There’s no shortage of shopping centres in Greater Manchester.
Each of the town centres in the 10 boroughs has at least one to their name, most likely more, and multiple still remain in the city centre itself, with Manchester Arndale being the third largest city centre shopping mall in Europe and attracting around 41 million visitors annually, and then of course the Trafford Centre – the UK’s third largest shopping mall – is known to welcome visitors through its doors from all over the world, not just the region.
When you grow up with or become accustomed to the scale of retail facilities, such as the latter two named, on your doorstep, it can be easy to forget what came before.
But these powerhouse shopping centres could still be considered relatively new in the grand scheme of things.
The Trafford Centre may have changed the face of 21st century retail in the region, but it only opened to the public in 1998, and although the Arndale has been around for a little longer, it’s still only 46 years old, with its doors having flung open in 1975, so where did the city’s shoppers head to before the mid-70s?
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Shopping arcades.
And one of those shopping arcades was the popular Lancaster Avenue Arcade.
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Manchester Libraries
While shopping at a huge complex, or the rows of high street names dotted around and the high-end stores at New Cathedral Street leading to Selfridges, is now the norm, people in the city centre once got their retail therapy fix under glass-ceiled passageways.
These glass-ceiled passageways were built in the Victorian era, and were known as arcades.
They housed small and mostly independent shops in tiers, with balconies looking over the main shop floor and walk-through, and at the time of construction and in the height of their popularity, they were seen as symbols of modernity, with their innovative architectural design ushering in a new age of retail.
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At one point, in just Manchester city centre alone, there were five shopping arcades for visitors to choose from, but as you have probably predicted, they were lost to the urban developments that followed.
Lancaster Avenue Arcade was one of the centres to eventually meet its fate.
The arcade was situated across the way from Manchester Victoria Railway Station, between Todd Street and Fennel Street.
The classically-structured arcade was once a hidden gem, comprising of three tiered rows of shops, which included Olwen’s Stamp and Coin Centre, B.&M. Baker raincoat and casual wear manufacturers, Jim Murray trouser makers, along with Irwin Bros manufacturing jewellers and bullion dealers, to name just a few.
And while it served its purpose for the people of the city at the time, it eventually began to see customer numbers and footfall drop, leading to its permanent closure and demolition in the mid-70s.
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Luft, M. / Manchester Libraries
Nowadays, the National Football Museum in the Urbis Building stands in its place.
If the name Lancaster Avenue isn’t particularly ringing any bells for you though, that might be because you’re more familiar with its nickname.
While the arcade has now long been demolished and is considered to be a thing of the past by many, the abandoned cellars and tunnels that run underneath the city still remain, and have become a particular point of interest for so-called urban explorers. In this case, Beneath New Cathedral Street – which is now home to the Harvey Nichols department store – are cellars and passages that date back centuries, including one that served as a skittles gallery and shooting range, which then later became a cheese store.
This is why Lancaster Avenue was dubbed ‘Cheese Alley’ by locals.
If you make your way through Manchester city centre today though, only one of these Victorian-era shopping arcades still stands – Barton Arcade, which is tucked away adjoining St Ann’s Square and Deansgate.
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It houses a number of independent retailers and food outlets on the ground floor level, with the upper tiers being the base for several offices and businesses, but most-importantly though, it serves the purpose of representing the shopping arcade culture that once was.
Gone, but never forgotten.
Feature
We’ve found some of the best Chinese food in town – being served out of a snooker hall
Danny Jones
Yes, you heard us right: we’ve stumbled across one of our favourite new places for Chinese food just on the outskirts of Manchester city centre – it just so happens to be served out of a best-in-class snooker hall.
And that really is just the tip of the iceberg here.
Some of you may have heard about and/or seen it already, but we’ll admit we were a little late to the party when it comes to Club 200, a.k.a. the pool, snooker, darts, mahjong club and more, which has so many different things rolled into that it’s really more a Russian doll than a Chinese restaurant or sports venue.
The hook speaks for itself: a place where people spend just as much time practising with chopsticks as they do their cues, as it really isn’t a gimmick, as some pessimistic folk would have you think – the food is banging and so are the vibes in general.
Not only is this quite literally the best snooker club in Manchester – complete with everything from classic American billiards and Chinese 8-ball to king-size snooker tables that the Ronnie O’Sullivan has played and won on, to a special AI system you won’t find anywhere else – it is SO much more than that.
Whilst the backroom was packed with everyone from casuals to those looking to get their pro certification via the official Q Tour, and lads in the front were practising their arrows, as co-owner Simon admitted they get almost just as many darts regulars these days, a storm was cooking up in the kitchen.
It would be unfair to say this place doubles as a bar and restaurant, because we really couldn’t get over how well put together this menu was.
‘Café 200’s food offerings involve classics like fried rice and chow mein dishes, to the kind of sides you could expect from your local Chinese chippy, but it’s even more authentic exports that really impress.
For instance, the beef ho fun seemed to be a big hit with everyone; we loved the salty seafood udon as well (a great chew on those noodles), and we know plenty of people still searching for proper Hong Kong-style French toast – they might just find it here.
Speaking of the special administrative region, which has a twisting and turning but nevertheless rich culinary culture all of its own, that last dish had us hopping with joy.
You’re looking at baked Portuguese rice: a Macau speciality rooted in the region’s colonial history.
We’ve never quite had anything like it before, even in all of our years eating this kind of cuisine around the 10 boroughs, but we haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
And then there’s everything else they do, from karaoke and bingo nights to catering for birthdays and other functions, or even just serving as a cool, somewhat tucked-away spot to watch the footy and other live sport come the weekend.
You can tell this place has built up a real community over the last 18 months or so, and while the food speaks for itself, it’s the sheer abundance and variety going on that makes it especially charming to so many.
Speaking of jack-of-all-trade venues, we stumbled across a similar multi-talented one over in Salford not so long ago, too…
‘Manc the Biff’: the Co-op Live crowd made the Clyro boys welcome on debut
Danny Jones
It feels like we’ve been waiting a long time to welcome Biffy Clyro back to Manchester, and they really didn’t disappoint on their Co-op Live debut.
Here’s our review of what was a proper rock show.
After a strong lineup of support acts with The Armed and Soft Play (formerly Slaves) injecting plenty of early energy into the crowds, already knew two things: the Scots wouldn’t disappoint, and a Manc crowd NEVER lets you down.
We knew everyone was on top form from the moment the Kilmarnock icons stepped out on stage under a swathe of blankets to the opener from their latest album, Futique.
Once the curtain was eventually lifted during ‘A Little Love’, which has quickly become one of the most popular singles for some time, you could see the sea of fans below start bouncing.
Rolling into the likes of ‘Hunting Season’ and Only Revolutions classic, ‘The Captain’, those bounces quite quickly turned into a healthy-sized pit, and those up in the stands with us finally got on their feet.
That was maybe our only complaint: we love seeing a seated section pretending they’re in standing from their start, but we get it and each to their own, of course.
In fact, the same goes for the rest of the session players joining them on the road this year.
One thing we weren’t expecting was quite how cool the production levels were going to be. We’ve never been Biffy fans for their creativity when it comes to toying with stage design or lighting rigs, but they threw in some fun effects regardless.
Highlights from the night included ‘Tiny Indoor Fireworks’, ‘Bubbles’, and ‘Black Chandelier’, though we were sad not to hear ‘Victory Over The Sun’, and it was especially gutting that one of our favourite tracks from the new record, ‘True Believer’, didn’t end up on the setlist.
Again, you can’t have anything – we’re just glad we got to be there and see a truly great British rock band proving that they are well and truly an arena-level band.
Lastly, even after all the years and an X-Factor cover trying its hardest to take the credit away from them, ‘Many of Horror’ is still an unbelievable rock ballad, and d’ya know who is an unbelievable rock band? “Biffy. F***ing. Clyroooooo.”
Emily Sergeant -
18th February 2021 
