Manchester has nurtured music greats from The Smiths to Joy Division and boasts Manchester United as a football team, but it’s never had a reputation as the most aesthetically pleasing of cities. However, a recent spate of urban renewal projects, partly prompted by an IRA attack in 1996, have led to something of a renaissance. Now, creative types and young professionals are clamoring to live in the city’s center—Wayne Hemingway, founder of Red or Dead, has designed an apartment block there, The Birchin, at 1 Joiner Street. Boutiques and restaurants have followed, and the local cultural scene is wielding serious clout. Urbis, a gallery at Cathedral Gardens, is hosting a Little Black Dress retrospective, and the Manchester Art Gallery, at Mosely and Princess Streets, is known for its large Pre-Raphaelite collection.
While the likes of Armani Colezzioni (Atlas Chambers, King Street), Vivienne Westwood (47 Spring Gardens), Harvey Nichols (21 New Cathedral Street) and Selfridges (1 Exchange Square) cater to those on a footballer’s wife’s budget, the Northern Quarter is the place for bijou boutiques nestled among niche record stores. Vintage store Rags to Bitches, at 60 Tib Street, feels like a giant jewel box, with a room dedicated to evening dresses and scores of candy-colored vintage Gina shoes. My Goodniss, 40 Thomas Street, carries Sixties glassware and furniture alongside vintage tea dresses. It’s not all retro, though—Casino 66, at 66 Tib Street, showcases collections by recent fashion graduates from Manchester’s Metropolitan University, and Oi Polloi, a men’s wear shop at 70 Tib Street, carries a tightly edited selection of apparel from brands such as YMC, Springcourt and Minnetonka.
For the quintessential English experience, award-winning gastropubs The Ox, at 71 Liverpool Road, and Sam’s Chop House, at Chapel Walks, off Cross Street, specialize in such classic English dishes as chips with mushy peas. Sam’s has a Dickensian feel, with snugs, wood panels and Victorian floor tiles. For a modern European menu and a heady range of cocktails, Lounge 10, at 10 Tib Lane, and Panacea, at 14 John Dalton Street, regularly pull in a dressy crowd of twenty- and thirtysomethings. Manchester’s hipsters may have moved on from raving at the famed Hacienda nightclub—now yet another apartment block—but live music is as important to the city as ever. Mint Lounge, at 46–50 Oldham Street, regularly hosts live bands, and Matt & Phred’s, at 64 Tib Street, has the requisite dingy jazz-bar feel. For the morning after, Manchester boasts a host of delis. Take a short cab ride out of the city to Deli 169, at 169 Burton Road, for a breakfast mezze of bagels, croissants and mortadella, or stay bang in the center of Manchester at Olive, at 36 Whitworth Street.
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The Great John Street Hotel, at Great John Street, has brought the boutique hotel concept to Manchester, crafting 30 sumptuous suites from the building’s Spartan past as an old school house. The rococo decor—vintage-feel French furniture, chandeliers in the bar—is tempered by simple wooden floors and exposed brickwork. Rocco Forte’s Lowry Hotel, at 50 Dearman’s Place, is a 165-room hotel in an imposing curved glass building, whose rooms boast Olga Polizzi’s signature clean lines.