosphere.
Ever-popular Caribbean food chain, now based in the Northern Quarter.
Bakerie in Manchester’s Northern Quarter is an open-plan restaurant which features comfy booths, ordinary tables and communal-style benches.
Hailed as something of a cry back ‘to the way the Northern Quarter used to be’, The Peer Hat is a great pub and music venue.
Head north on Oldham Street and you’ll come across Gullivers, a ‘no gimmicks and no pretensions’ pub and gig venue.
Manchester District Guides
Culture Guides
Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.
Step away from the usual. Tours and activities that spark curiosity, inspire creativity and offer something refreshingly different.
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.
Theatre across the North West splits between festive escape and sharp, urgent work exploring politics, power and resistance.
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.
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.
Hear ye, hear ye. Take some eating-out tips from our wintertime guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.