Piccadilly East is on the way to becoming one of Manchester’s coolest new neighbourhoods, but the once little-known corner of the city has a fascinating hidden history.
Like Castlefield, the Northern Quarter and Ancoats before it, the district – set between Piccadilly Station and Great Ancoats Street – is making waves as one of the up-and-coming places to live for people wanting to get ahead of the property curve.
The team behind Ramona and The Firehouse recently revealed plans to transform Piccadilly East’s Diecast building into a massive beer hall and night market, alongside creative workspaces and gardens.
This spring will also see the opening of the striking Leonardo Hotel – the brand’s first spot in the city, with bar, restaurant and wellness spaces.
Add to that plans for more homes, pocket parks and community events and a proper buzz is building, with Piccadilly East being named by The Times as one of the ‘next great places to live’.
But those calling it home will be the latest in a rich and colourful history. From rival gangs and gritty industrial slums, to a former life as a red light district, the streets echo with the stories of the past.
The Commune
Piccadilly East has been named as one of the ‘next great places to live’.
It might seem mad today, but most of the area surrounding Crusader Mill on Chapeltown Street was slum housing and back-to-back terraces.
Sometimes nicknamed The Dardanelles or, more locally, The Commune, the communities housed workers from Crusader and the surrounding mills.
The tiny houses were often home to around nine people living in poverty, including local workers, their kids and lodgers.
It’s where machinists, carters, and railway labourers rested their head after their shifts, alongside cotton spinners and reelers, tailors, packers, stay (corset) makers, and paviers who were working on the rapidly expanding city’s infrastructure.
The success of the neighbourhood played out in the local pubs, mostly lost to slum clearance. Whilst their daily life and celebration likely played out in these boozers, sadly it’s the stories of strife and sorrow that are usually logged in the history books.
Gangs and scuttling
Crusader Mill
The area was once rife with crime, with young boys making up the gangs of Manchester. The Scuttlers and The Quality Street Gang (the inspiration for the Thin Lizzy song ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’) ran the streets around Piccadilly East and Ancoats.
Like George Moran, described in records as ‘a rough’, who lived there in the 1890s and was part of the gang that served as the influence for TV smash series Peaky Blinders. By the time George was in trouble for scuttling it was their peak time in history, with more young people in Strangeways prison for scuttling than anything else.
Scuttling – involving groups of young men fighting – all but vanished when the slums in the area were cleared in the following decades.
Colourful characters
Ferrous
The Leonardo Hotel
Developments transforming Piccadilly East
Loads of colourful characters make up the very human history of the neighbourhood.
Tales like that of Elizabeth White, who lived on Travis Street. She met a man – George Craven – that summer in Blackpool, and he began lodging with her. It turned out Craven was a wanted burglar who had cut a hole in the ceiling of a jewellers so he could wriggle in and raid the joint.
Police tracked him down to Elizabeth’s home in 1872, where he shot a Detective Rowbottom, who survived a bullet that passed straight through his wrist.
Or the likes of the McGlynns, two local performers believed to have been part of Hengler’s Grand Cirque, a circus that stood for only four years before it was demolished to make way for the Hippodrome.
Performances included an early incarceration of the living statues now common on Market Street, and ‘Siberia’, which saw soldiers and horses plunged in water ten feet deep.
The McGlynn family vanished from the records around the time the circus was demolished – some believed they went to Paris to join the era of the Moulin Rouge.
Or the people who kept the community going, like knocker upper Rueben Holland, lamplighter Thomas Kennedy, fireman Thomas Taylor, Alice Baths the umbrella maker, and a pickle packer named Elizabeth Grice.
A new chapter
Crusader Mill
Crusader Mill
Phoenix
Phoenix
New Capital & Centric developments in Piccadilly East.
Social impact developer Capital&Centric are leading the re-birth of the neighbourhood, with projects including the restoration of the historic 200-year-old Crusader Mill into homes and the neighbouring new-build Phoenix, industrial loft apartments. Their new-build community Ferrous, featuring ground floor cafes, bars and outside event space has also just been given the go ahead.
Crusader dates back to the 1840s, when it was the home of manufacturing company Parr, Curtis and Madeley and a key cog in Manchester’s Cottonopolis past.
A huge fire destroyed much of the mill, then known as Phoenix Works, in 1861, with the weight of the machinery and the damage brought by the flames causing the floors to collapse.
It was rebuilt, and by the 1920s was known as Crusader Mill, occupied by creative industries like the arts and publishing.
Thankfully, the days of slums and Scuttlers are long gone. A new chapter for the building and neighbourhood has already begun, with residents living where hundreds of people once worked.
But whilst the next era of Piccadilly East will be one buzzing with community life, the Mancunian stories that have shaped its past will always be a part of its heritage.
Visit the Crusader and Phoenix websites to find out more or call 0161 222 0204 to arrange a viewing.
Property
Inside One Port Street, the Northern Quarter’s luxury new 32-storey apartment block
Daisy Jackson
A towering new development in the Northern Quarter has revealed its open date – and given a sneak glimpse inside the luxury apartments.
One Port Street is a £195m development on the doorstep of both the Northern Quarter and Ancoats, standing at 32 storeys tall and boasting 477 open-plan apartments.
And this major new development will also be home to a 2000 sq ft leisure facility with a swimming pool, a spa pool, and an urban garden, with a total of 22,000 sq ft of public green space.
The building’s hit a major milestone this month, finally confirming an opening date of February 2026.
One Port Street has been developed by Select Property in partnership with prestigious architects SimpsonHaugh.
Inside, each apartment will offer an industrial aesthetic with exposed textures, and apartments ranging in size from one bed to three.
There’ll be glass balcony balustrades, with a pattern inspired by textile patterns from the Whitworth Art Gallery.
As well as the apartments, One Port Street will have high-spec indoor and outdoor working and socialising spaces, such as a 360° firepit, state-of-the-art gym and yoga studios, and co-working spaces.
CGIs of how One Port Street will look when it’s completed. Credit: Jon Parker Lee
On the 7th floor, there’ll be a resident lounge and external terrace, named after a tavern which stood on Port Street 200 years ago, plus a secret room for residents called The Hideout.
Ian Simpson, Founder Partner at SimpsonHaugh, said: “One Port Street embodies the rich architectural diversity of Manchester.
“This development offers more than just a place to live, work, and socialise – it’s a sanctuary within the city’s most creative and lively neighbourhood. It’s a true example of what a sustainable, modern community should be.”
Inside a One Port Street apartment. Credit: The Manc Group
Adam Price, CEO at Select Property, added: “One Port Street is set to be a true landmark for Manchester and represents everything we believe modern residential living should be – design-led, community-minded and connected to its surroundings and local heritage.
“The Northern Quarter has long been the focal point of Manchester’s creativity and culture and this new development takes inspiration from that while bringing something new to the community.
“The response so far has been phenomenal, and as we enter the final phase, we’re proud to be collaborating with local artists and independent businesses to bring the finishing touches to life, ahead of welcoming our first residents. Make sure you join the waitlist to be part of this exciting story.”
One Port Street is set to complete in February 2026 and you can see more here.
Much-maligned derelict Stockport site to be turned into town’s latest tower block
Danny Jones
A derelict site in the centre of Stockport is finally set to be bulldozed and turned into a brand new tower block worth a reported £70 million.
The regularly reviled Victoria House on Wellington Street, situated close to the large, grey Stopford House and opposite a local branch of Grosvenor Casinos, was built back in the 1960s – as its old metropolitan exterior makes evident – and has been tipped for redevelopment over the last decade.
Sitting on the corner of the Greek Street roundabout, it has remained mainly empty since 2019, with various developers looking to transform it into various residential reboots.
Now, nearly 10 years later, the building looks to be finally ready for the next chapter and a new lease of life, with property firm Progressive Living (PL) hoping to turn it into two main eight and 20-storey tower blocks, with tiered levels, different room capacities and rooftop spaces.
The former office building was once part of the nearby Jobcentre Plus branch, just down the road, not to mention one of several similar abandoned and underutilised spaces with untapped potential in the area.
Along with the demolition of the structure itself, the adjacent Fletcher Street car park that sits between Victoria House and the aforementioned casino will also make way for the apartments.
With the planning permission application submitted earlier this year and officially greenlit by Stockport Council on Thursday, 3 July,
Promising a mix of one, two and three-bed properties, the company are planning to build a total of 245 homes, though there has been some criticism regarding affordability – a significant increase on the initial idea to turn the 13,000 sq ft office unit into 21 flats some years ago.
Speaking on the project, PL director David Fairclough said: “We’re delighted to have secured planning for what will be a flagship scheme for Stockport.”
“This approval represents a major milestone for a project that’s been six years in the making, and we’re proud to play our part in shaping the next chapter of the town centre’s transformation.
“With demolition due to start later this year, we’re looking forward to delivering much-needed new homes in a sustainable, future-focused way.”
A CGI of what the new residential tower block in Stockport town centre will look like. (Credit: PL)
Construction is slated to start next spring, and they’re hoping to complete the project by summer 2028.
Developers hope to start demolition works this year, with construction expected to start in spring 2026, and completion targeted for Summer 2028.
Local councillor Micheala Meikle, who serves as the town’s cabinet member for regeneration, said: “This is another important step in transforming Stockport as part of the UK’s biggest town centre regeneration.
“These high-quality new homes will bring more people into the heart of the town, supporting local businesses and making the most of our new transport links.
“With the Mayoral Development Corporation delivering 8,000 new homes and Metrolink on the horizon, we’re building a town that works for the future – somewhere people choose to live, work and put down roots.
“This is exactly the kind of accessible, sustainable scheme we want to see in the town centre — creating homes for all ages as part of a thriving, low-carbon community.”