Feature

The Royal Exchange used to be a Manchester Airport terminal

The Royal Exchange was home to a city centre air terminal once upon a time.

The Manc The Manc - 13th September 2021

Head down to The Royal Exchange arches on Cross Street today, and you’ll find yourself in the humble, heartwarming labyrinthine of hygge homeware.

The cosy Danish retail outlet Sostrene Grene sits peacefully at the entrance point – inviting passers-by to pop in and peruse shelves upon shelves of simple, elegant Scandi-style products.

By offering people a tranquil escape from the racket of the city around them, Sostrene Grene is in a rather fitting spot. After all, this section of The Royal Exchange has historically been associated with people ‘getting away’.

Back in the 1950s, this where you came to arrange trips to faraway lands.

It was, for a time, the Manchester Air Terminal.

ADVERTISEMENT
The old air terminal at The Royal Exchange where customers would check-in for their flights and board buses to the airport / Image: Manchester Libraries

The Manchester Air Terminal was moved from the corner of Oxford Street and Lower Mosley Street in the early fifties to The Royal Exchange – with the blue and silver buses parking up in St Ann’s Square.

Passengers were able to check in for their flights at the desks here and then board shuttle buses which would whisk patrons 10 miles south to Manchester Airport.

ADVERTISEMENT

Services were direct and didn’t stop anywhere else along the way – connecting with specific flights due to take off on that date.

These airport buses would also bear the names of the flight destination – meaning at the time you would see vehicles trundling around the city with ‘Madrid’, ‘Zurich’ or ‘New York’ splashed across the front displays.

According to Manchester Archives, the Air Terminal catered for passengers flying with multiple airlines – including BEA, BOAC, Air France, Swissair and Sabena.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Royal Exchange in 2021, of course, is a very different place – with the Air Terminal long since shut down and the iconic building now populated by retailers.

After being forced into hibernation for much of the year due to the pandemic, The Royal Exchange arcade has now fully reopened – filled with 40 outlets ranging from fashion stores to cafes.

For more information about the history and upcoming events at The Royal Exchange, visit the official website.

In celebration of the 100th birthday, The Royal Exchange is encouraging anyone who has any stories or pictures they’d like to share on social media to tag @royalexchangemanchester (Facebook and Instagram) or @TheRoyalExMcr (Twitter) and use the hashtag #ExchangeMemories.

Alternatively, people can email f[email protected] with #ExchangeMemories in the subject line.

Featured image: Manchester Airport

Feature

Hardcastle Crags – the prettiest autumn walk in the North West with a great restaurant at the end

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson A walk around Hardcastle Crags in Autumn. Credit: The Manc Group

This is the time of year where it’s particularly difficult to drag yourself off the sofa and into the great outdoors.

The weather isn’t quite crisp enough to feel festive and most of us (even the pumpkin spice latte, cardigan-clad crew) are missing the more reliable warmth of the summer months.

But autumn is here, like it or not, and it definitely has its perks.

One of which is the undeniable beauty the season brings.

It’s not just the blazing red, orange, yellow and brown leaves that suddenly take over the green spaces around the UK.

It’s also in the sunsets and sunrises that become so much easier to catch while the days are shorter (you have to admit, the commutes are prettier when they coincide with sunrise).

The riverside walk at Hardcastle Crags. Credit: Unsplash

And there aren’t many places better to soak in all the autumn beauty than Hardcastle Crags, just across the border in West Yorkshire.

The National Trust site sits between Leeds and Manchester and is a popular day trip destination for Mancs, given the trains that run regularly to Hebden Bridge.

A walking route around Hardcastle Crags at this time of year will take you through a landscape of blazing orange trees, babbling streams, and dappled sunlight.

When you catch a golden autumnal day the leaves will crunch underfoot, but even on a soggy day the leaf mulch has its own special kind of beauty here.

There are two walking routes between the main car park and Gibson Mill, a former 19th century cotton mill which is now home to a lovely cafe.

One will take you down to the river, where wooden boardwalks weave right along the water’s edge.

There are even stepping stones you can use to scamper across the river – a great Instagram pic, or just a way to keep the kids entertained for a few minutes.

A walk around Hardcastle Crags in Autumn. Credit: The Manc Group
A walk around Hardcastle Crags in Autumn. Credit: The Manc Group

The other route goes up through the upper woodland, where pine trees loom and you get a great view of the valley below.

For an easy loop, you can do both – a stroll through the trees, a stop for coffee and cake, then return along the river (or vice versa).

But with 15 miles of footpaths, you can explore way beyond that.

The National Trust’s list of walks includes everything from a wheelchair and pram-accessible estate track to peaceful woodland loops, to rocky scrambles and former railway lines.

And when you’re done with Hardcastle Crags itself, there’s a world-class restaurant in the gorgeous town centre itself.

Coin sits in the shell of the former Lloyd’s bank, with exposed brick and massive period windows, and specialises in natural wine and small plates.

When The Manc Eats visited, we found plates of freshly-cut meat and cheese served alongside ice-cold batched classic cocktails, where ‘quality is key, and it shines through on the plate’.

ADVERTISEMENT

Our reviewer said: “With its higgledy-piggledy stone mill houses, surrounding woodland, hidden waterfalls and treasure-trove charity shops, Hebden Bridge is a popular attraction all of its own for those wanting to venture beyond the city. Coin is simply the cherry on top.”

Read more

Featured image: The Manc Group

Feature

In celebration of Momo Shop: a Chorlton favourite that has flourished since its rebrand

Danny Jones Danny Jones Momo Shop Chorlton dumpling restaurant reviiew

It’s not often we go out of our way to hammer home just how staggering we found a restaurant, but after now losing track of the number of times that a member of our team has eaten at Momo Shop in Chorlton and come back near speechless, it deserves more than a review.

We regularly hold ourselves back and resist the urge to talk in superlatives wherever possible, especially because we worry we might be falling into the recency bias trap, but in this instance, we’re going to go out on a limb and fall on our hospitality sword. Well, this particular writer is…

It’s official: Momo Shop Nepali Street Food – for our money, anyway – is up there with one of THE best restaurants in Manchester right now.

And there are plenty of reasons why, not least of all because of the years of practice they have feeding increasingly discerning Manc diners under a different moniker.

little yeti rebranded
Simple but charming – all the focus is on the food
momo shop mcr
And the food speaks for itself
momo place chorlton
Some of the most flavourful fillings you’ll find in Manchester
best dumpling spots manchester
Busy any given night of the week
No review (Credit: The Manc Eats/Momo Shop via Instagram)

If you don’t live in/frequent Chorlton, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that this gaff was a somewhat new addition to Chorlton, but in actual fact it’s been gradually growing a loyal and passionate following for more than seven years.

This is because before the miniamlist rebrand that saw the walls stripped back, the exterior painted blue and cutesy little bits of artwork hung amidst that familiar and atmospheric festoon lighting, Momo Shop was once The Little Yeti.

Its former iteration boasted hundreds of glowing reviews in its own right, which already plated up plenty of stunning Nepalese food, but since switching primarily towards serving a menu primarily made up of momos (Tibetan-style fried dumplings hand-folded into various shapes) they’ve well and truly shone.

Now approaching a full 12 months under the new name, the Nepali street food spot isn’t just one of a relatviely small handful considering how much great South Asian food there is across Greater Manchester, we’d wager it could be the very best representing that Alpine-Himalayan belt in our region.

Our latest visit was genuinely just as good as our first, second, third and so on – take your pick.

From the simply incredible deep fried pork dumplings and the deeply moorish butter sauce that goes with literally any momo filling, to the super traditional buffalo ones that are not only authentic but, come on, where else can you find such a unique meat in these parts? It’s some of the best food we’ve eaten.

And we don’t just mean of late; Momo Shop might genuinely among of the nicest scran we’ve had in ages and it’s no exagerration to say that the first taste we enjoyed from many of these flavours have formed some of the strongest culinary memories we’ve created in quite a while.

It’s also worth nothing that it isn’t just one main snack-sized dish. The chow mein, keema noodles and cheesy chops are showstoppers themselves, and we’ve already booked in again for a 30th birthday celebration purely so we can try those lambs ribs and their take on a shashlick.

Nevertheless, we love the idea of the numerous configurations and concotions by pairing different dumplings and owner Niti Karki gave us some pro-tips of the best duos and even let us in on the trade secret of her go-to combo when she’s hungover. Legend.

Once again, at the risk of sounding too hyperbolic, odd moments have felt like core foodie memories on a par with our favourite all-time meals.

Personally, I’m glad to report that this isn’t just a review: consider this a declaration that Momo Shop has quickly become my favourite restaurant not just in Chorlton but in all of central Manchester, something I haven’t had since the heartbreaking closure of Cocktail Beer Ramen + Bun in 2023.

momo menu chorlton
Plenty of variety
dumpling drawings
Damn straight
Niti Karki Momo Shop
Niti = absolute icon
We’ll keep your condiment secret forever, Niti…

There might be an element of the almost HakkaPo-esque style drawings, the colour palette and the carefully curated pop-punk, old school emo and post-hardcore playlist that’s over half a decade in the making that makes particualrly partial to this place

But before we wrap up this glorified love letter parading as a ‘review’, we also want to give a special nod to the charming staff and Niti’s mum, specficially, who was too modest to even let us share her picture, but whose wealth of wisdom, influence and experience has clearly inspired Momo Shop’s success.

Don’t be shy, Sue – the only thing more stylish than the food was you, girl. Pop off.

Put simply, we’ll be going back here as regularly as possible until we try every different momo + sauce variation there is, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us.

If you are in the mood for more dumpling excellence, by the way, you might want to check out the unassuming Northern Quarter gem that is Chef Diao.

The modest and unassuming Chinese restaurant serving some of the best dim sum in town

Read more:

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group

More Feature

Art & Culture

Lady Gaga is a tour-de-force of talent at the Co-op Live Manchester

The best Sunday roast in Manchester

City Centre

25 of the very best Sunday roasts in and around Greater Manchester

Self Esteem in Manchester

Audio

Self Esteem at Manchester Academy – a night of pure energy and immaculate music

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches