This Manchester woman is hosting a free Christmas dinner for people in need
"This Christmas I desperately want to reach from the streets into people's homes, where individuals may be alone or struggling to bring us all together this Christmas time."
A woman from Manchester is hosting a free Christmas dinner this December to help people who are struggling to eat and heat their homes.
She’ll be paying for all the food herself, and says that anyone is welcome – be they struggling to feed their kids, heat their houses, dealing with insobriety, loneliness, or homelessness.
Typically she spends Christmas Day out on the streets handing out food to people sleeping rough but said this year she wanted to do something even bigger to make the most impact for those who need help most.
Antonia Gough quit her job three years ago to help Manchester’s homeless, founding Homeless House after receiving financial support from Boohoo.com and I SAW IT FIRST co-founder Jalal Kamani.
Since then, she’s worked tirelessly to better the lives of those less fortunate – and says that she fears this year people will be in more need than ever due to the rising cost of living.
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Every day she’s out on the streets handing out breakfast to Manchester’s homeless, including on Christmas Day.
But last year, out of a desire to help even more people, she also organised for a Christmas dinner to be cooked and served to the some of the city’s most marginalised and vulnerable at The Arc, a charitable organisation based in Manchester on Robert Street on the same road as her offices.
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This Christmas she is gearing up to do it again, buying all the food herself so that people who can’t afford a meal this year for their kids “because times are so tough”, or those that are sat at home on their own, can come and enjoy a hot meal and some festive cheer.
There will be carol singing, hot breakfast and dinner, free haircuts, and even an appearance from Santa.
Antonia says that Sainsbury’s has been in touch to offer donations of table dressings and more to make the space feel really festive, and she’s also had further support from The Arc, Delphi Medical, Acorn, CGL & Emerging Futures. .
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She told The Manc: “I’m not going to have a booking system, it’s just a case of if you’re struggling to heat or eat please turn up.
“The street people will be there and those who are in rehab, those who might be going through insobriety, that are sat at home on their own on Christmas Day, anybody is welcome.”
“We’re going to do breakfast in the morning at eleven and those who want to stay for dinner, we’ve got some singers.
Explaining how she has been taken aback by the kind offers of help she’s received so far, she continued: “Manchester Theatre contacted me this week and said they’ll send, they’ve heard sorry by Business Growth in Manchester that’s what we’re doing and they want to send down the kids to sing some carols.
“Sainsbury’s has been in touch and the staff want to donate anything we might need, table cloths, that sort of thing, yeah so it’s coming together to think that happened over the space of three days this week.”
However, whilst she’s doing everything she can to pull the dinner together there are a few things that she needs help with – and is hoping that someone in the local community will come forward to lend a hand to help bring this year’s Christmas dinner to life.
As she only has one tiny domestic oven and is planning to cook dinner for at least 70 people, she tells us that she’s looking for someone to provide a kitchen, some staff to help cook the meals, and someone to assist her with the delivery of meals to The Arc.
She added: “The support over the last two years from the community and our local businesses has been nothing short of incredible, which has allowed us to help thousands of people.
“This Christmas I desperately want to reach from the streets into people’s homes, where individuals may be alone or struggling to bring us all together this Christmas time.”
If you would like to get involved and offer some help this Christmas, email [email protected] or send a direct message via social media on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Feature image – Supplied
Food & Drink
Plans to open a brand-new pub on the site of the Rovers Return
Daisy Jackson
A brand-new pub is set to open in Manchester city centre net month, with treats in store like complimentary bowls of crisps, an outdoor terrace, and a games parlour.
The Stables Tavern is taking shape in the St John’s district, poetically on the same site that was once home to Coronation Street’s iconic Rovers Return pub.
They’re promising this will be a ‘historic tavern reimagined for today’s lover of a proper pint’.
The pub will come from Shiko Group, which is also behind Courts Club, where you can play tennis or basketball followed by court-side pints, and Side Street, a bar-restaurant-events space with a mid-Century interior.
Neighbouring the Bonded Warehouse, The Stables Tavern will join this rapidly blossoming new creative district, just across the yard from Caravan, The Trading Route and Aviva Studios.
Inside, punters will find multiple beer taps with local beers, served with complimentary bowls of crisps as well as a menu of pub snacks like handmade sausage rolls and local pies.
The pub will be split into three sections – an outside terrace, a main bar, and a parlour area at the back of the pub for live entertainment, old school games, and rounds of whiskey.
This might be a new district but it’s a historic area for the city – the same building was a busy watering hole back in the early 19th century for workers, merchants and visitors who made use of the nearby canals and cobbled streets.
It was then the home of the Rovers Return, back when this area was the home of Granada Studios.
Hayley Sammé, Marketing Director, said: “We’re so excited to bring The Stables Tavern back to St John’s. The area’s extensive historical backdrop and burgeoning hospitality scene provides the perfect landscape for a traditional British pub.
“It’s the perfect addition to the existing scene, and we hope it’s going to become a popular spot in our new creative district.”
The Stables Tavern will open at St John’s on Friday 6 June.
A historic Stockport pub has officially become a listed building
Danny Jones
The Angel Inn pub in Stockport has officially become the thriving Greater Manchester borough’s latest listed building.
Being granted Grade II-listed status following an extensive visit and survey by Historic England (HE), Stockport Market Place’s Angel Inn may have had a lick of paint amidst the ‘Old Town Revival’ over the last decade or so, but the pub itself was erected back in the 16th century.
Reopened as one of the area’s most beloved boozers back in 2018, whilst still maintaining key fixtures and that feeling of authenticity, it harks back to the town’s Cheshire roots and taps into a deep vein of local culture.
The assessment, which was completed earlier this month, means that Angel Inn has been recognised as having special architectural or historic significance – i.e. the definition of a listed building.
Writing in a post on social media, the government-backed English heritage organisation detailed that while the inn predates the Early Modern/post-medieval period, the Angel‘s frame is comprised of wood from the 15th century.
But it gets even more interesting than that…
As well as being one of a select few surviving, traditional wattle-and-daub structures in the UK – nearby Bramall Hall being another (and a technique that had died out by the 18th century) – a close inspection of the internal floorboards unearthed something truly fascinating.
It just so happens that tests by HE proved that one particular plank of flooring “was cut from a tree alive in 1086, the year the Domesday Book was completed: the oldest government record held in The National Archives, commissioned by William the Conqueror.
How bloody cool is that?
It’s also worth noting that it’s genuinely a brilliant boozer and one of the most popular watering holes you’ll find in the town centre, promising a cosy interior, an intimate little outdoor area out back and serving plenty of regional ales.
You only have to glance at the exterior to clue into its age, let alone what there is to be found inside.Way back when.Credit: Historic England (handout)/Stockport Archives
Although they say it’s likely that the floorboard in question was originally cut for an earlier building situated in the same location, it still goes to show how old this particular North West settlement is.
“The name ‘Angel Inn’ dates from as early as 1769, though the site’s hospitality roots extend further, with references to “Cotterell’s inn” used for sequestrators’ meetings in the 1640s, who met to organise the confiscation of property of supporters of King Charles I during The English Civil War”, HE went on to add.
Angel Inn is one of only a handful of venues like this in Greater Manchester and Cheshire; safe to say a lot of time, effort and money are being put into preserving these links to the past.
Georgina Pellant -
4th November 2022 
