Every year on the first Sunday in May, Chapel Street, where central Manchester meets Salford, comes alive with DIY art, music and shows at the Voices from the Other City festival. It’s a vibrant public celebration of the “community spirit and collaborative working” that co-director Emma Thompson says underpins much of the area’s alternative culture.
“Collaboration is fundamental to the work we do for Greater Manchester as a city,” says Thompson. “People are coming together and it transcends genres and art forms. If this hadn’t happened, Voices From Another City wouldn’t have turned 20 next year. “The fees we offer are not huge, but people really stand behind it, they do it for the love of it.”
Thompson is frank about the challenges faced by those making experimental art: “It’s safe. It feels out of balance.” Costs are high, affordable space is limited, funding is “very competitive”. Such forces are literally reshaping the creative landscape. Generic bars and restaurants predominate, although Manchester’s North End still has more interesting and artsy venues .Left field culture is moving to the city limits or Salford.
For the last 18 months the WH Lung band has been based at Islington Mill in Salford, a complex of artist-producer studios. Keyboardist Tom Sharkett says that at a time when you “have to be crazy” in many ways to make a living in music and art, it’s inspiring to be surrounded by people who are “doing great things for the right reasons.”
Opened in 2000, Islington Mill has recently been extended with new buildings, including adjacent commercial space. “The mill feels like it has started a new life. It feels powerful,” says Sharkett. This also goes for the creative power of Manchester and Salford. The obstacles are many, but the drive to create great art remains.
Music and nightlife
Arguably, Manchester music is as vibrant right now as post-punk has been at any point – from Anz to Space Afrika, Blackhaine to Sockethead, Mandy, Indiana to Michael J Blood. Much of this is down to the nurturing influence of The White Hotel, a former garage near Strangeways prison. Unlike the bland gentrification of modern Manchester, this singular presence (dirty location, great sound, art school spirit, all-night rave energy) created space for new music to grow. “This is a really important area,” Thompson says.
Located in the Northern Quarter, but in similar creative territory, club and concert venue Soup proves that all you need is a basement, red light, and an audience-challenging program.
In these relatively dark corners, music is encouraged to get weird
Other city center venues that defy tradition include punk and indie haven Star & Garter, Aatma, Peer Hat and Peste (see Drinks section below). But just outside the centre, interesting things are increasingly happening, often in unexpected places.
Two of Manchester’s vital community venues: the Old Abbey Taphouse, located in a science park in Hulme, south of the city centre; and DBA in Cheetham Hill to the north are historic pubs that now double as clubs and music venues. “When you stand outside the DBA, you have no idea what’s going on there,” says Sharkett of this traditional Victorian boozer. Experienced Glaswegian DJs once took Optimo on board: “They’ve seen it all, but they loved it.”
In these relatively dark corners, music is encouraged to get weird: Hidden in the warehouse space; Salford’s Eagle Inn; the musically outstanding N/OM; yard; and Partisan at Islington Mill. Hosting affordable, inclusive and “very diverse” LGBTQ+ events, the Partizan collective is one of the city’s most exciting venues, according to Thompson. “It’s a wonderful place.”
Arts and Culture
At just 24 years old, Salford’s Islington Mill remains a major creative hub. Its public events are run by Partisan, which hosts club nights, exhibitions, discussion groups and creative workshops, and the “radioactive gay bar” Mirage. This bar-gallery-event space hosts genre-fluid evenings of art, performance and experimental music from outfits like Kunstlicker and Short Supply.
Also in Salford, artists’ studio space Paradise Works regularly hosts exhibitions (by appointment, mostly at weekends), as does contemporary painting gallery Oceans Apart at OA Studios.
Visitors can view pop-up exhibitions in multi-purpose spaces such as Studio Bee in central Manchester. HappeningInMCR is hosting a “micro-gallery” at alternative shopping mall Affleck’s Palace, and the foyer of the Great Northern Warehouse entertainment complex (already home to a collection of artist Stanley Chow’s illustrations) will soon feature works by 30 creators based on the site at GRIT Studios. MCR’s new venue.
For more established contemporary art there is Castlefield Gallery, currently celebrating its 40th anniversary, and ESEA Contemporary, which showcases works of east and south-east Asian heritage. Jane Jin Kaisen’s current Halmang exhibition explores themes provoked by female seafood divers on South Korea’s Jeju island.
Book lovers in the Northern Quarter can explore Queer Lit or Anywhere Out Of the World, an LGBTQ+ bookstore that focuses on philosophy and poetry and hosts similarly thought-provoking music events upstairs. Nearby Village Books is a feast of popular cultural periodicals and magazines and hosts a neat exhibition space in the basement.
To drink
Are you willing to drink differently? You are in the right cities. Schofield’s has outstanding cocktails (currently number one in the UK’s 50 Best Cocktail Bars list); natural wine at CURB and Flawd; and incredible beers at Port Street Beer House, Marble Arch, or Smithfield Market Tavern. Off the track, the on-trade area behind Manchester’s Piccadilly Station (dubbed the Beermuda Triangle by established brewery Sureshot) is home to the tap rooms of Track, Cloudwater and offbeat mixed fermentation explorers Balance Brewing & Blending.
Want some cultural stimulation with your beer? In Salford, the Kings Arms is a genuine pub and theatre; YES is a student-friendly complex of bars, concert venues, DJs and pizzas; and there’s the storied underground record store in the Eastern Bloc. At night, the latter turns into a late night bar for techno jives. Do you prefer guitars? Head to Oldham Street pub and music venues Gullivers, the Castle Hotel and café-bar Night & Day, which recently settled noise complaint issues with Manchester city council.
Peer Hat is a ramshackle boho pub, an all-ages refuge from the brighter, more commercial sides of the Northern Quarter.
Newer venues include the wonderfully dilapidated boho pub and Peer Hat, a basement venue for fringe scenes. In a place where promoters can wear weird, loud things, it’s an all-ages refuge from the brighter, more commercial sides of the Northern Quarter, Thompson says. “It’s intimate enough to fit 20 people and it feels great. You can experiment. You need this.”
Just north of Ancoats, White Hotel spin-off O! Peste Destroyed is a beautifully styled (religious chic) bar, record and bookstore dedicated to dazzling works, with exhibitions and art installations in the basement. On Fridays, DJ Conor Thomas takes drinkers on ear-opening excursions into downtempo electronics, grungy pop-edits, and all points in between. A1 cocktails served by friendly bar staff complete this gem of a bar.
Food
Manchester’s food scene is growing at an astonishing rate and self-styled independents are often keeping pace. A medium pack from Go Falafel is still the best way to spend £5.50 in the Northern Quarter. The meat-free half of the menu at nearby Asmara Bella, a casual, casual Eritrean and Ethiopian bistro, is a flavor-packed boon for vegans and vegetarians alike, as is Piccadilly’s Bundobust with its Gujarati sharing plates.
Idle Hands is ready for coffee and brunch. Pollen bakeries-cafés are also good. On the other side of town, tucked away in a former light industrial unit, Grub is a bar and creative events space (home to the Cultplex cinema and Floating Art classes, for example) and street food traders in its quirky, upcycled beer garden.
Manchester’s food scene is growing at an astonishing pace and self-styled independents are often keeping pace
For something more refined, Another Hand on Deansgate Mews offers stellar plates of cider, smoked mussels and roasted cabbage in pancetta cream or butter beans. cacio e pepe. The nearby Exhibit features dishes from three different cuisines, including Baratxuri, a tribute to the Basque Country.
Higher Ground is arguably Manchester’s most unique dining experience. Using heritage and rare breed ingredients from small producers (including Higher Ground’s partner Cheshire market garden Cinderwood), chef Joe Otway creates dishes such as charbroiled pork, yellow peas and sprouted kale, or smoked cod roe and leeks with thyme. Although simple in outline, they have a generous, surprising and intense taste.
To stay
Set around an impressive, five-storey atrium at Ducie Street Warehouse, Native Manchester’s 162 aparthotel rooms are trendy, comfortable spaces. The sharp aesthetic (post-industrial via Copenhagen) continues in the lively public spaces on the ground floor. DJs spin weekend tunes and venues host events ranging from movie screenings to pop-up vintage sales. Doubles from £100 B&B.
Also convenient to the Northern Quarter, Cow Hollow is a stylish 16-bed boutique retreat. The building’s 19th-century industrial heritage has been cleverly used, with features such as ironwork and winding gears. Its small, flashy bar reminds me of Rimini or Ibiza Town. Doubles from £99 B&B.
Voices from the Other City on May 5tickets £40 plus booking fee