Plymouth Grove isn’t necessarily a street where you’d expect to find one of the most important literary sites in the country.
At first glance, this part of Longsight appears to consist of typical terrace housing in a standard neighbourhood. Yet, an extraordinary building stands amid these ordinary surroundings.
Sitting across from a row of terraces with a bold blue plaque, Elizabeth Gaskell House is a rare remaining example of a suburban regency villa in Manchester.
Painted pink for a time, over the years its number has changed from 42 to 84 as more properties have squeezed in around it.
The villa was purchased by the University of Manchester in 1969 and it was used by the International Society until the late 1990s. During this time, it housed a nightclub in its basement.
Home to local author Elizabeth Gaskell from 1850 to her death in 1865, this was where the majority of her critically significant novels were written, including the most famous, Cranford.
ADVERTISEMENT
It’s said that Cranford was her favourite book, with Gaskell even naming her cat after it.
Ahead of its time, the story has never been out of print in its 170-year history. Throughout the pages, Gaskell champions feminist values: breaking away from period norms to focus her tale on a group of self-reliant unmarried women.
ADVERTISEMENT
The world of Cranford has been popularised since the BBC adapted the world of Matty and Deborah Jenykns for television in 2007.
When the hit BBC1 series first aired it put Knutsford decidedly on the map, even if the town was, as Cheshire Life reported at the time, snubbed in favour of Wiltshire for filming.
Manchester’s part in the story, meanwhile, often gets overlooked.
ADVERTISEMENT
Dame Judi Dench as Miss Matty Jenkyns, the younger sister of Cranford’s moral guardian Miss Deborah. This costume is currently on show at the villa as part of new exhibit A Love Affair with Cranford / Image : BBC
Many will be aware of the popular TV series. But few are aware that, despite the title, it is actually a combination of three of Gaskell’s novels – Cranford, My Lady Ludlow,Mr. Harrison’s Confessions – all written during her time living in the house.
Today, the villa looks the same as it did when she was penning some of her most important work, right down to the quill and paper cast askew at her writing desk.
A rare first edition copy of Cranford is on display at the house outside the author’s newly-refurbished bedroom
Whilst Gaskell lived at Plymouth Grove, she received some notable visitors, and it’s easy to imagine the likes of Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, and Harriet Beecher-Stow reclining on the chintz settees in the plus drawing room.
You can also picture Gaskell’s good friend Charlotte Bronte shyly hiding behind the drapes to avoid an over-eager caller (which we have on good authority she definitely did during one stay).
Lovingly restored by some incredibly knowledgeable volunteers from the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust, you can still step in off the street today and feel like its famous former tenant has just popped out.
ADVERTISEMENT
They’ve painstakingly sourced every item inside using the house’s 1914 auction catalogue to make sure everything is as historically accurate as possible.
Inside Elizabeth Gaskell’s bedroom, restored by volunteers to look just as it did during the author’s lifetime
The detail is all there. And you can even ring the bells in the servant’s quarter, thanks to the efforts of one dedicated volunteer who rewired all the original bell pulls by hand.
The Study, Morning Room, Drawing Room and Dining Room have all been restored to how they were pre-1857, but the latest and most exciting new addition to the house is Gaskell’s bedroom – a project that kept the volunteers going through the past year’s successive lockdowns.
The focus of their energies during Covid, the restoration of Elizabeth Gaskell’s most private space was not easy to pull off – especially with borders and shops firmly closed. Still, they managed it, drawing on contacts and friends to help work around the issues 2020 threw at them.
The end result is something really special: a near-perfect recreation of the room in which Elizabeth would’ve dressed her children, written her personal letters, and maybe even parts of her iconic novels.
ADVERTISEMENT
It’s open to visit now every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 11am-4.30pm.
Tickets for a year’s admission are priced at just £5.50 for adults and £4.50 for senior citizens and students – and are well worth hanging on to for book lovers, who won’t want to miss the second-hand book sale that takes place here every month.
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.”
Georgina Pellant -
18th June 2021 
