Owners of Salford’s pink teapot cafe The Travelling Teapot have hit out at the local council as they revealed they are on the hunt for a new site.
Owners of The Travelling Teapot, a pale pink 1970s caravan known as Betsy to her friends, told The Manc that they were looking outside Salford for a new location and expanding the cafe’s horizons across the north west.
Revealing that they were ‘gutted’ to be leaving their home patch, owners hit out at Salford council as they said bosses had been unhelpful in helping them find somewhere to pitch up closer to home.
Bosses at the teapot cafe said: “We’ve got to make a decision by August whether to continue or close the business as we’ve been trying so hard to get a new pitch with better footfall but not had any success.
“We are gutted but we just can’t find anywhere to trade. Salford council won’t help so we are going to have to spread our wings.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Image: The Manc Group
Image: The Manc Group
The teapot cafe on wheels is the only one of its kind in the whole of the UK, according to owners Maria and Vicky.
Serving up delicious homemade cakes and other sweet treats like cookies and triple chocolate brownies, there’s also an extensive menu of hot and cold drinks with hot chocolates, locally-roasted coffees and piping hot cups of tea.
ADVERTISEMENT
The cafe has been a fixture at Buille Hill Park, Salford, since opening at the start of February
Getting the project off the ground, owners say, took fifteen months, so by the time they were ready to start serving from their magical teapot cafe they were beyond excited.
However, six months down the line, whilst Betsy and her owners have plenty of fans they maintain that the footfall at their current site is not high enough to continue trading there and the time has come to move on.
ADVERTISEMENT
Speaking exclusively to The Manc, owners revealed that whilst it had always been their dream to trade in Salford they ‘did not know or expect’ to run into so many problems with finding a site to trade from.
They said: “Being born and bred in Salford we naively thought that a new, independent business would be welcomed.
“We paid £800 for a Salford Council street trading license in November 2022 to trade at Buile Hill Park fireworks event. The council pushed it through on the proviso we could use it to trade on the streets thereafter.
“We had to pick a location (following their guidelines) and we were under the impression when this happened we were good to go. Nine months later we still haven’t had permission to trade on the streets.
“We have a park license which we use for Buile Hill Park {…] but the footfall is just not enough so have been looking for locations for places with more footfall.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We have applied for so many locations within the guidelines. The locations have either been turned down, emails not answered, passed to management committees, asked to contact other people within the council etc.”
Image: The Travelling Teapot
Image: The Manc Group
Owners told The Manc that they had applied for locations around The Lowry only to be told that the council didn’t own the land, contrary to information on the land registry, and generally said that despite sending numerous emails they often did not get a response.
It appears from correspondence seen by The Manc that owners were told there were ‘too many coffee shops in the area’ and they weren’t taking on any more.
“We did persist and ask if we could go on a waiting list until one became available,” owners added, “but apparently there isn’t a waiting list or criteria.”
They also allege that new businesses have since been given licenses to trade in areas they have been refused.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sharing the news of their departure from Buile Hill on Instagram, bosses wrote: “Please share. The UK’s only giant teapot on wheels is looking for a new home. We can bring a breathe of fresh air to your location. DM for info.
“Permanent pitch wanted. DM for info. Looking around the Northwest for a new permanent location. The UK’s only giant teapot on wheels. Fabulous drinks and cake menu. Breathe new life to your venue, eye catching, crowd pulling and unique. All enquiries considered.
Owners also said how sad they were to leave the park in the comments section, writing: “Awww we are so sad. We will be there a couple more times. The people we have met and all our customers have all been amazing!
“You’ve all been so loyal and kind, which honestly wish we could stay, unfortunately the park is just too quiet. Wherever we end up we will hope to see you again.”
A spokesperson for Salford City Council said: “We are disappointed that the owner feels this way. Salford City Council has provided extensive support over the last eight months including enabling the business to trade at the 2022 Bonfire Night celebrations attended by 15,000 people, trade at the two day We Invented the Weekend festival in June 2023 at Salford Quays and listing the business as a recommended street trader to help community event organisers find suitable food vendors for their event.
“Our business team also facilitated an introduction to the Kargo food hall team at The Quayside Shopping Mall and we understand discussions about trading there are ongoing.
“The owner continues to trade at Buile Hill Park and has expressed an interest in moving to another park location which would need to be one without an existing community café. We have not asked the business to relocate.
“Salford City Council does not provide a location finding service for any business but does respond to any request to use council owned land and we are happy to continue working with the owner as we have done over the past eight months. However if a business is seeking to trade on a privately owned site then it is for the business owner to negotiate directly with the private landowner.”
Featured image – The Manc Group
Eats
The Marble Arch is increasingly becoming much more than a pub – it’s now a brilliant Manc bistro
Danny Jones
If you’ve been to The Marble Inn in Manchester before, you’ll know it’s always nailed cosy Northern pub vibes; to tell the truth, the food has always been pretty good, too, but their new menu is really something to write home about.
So we did.
The historic old boozer located on Rochdale Road has sat there in some shape or form since way back in 1888, and naturally, things have evolved significantly over the years – decades, certainly.
But the latest iteration of food and drink at the increasingly forward-thinking Marble Arch Inn is a cut above, bringing together a fusion of current culinary trends and contemporary takes on pub classics.
No. 73 enters a new chapterOne of the best pies we’ve probably ever hadCredit: The Manc Eats
Now just over a month into its run at the home of Marble Brewers just beyond Ancoats, it feels rather fitting that this place has always sat on the cusp of surrounding districts in somewhat of a Manc no-man’s land, as there’s something about this place that feels like it’s dancing on the line of a scene.
Recently installed head chef Adam Shatarsky is still self-admittedly pretty green in comparison to lots of other local chefs, as he’s only been cooking for around five years, but his spells at Mackie Mayor’s Taiko and Cardinal Rule in NQ have already proved he’s got to grips with how the city eats.
His food just keeps getting better and more confident in experimentation, it would seem – as proven with this approach to Marble Arch classics like fish and chips, their pies, burgers, the treasured Sunday roast and so on.
The difference is now that some of these mainstays and undeniable British favourites have been levelled up quite significantly. Now there’s bone marrow in the mince used for those oh-so-juicy patties; toast is fried in beef fat to dovetail with a tartare dish, and the chips are some of the best you’ll find in a pub.
Seriously, they even use the Brewery‘s new cult favourite Earl Grey keg flavour to make their rarebit recipe. In fact, when one local punter saw that the staff were enjoying a posh chip butty with wild garlic and mushrooms for the staff, they couldn’t help but ask for one, and now it’s a special menu item.
A familiar faceThree small plates for £25Credit: The Manc
This is the kind of ethos they’re trying to keep across the board: attempting new things and trying to be more modern when it’s appropriate, but still holding onto their traditions and looking after their regulars.
Adam’s only ever trained in British kitchens, so he admitted doesn’t know any different really, but he does know the global variety offlavours and textures he likes and is not afraid of trying to find ways to make even the most contrasting ones come together.
Case in point: freezing and shaving feta over lemon ricotta and fresh beetroots. Stunning.
He’s even brought over a variation of his popular fried chicken sando from Taiko, though this one has nowhere near as much of that Eastern heat, and instead focuses on the theme of making hearty and filling comfort food.
For instance, there’s an undercurrent of just that extra little bit of richness running throughout the menu, from the bone marrow that makes already satisfying dishes even more indulgent, to the tallow, truffle and drippings that are used to great effect.
The same goes for the use of cheese, as well: even in the simply incredible mixed mature cheddar and red Leicester curd that surrounds that singular 72-hour caramelised onions (wow doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of our for this one.
All of them are big top-note flavours, sure, but none of them overpowers the overall taste, whether it be brining and curing chicken in dark brown sugar and soy, or a 16-hour low and slow braised beef that literally melts in the mouth from the bread and the butter to the eventual meaty bite.
We can’t speak highly enough of what is now being served out of The Marble Arch Inn’s kitchen, and truly believe what Adam and the existing pub team are now doing is brilliant and very much worth shouting about.
Can’t beat a burger and beerSuch a cosy spotMmmmadeleinesCredit: The Manc Group
‘We were so lucky to have it’ – Has Manchester’s hospo scene reached a dangerous tipping point?
Danny Jones
Greater Manchester’s hospitality sector is calling for change and better support, both for the local community and the UK government, following the latest raft of closures.
Various well-known independent businesses have closed in the first quarter of 2026 across the city centre, let alone the numerous others across the ten boroughs over the past year or so.
In truth, this worrying trend has been going on for much longer than the last 12 months, and it seems that it’s not just new openings that are most at risk of closing before they can even get going, but now well-established regional institutions are struggling to stay afloat.
Case in point, our oldest Turkish restaurant – which had been serving central Manchester for nearly half a century – Topkapi Palace, has now closed seemingly for good.
A recent addition to the city centre itself, French-Vietnamese cafe and restaurant Doux Chaton wrote on social media: “This is genuinely so sad to see. Topkapi Palace is part of Manchester’s fabric. Running an independent spot is no joke — it takes everything.
“If we keep letting places like this go, we lose more than food; we lose culture, history, identity. Please support your local independents where you can. It matters more than ever – our representatives need to support our community not only regionally but nationally.”
They went on to tag the likes of Mayor Andy Burnham, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and others to call for crucial intervention sooner rather than later.
For some, it’s unfortunately already too late.
Currently, their Stockport in Hazel Grove looks to be remaining open, but we’ve seen this story before; Almost Famous, Seven Brothers, Greens, and SO many others have sadly had to shut up most, if not all, of their locations.
As of this May, we’ve already had to say goodbye to the likes of Topkapi, KAJI, Climat and House of Fu; Project Halcyon, Örme, the long-standing TNQ, the first-ever Northern Simmons site, a branch of Banyan, just to name an unlucky few.
This is just heartbreaking. We can’t carry on with either this PM or Chancellor. Both need stepping to one side and allowing others mop up their disaster of a tenure.
And that’s just the ones that shut down in the first few months of this calendar year; 2025 was a gut-wrenching year for the food and drink industry, with indies all over the region and beyond having to fight tooth and nail to stay open for even just a few days of weekly trade.
Almost just as concerning has been some of the behaviour by some patrons, even here in our own city.
From more than one or two reports of people walking out on their bills, people even nicking the most petty stuff, such as decorations and bar’s cushions, to a troubling number of no-shows that don’t just mean one less reservation – it can mean the next person missing out on a seat and people losing money.
Another nearby native commented: “I honestly think Manchester is on a tipping point for many people – what was ‘old’ Manchester, which many of us loved, is being slowly erased by the new. People here are saying basically ‘use it or lose it’.
“Fair enough, but there’s very little spare money about, and I hear lots of people saying they don’t go into town for the day to spend that money shopping and for a meal or treat-day because they don’t ‘recognise the place’.”
They go on to add: “Most importantly, they often say they don’t like Manchester now. The towers that are shoved in places where you could see daylight and there was space to walk and breathe are overwhelming.
“I’m not being reactionary – I love New Islington and Cutting Room Square, etc., but NQ has lost its grit, and I find Deansgate really soulless and depressing when once I used to go out every night after work for drinks, and go in every month with the family on a Saturday for culture, shop and a meal.
“No more. Love Manchester, but I’m not in love with it anymore. Topkapi was great once, and it’s sad it’s gone.” A passionate appeal, indeed.
It goes without saying that rising energy bills, untenable business rates, rent, and a general cost of living crisis mean that people simply don’t have enough money to go out for tea, treat themselves to a drink in a nice bar, or even just go to the pub as often as they once did.
We’re by no means experts, but it’s easy for all to see that something needs to be done and fast, as we’d like to avoid seeing any more of our hard-working Manc favourites falling by the wayside and joining the list of those that we’re still mourning to this day.
Georgina Pellant -
13th July 2023 
