It’s no accident that Manchester is chock-a-block with beloved local brands. In a city where the civic pride is as loud and pronounced as you’ll find anywhere in Britain, ‘choosing local’ has always been the preferred option for residents.
Local corner shops. Local butchers. Local taxi firms. Manchester is inundated with familiar family firms which have stood the test of time because they understand what the community is all about – and what it needs.
For a model example – see Street Cars.
Anyone who’s ever spent five minutes in Manchester will have likely heard about the city’s leading cab company.
Not only does the firm have a huge presence right across the region, it’s also partnered with Manchester Airport, The Trafford Centre, Manchester United, Manchester City, railway stations, BBC, and a wide range of hospitality venues.
ADVERTISEMENT
Street Cars’ taxis are everywhere. 900 vehicles are out on the roads right now.
Originally launched back in 2002, the taxi firm is preparing to celebrate two decades in Manchester next year – a feat that’s all-the-more impressive considering the troublesome past 14 months.
ADVERTISEMENT
The pandemic piled intense pressure on homegrown businesses, but Street Cars survived – rapidly adapting their vehicles for COVID safety and becoming an essential service for local key workers when public transport was trimmed.
When Street Cars’ staff weren’t carting doctors and nurses to and from the Manchester Royal Infirmary, they were dropping food and drink parcels to keep frontline staff fuelled up, as well as providing packages for care homes and helping vulnerable people who couldn’t travel to the shops themselves.
The firm even chose to reflect on this challenging period with a published poem – a moving meditation on how Manchester had ground to a halt during lockdown.
ADVERTISEMENT
Street Cars has sought to support the city’s bravest people in numerous ways. But the company director believes there’s another reason why the firm has stood the test of time.
“It’s professionalism,” Naveed Arshad explains.
“All our drivers wear shirts and ties. We use clean, new, corporate cars.
“We have shields in our vehicles and they’re sprayed with antibacterial Electroclean (electrostatic sanitisation technology) to ensure people’s safety.
“We care about the customers.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The values of the firm have remained intact, but the travel industry itself has changed considerably since that first Street Cars trip nearly twenty years ago. Nowadays, passengers use mobile apps to book trips rather than call HQ – and Street Cars have dedicated time and resources to launching their very own car-booking tech system in order to adapt.
“We’re proud of it – it’s a really good app,” Naveed explains.
“You can pay by card, it provides driver details when you book, it gives you an ETA – all the info you need.”
Simplicity and ease are the two obvious reasons to book Street Cars cabs by mobile app. But perhaps the biggest incentive of all is the fact that customers can save 20% on prices all year round.
A tempting travel bargain now that the world is opening up.
ADVERTISEMENT
After a hugely successful two decades on the roads, Manchester’s popular family firm has modernised and mobilised ready for a new era. It could have another twenty years in the tank just yet.
As the narrator so aptly puts in the Street Cars poem: “Our public service never stops.”
Manchester
Manchester’s huge £365m Co-op Live arena reveals new opening date
Daisy Jackson
The Co-op Live arena has confirmed its new opening date, with the doors to the enormous £365m music venue opening next year.
The huge new venue for Manchester is backed by Harry Styles, and will have the world’s largest floor space of any indoor arena when it opens.
Its total capacity will be 23,500 gig-goers, with an innovative music-first design as well as 32 bars, restaurants, and lounges around the site.
The Co-op Live arena is now to set to open in April 2024, a slightly later date than its previously planned opening at the end of this year.
The shape of the enormous structure has taken shape in the north of the city, close to Manchester City‘s home ground at the Etihad Stadium.
Co-op Live is the first of its kind to be built with concert acoustics as a priority.
The smart bowl at Co-op Live arena. Credit: SuppliedThe Co-op Live’s atrium. Credit: Supplied
Not only will gig-goers experience state-of-the-art acoustics, there’ll be nothing to detract from the visual spectacles on stage either – the bowl will feature no corporate branding, and soundproof black curtains will be used in the suites that line the edges of level two.
A spokesperson for the venue said: “This morning I am happy to reveal that Co-op Live will be opening our doors to fans in April 2024.
“It’s huge kudos to BAM, and the dozens of local subcontractors working on the project, that we are well within our original timeframe and on-budget given the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, supply chain shortages, and an energy crisis.
“We’re proud to be on the home stretch to delivering Co-op Live and we can’t wait to invite fans in to experience the biggest and most sustainable arena in the UK.”
Manchester cafe Idle Hands mobbed by huge swarm of bees who took over outdoor tables
Daisy Jackson
One of the Northern Quarter’s most popular cafes had an unusual issue on Saturday afternoon, when tens of thousands of bees paid a visit.
It seems the swarm of bees had got wind of Idle Hands’ legendary pies and took over one of the venue’s outdoor tables.
The cafe had to call in a local beekeeper after the busy insects rendered their outside space too risky for customers to use.
Incredible photos captured by local photographer Andrew Stuart and shared by the cafe show a jaw-dropping mass of the insects congregating beneath a table.
The cafe, on the corner of Dale Street and Tariff Street, was saved by the Manchester Honey Company, who humanely scooped them away to safety.
Idle Hands wrote on Instagram: “So, fun day at the shop today, with thousands of bees moving home and deciding to drop in on our shop and cluster under one of our tables (now forever to be known as the bee table) whilst on their journey.
“Massive thanks to @manchesterhoneycompany for coming and safely taking them away to a far more suitable home. And to @andrewstuart1 for capturing the event so well!”
They had previously posted on their stories: “Erm, anyone know what we do about this??? Swarm of thousands out of nowhere.”
Manchester Honey Company said: “This swarm landed @idlehandscoffee in Manchester and was collected by @manchesterhoneycompany. The bees were so friendly and calm and we were so well looked after by the friendly staff.
“The bees were collected from under a table and put in the hive. The queen was in the hive so the rest of the bees followed her in.”
The incident with Idle Hands is far from the first time that swarms of bees have caused disruption in the city centre.