For most commuters in north Manchester, the Hellfire Club is a regular sight.
The brilliantly engineered curved structure sat on the corner of Queens Road dates back to the late 1800s and is also widely referred to as the Junction Inn or the Junction Hotel – a drinking hole that many locals consider as one of the more significant of north Manchester’s past.
Today, the building is a shell of its former self and as far as we’re aware, is currently still on the market for upwards of £300,000 with no interest from prospective developers.
The Junction Hotel
But that wasn’t always the case…
The Grade II listed building has played host to a number of ventures in its time, more notably the previously mentioned Hellfire Club which launched in 2006 and peacocked as a horror-themed bar home to “nefarious activities”.
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In the mid-2000s it’s said that biker gangs visited regularly and it survived comfortably due to a large regular clientele that called the place home.
Ironically, however, the Hellfire Club succumbed to a hellfire of its own in 2014 and shut down – leaving a much-adored history of revelling and memorable evenings in its wake.
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A year later, after a lavish refurbishment, Cirque Manchester took over.
Cirque Manchester, described at the time as “the hidden gem” Manchester had been waiting for, was a unique champagne-house bar set over two floors.
The Hellfire Club of old
The 250-cap venue opened each weekend and aimed to lure punters of similar venues in Manchester city centre out of town for “unparalleled service and a luxurious drinks menu”.
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With its vintage lounge that boasted VIP table service and glamorous waitresses, Cirque failed to become the elite celebrity hangout that it promised and closed for a rebrand just one year after its launch.
That’s when it got sexy. Literally.
Cirque’s owners, not wanting to fail (and clearly believing in such an iconic building), enlisted the services of Cheryl Smith, best known for organising Sexhibition, the North’s biggest sex festival.
Cirque
Keeping its name, the club’s new promoter turned the building into a burlesque emporium with the hope of attracting a more exclusive clientele during a time in which a ‘burlesque boom’ was sweeping Manchester’s nighttime landscape.
Equipped for fetish and BDSM nights, Cirque had brought back some of the nefarious energy that the building was famous for during its long stint as the Hellfire Club – and after rebranding away from a Deansgate crowd and focusing more on an exclusive audience on the rise, the club experienced some immediate success.
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But that success was short lived, and a pattern had officially formed on the corner of Queens Road. The old Hellfire Club, or Junction Inn, or Junction Hotel, was struggling to rediscover its identity and multiple failed attempts at reinvigorating it had left it derelict.
The Hellfire Club today
Then the hellfires returned.
Derelict buildings in north Manchester don’t stand for long without being savaged by fire, and in 2019, the still-photogenic curved building had become home to multiple blazes, leaving it run-down and home to mountains of scorched rubbish and timber.
With its gutted Victorian-interior and unsafe floors and stairwells, over the last few years, the idea of redeveloping this historic landmark has become an off-putting prospect for property developers – but it can’t be long until someone decides that turning it into flats just two miles from Manchester city centre could be a lucrative proposition.
In the meantime, it continues to stand strong and is remembered by many as a place in which they laughed with friends, filled their bellies, or saw some sh*t they’ll never forget.
Long live the Hellfire Club!
Feature
You can get a mobile massage treatment in your office – just like us
Thomas Melia
We’d like to introduce you to the pioneering personalised service offering massage treatments on the move at practically any location including direct from your office– including to those of us here in Manchester.
In a world where you can get practically anything delivered straight to your door, it wasn’t going to be long until some genius invented a way to get a massage from the comfort of your own office.
Named ‘London’s first digital beauty concierge’, Ruuby have been pampering the nation’s capital for almost a decade before branching out to further locations.
The gorgeous set up provided by RuubyLook at that lovely branding on the towels.They did wonders with our otherwise plain downstairs office space. (Credit: The Manc Group)
In October 2024, the company expanded beyond its domestic reach in the likes of the capital, the Cotswolds and Surrey into Europe, making its first mark Switzerland: the perfect country for both luxury and essential beauty treatments with a tailored experience.
The month following saw the group moving up North and all the way to Manchester, where people can now book professional treatments best suited to them, right on their doorstep.
If you’re feeling scepticalstill, you can take it from us here at The Manc; we couldn’t tell you how relaxing and comforting these massages are.
There are a range of treatments available and we opted for two bespoke massages, a sports massage and a deep tissue massage.
Each experience is suited to your personal needs meaning each massage therapist will be able to fine-tune their relaxation abilities to what benefits you best.
After choosing the bespoke massage that I felt would work best for me, I went into this with no prior massage experience and I came out feeling taller, broader and more refreshed. Highly recommend.
Mid-day office massage? Yes, please.How relaxing. What a shame you have to go back to work after!Credit: The Manc Group
My masseuse guided me throughout the whole process and we soon discovered that I was able to tolerate much harder pressure than I thought which helped release tension I didn’t even know I had!
The same applies to how firm you’d like your session to be, as the masseuse can help with a brief overview of your time together, but the amount of pressure you like is down to personal preference.
It’s not just massages either: there’s everything from waxing, nails and hair to physio and IV drips; how about getting Marbella ready in less than an hour with a spray tan service set up wherever you are?
As Ruuby is a mobile and remote work environment, there are a number of at any time up and down the country, meaning your next beauty slot could be as little as an hour away, find out more HERE.
Farm shops are cool now – and Albion Farm Shop is the best of the best
Daisy Jackson
At some point in life, your idea of a great day out switches from drinking and clubbing to visiting a farm shop, or a garden centre, or something similarly wholesome.
And up in the hills above Manchester is surely one of the best in the UK – Albion Farm Shop.
This Saddleworth favourite is half-cafe, half-shop, with produce all either grown right outside, or sourced as locally as possible.
And while places like Hollies Farm Shop in Cheshire pull in seriously big, glamorous crowds (maybe it’s the Molly-Mae effect), there’s something much more charming and authentic about Albion Farm Shop.
Maybe it’s the tractors parked outside, the fact the produce section is in a drafty barn, the mismatched shelves and cabinets. It’s not curated like this – it just is.
The food in the cafe itself is up there with the best British grub in the North West, and I say that with my hand on my heart.
Whether it’s a full breakfast spilling over the edge of a plate, sandwiches served in a doorstop of bread, or a full menu of burgers made with British beef cap and smoked bone marrow patties, you can’t steer far wrong.
Rag pudding at Albion Farm ShopChips with a side of bone broth gravy Those huge burgers
There are chunky chips served with a full bowl of bone stock gravy on the side (hello, this is Oldham), onion rings so big you can wear them as a bangle, and big bowls of homemade soup.
And it would be remiss of me not to mention the rag pudding, a traditional dish from this neck of the woods. Famously, she’s not a pretty menu item, but this steamed suet pastry stuffed with braised beef shin is comforting and delicious.
If you want to stick northern fare but don’t fancy rag pudding, you can also grab a wedge of cheese and onion pie, lambs liver with mash, or any number of seasonal specials (for us, it was roast pork).
There are cracking views of the surrounding countryside, a resident cat who’s usually sleeping in the entranceway, and charm packed into every square foot.
Albion Farm Shop is at Oldham Road, Delph, Saddleworth OL3 5RQ.
The resident cat at Albion Farm ShopRoast pork in the cafeThe Albion Farm Shop cafeAlbion Farm ShopInside the shop itselfThe produce barn Local cheesesBakery itemsThe produce barn
Sam Ridgway -
8th May 2021 
