City Centre

Manchester public asked for their opinion on plans to pedestrianise Stevenson Square

Hundreds of people have already let the Manchester City Council know what they wanted from the Northern Quarter hub.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 1st December 2021

Stevenson Square could be fully pedestrianised under new plans, and Manchester residents are finally being asked for their opinions.

After the idea of pedestrianising the Northern Quarter hub was first proposed back in February 2021, a final consultation has been launched today, and it officially sets out Manchester City Council’s ambitions to make the square one of the most attractive destinations in the city. 

Hundreds of people have already let the Council know what they wanted from Stevenson Square and the surrounding area through two earlier consultations.

But now, it’s at the final stages.

Through the first two exercises, the Manchester City Council said it learned that the main priorities for residents and businesses in the area were: 

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  • The full pedestrianisation of Stevenson Square. 
  • Having a space where people could sit and relax. 
  • A safe, traffic-free space that they could move through. 
  • Elements which reflected the character of the Northern Quarter – including space for outdoor dining, public art, and planted areas allowing a “connection to nature”.

So, with this in mind, the public is now being asked for their views on the Council’s proposals before improvement works begin in 2022. 

Some of the proposed key changes to the area this time include the pedestrianisation of Stevenson Square – with new seating and bike racks installed, new trees planted, and sustainable draining systems (SUDS) installed – and a two-way cycle lane that will run through the square at the same level as the pavement, with tactile crossings put in place and new signage for cyclist wayfaring.

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Pedestrian and cyclist crossings will also be installed at the junctions of Oldham Street / Hilton Street, and Newton Street / Hilton Street.

Footpaths will be widened in the area to give more space over to pedestrians.

Pay and display bays in Hilton Street will be removed.

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Some loading bays in the area will also be relocated to allow for these changes to be made, all while still retaining important space for businesses to trade.

Additional planting of trees and SUDS where possible will be added to the south-eastern side of Lever Street, as part of the City of Trees project, but the Council has said that this will be subject to future surveys to find “optimum space”, and make allowances for underground utilities such as gas, water, and electric.

“I’m incredibly pleased that we’re able to take the next step towards creating a more accessible and thriving Northern Quarter,” said Councillor Tracey Rawlins – Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Environment.

Stevenson Square could be fully pedestrianised under new plans, and Manchester residents are finally being asked for their opinions / Credit: Manchester City Council

“Making more space available for people to walk and cycle, as well as introducing more green space, were just two of the many priorities highlighted to us by residents and businesses throughout the consultations we’ve run [and] the experience of the past year, when more space was given over for pedestrians and cyclists, was incredibly positive and signalled a shift in how people want to interact and engage with the city of Manchester.

“I look forward to hearing people’s feedback on this final round of consultation and would encourage residents and businesses to take part.”

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The consultation is now live and running until Tuesday 21 December here.

Featured Image – Manchester City Council

City Centre

The Japanese takeaway with a Michelin-trained chef serving a secret omakase menu out back

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

Good sushi is a hard thing to find in Manchester nowadays. To be honest, ever since the demise of Umezushi, it has felt out of reach.

Average sushi, however, is suddenly available in abundance thanks to an explosive proliferation of trendy, if soulless, Pan Asian restaurants.

You know the sort. The spots with the claggy, dried-out rice on ostentatious platters, whose chefs stuff cream cheese into the middle of their maki, or disguise its lack of freshness with cascading waterfalls of dry ice.

These spots, with their fake flower walls and neon signs that scream “Pick me!” seem, depressingly, to be taking over. So it’s with relish I can reassure you at least one place in Manchester city centre is doing its bit to remind us what real sushi should actually taste like.

Image: The Manc Group
Image: The Manc Group

Even better, it’s entirely missing the gaudy flamboyance of Manchester’s glitzy Pan Asian sushi scene – so if, like me, you’re not into superficial sushi, you should feel right at home here.

I’m talking about One Sushi, formerly known as Ikkan – a tiny Japanese takeaway shop on Oxford Road filled with little more than a few wooden counters and a cash desk topped with metallic maneki-neko, or beckoning cat.

Opened last year by the team behind China Buffet, a popular Chinese restaurant in the heart of Chinatown, its takeaway cabinets are stuffed with California and red dragon rolls, deep-fried ebi, and various tempting combo platters.

Read more: Manchester Food and Drink Festival reveal 2023 awards shortlists as voting opens

These lovingly packaged takeaway morsels are already considered by sushi fiends in the know to be amongst best in the city, but – whilst they are really good – they are nothing compared to what is coming off the kitchen’s near-invisible pass.

Hidden at the back by a blue flag featuring the One Sushi logo and rolling waves that resemble Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai’s famous Great Wave off Kanagawa print, it’s here that you will reconsider whether you’ve ever really had a good piece of sushi before in your life.

Prepare to be blown away.

The no-frills setup for the omakase, which literally translates as ‘I leave it up to you’. / Image: The Manc Eats
A piece of Otoro tuna nigiri. / Image: The Manc Eats

We’re talking otoro belly tuna, A5 seared wagyu steak (that’s the highest grade you can get), sweet Japanese scallops and prawns, all prepared right in front of you by master sushi chef Eddie who trained at two Michelin star Hong Kong restaurant Zuicho.

All the fish here is super fresh, and the entire style of the menu is down to chef Eddie – meaning he chooses for you, preparing the best of the best from that day.

Read more: Inside the underground Manchester noodle bar serving Chinatown’s spiciest scrans

Priced at £58 per person, Eddie can accommodate up to four people at once for this incredible omakase sushi experience. There’s really nowhere like it in Manchester for this price, in fact the only other place where you can go to experience something like this will set you back at least £200.

For sushi lovers, this is a dream come true.

Featured image – The Manc Group

City Centre

There’s a bottomless Rocky Horror singalong happening in Manchester this Halloween

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

We all know Halloween is right around the corner, and there’s a little cinema in our city that’s celebrating the spooky season in style.

STAB Film Season is back and “bigger than ever” this year.

The much-loved frightening film event is taking over Manchester’s home of cult cinema, video games, and “cool nerdy events”, Cultplex – which is tucked away within the award-winning venue GRUB in Cheetham Hill – throughout October, and is first kicking things off by showing a full day of Wes Craven’s finest slasher satire, Scream, one after the other right up until midnight.

But one of the other stand-out showings on the packed lineup is a singalong screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Oh, and did we forget to mention there’ll be bottomless drinks? Now we’re talking.

The Bottomless Rocky Horror Show is taking over GRUB and Cultplex this Halloween / Credit: GRUB

Taking place on the weekend before Halloween, with not one, not two, but three screenings of the classic 70s flick across both Friday 28 and Saturday 29 October, GRUB says this is your chance to dress the part, sing the night away in style, and be “chilled, thrilled, and fulfilled”.

Kicking-off in GRUB’s downstairs bar first, anyone who grabs tickets for one of the three screenings will be treated to bottomless fizz, mimosas, beer/cider, or non-alcoholic equivalents and soft drinks, for 90 minutes before the screening begins, all before you head on over to Cultplex and carry on sipping for another 100 minutes while the film’s on.

The Bottomless Rocky Horror Show is just one of the many events on GRUB’s Halloween Week lineup this year.

GRUB’s Halloween Week has so many activities for the whole family to get involved in / Credit: GRUB

If a singalong cinema isn’t quite your bag, then there’s so many other activities for the whole family to get involved in – with everything from pumpkin carving competitions and SFX makeup masterclasses, to Halloween life drawing sessions, Spooky Sip and Paint, a Weird History Walking Tour, a Freaky Family Fun Day, and so much more on the lineup just announced this week.

Plus, as this is all happening down at what is one of the UK’s biggest street food and social hubs, you can also expect to tuck into a wide range of street food and Halloween-themed drinks specials from local independent traders to tuck into.

There’ll also be lots of sweets and candy to satisfy your sugar cravings too.

Read more:

Tickets to the Bottomless Rocky Horror Show screenings at GRUB on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 October will set you back £25 each, and are now on sale.

Find out more about what’s happening for GRUB’s Halloween Week here.

Featured Image – 20th Century Fox

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