Manchester City Centre - Central Retail District
The Central Retail District in Manchester city centre is home a large number of shops, restaurants, tourist attractions, and transport links. It includes Market Street and the Manchester Arndale, Deansgate, St Ann’s Square, King Street, Exchange Square, Shambles Square, Victoria train station, and the Shudehill Interchange.
Attractions & Things To Do
The Manchester Evening News Arena is the biggest indoor arena in the UK and Western Europe. Attached to Victoria train station, it plays hosts to major bands and the occasional sporting event.
Just across the road is the National Football Museum at Urbis, due to open in 2012 after relocating from Preston. Chetham’s School of Music and Manchester Cathedral are also nearby.
The Printworks is a vast entertainment centre housed inside a former printing complex. It’s home the biggest cinema in Manchester city centre plus a good selection of bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.
The Royal Exchange is Manchester’s leading theatre company. It’s located on St Ann’s Square in one of the most unusual theatre spaces in the UK.
Shops
The Manchester Arndale boasts over 200 stores and is the biggest city centre shopping mall in England. High street names here include Boots, Next, WHSmith, Aldi, Wilkinson, and Argos.
Exchange Square and New Cathedral Street were extensively rebuilt after the IRA bombing in 1996. The new development attracted big retail names like Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, M&S, Ugg, Hobbs, LK Bennett, Reiss, and Ted Baker. The Corn Exchange was also damaged by the explosion. It reopened in 2000 as the Triangle, a shopping centre with many independent stores and a handful of restaurants.
King Street is where Manchester’s rich and famous seek retail therapy. Designer fashion and luxury shops such as Bang & Olufsen, Belstaff, Crombie, Diesel, Hermes, Jaeger, and Tommy Hilfiger predominate.
St Ann’s Square, together with adjacent St Ann’s Street and Exchange Street, is another upmarket shopping area with shops like jewellers David M Robinson and Mappin &Webb, Gap, French Connection, and Swarovski. The Barton Arcade, The Royal Exchange Arcade, and St Ann’s Arcade are also here.
Deansgate is one of the major thoroughfares in Manchester city centre. The biggest and most famous shop here is the House of Fraser department store (formerly Kendals). Other notable stores on Deansgate include Blacks, ModelZone, Trailfinders, and Waterstones.
Restaurants, Pubs, and Bars
The Wellington Inn, and neighbour Sinclair’s Oyster Bar, have been shifted twice from their original resting place. The first move took place in the 1970s when the Manchester Arndale was built over their original location on the Shambles. In the aftermath of the 1996 IRA bomb they were moved to the newly created Shambles Square to make way for the Exchange Square development. The Wellington Inn is a half-timbered free house dating back to the mid-1500s while Sinclair’s Oyster Bar was built in the 18th century and is now a Samuel Smith’s pub.
The Triangle shopping centre lies just east of Shambles Square and houses a number of restaurants and bars including Pizza Express, Tampopo, and the Zinc Bar & Grill. There’s even more choice just across the road at The Printworks (Café Rouge, Hard Rock Café, Henry J Beans, Norwegian Blue, Papa G’s, Wagamama, Tiger Tiger etc.).
Bars, pubs and restaurants on Deansgate include Bem Brasil, La Tasca, Living Room, Las Iguanas, Pesto, and The Moon Under Water.
Mr Thomas’s Chop House on Cross Street is a Manchester institution. The gastro-pub dates back to the late 19th century and is famous for its fantastic tiled interior and modern British food. Its sister establishment, Sam’s Chop House, is located nearby on Back Pool Fold.
Places to eat and drink on King Street and King Street West include All Bar One, Room, Koreana, Panama Hatty’s, and San Carlo. There are further choices on surrounding streets such as Croma and Piccolino on Clarence Street, Stock on Norfolk Street, Corbieres on Half Moon Street, Chaophraya and Bacchanalia on Chapel Walks, the Grill on the Alley on Ridgefield, and Panacea and the Ape and Apple on John Dalton Street.
Hotels & Accommodation
There is limited hotel accommodation in the Central Retail Area of Manchester city centre. Options include the Mitre on Shambles Square and the Renaissance on Blackfriars Street.
Transport
Victoria train station is the second biggest train station in Manchester. Trains run to destinations such as Leeds, Blackpool North, Huddersfield, Rochdale, Wigan Wallgate and Bolton, Liverpool Lime Street, Southport and Rochdale. It is joined to the Manchester Evening News Arena. There’s also a Metrolink station here.
The Shudehill Interchange is a transport interchange between Victoria train station and the Northern Quarter incorporating both bus and Metrolink stations. Buses from here go to Bolton, Rochdale, Leigh, Swinton, Farnworth, Oldham, Trafford Centre and Warrington, Bury, and several other destinations.
A free Metroshuttle bus runs a circular route around Manchester city centre from Shudehill Interchange. It calls at Victoria train station, Deansgate (for Manchester Cathedral, St Ann’s Square and Royal Exchange, Spinningfields and John Rylands Library, and the Great Northern), Deansgate train station (for Deansgate Locks), Oxford Road train station (for the Palace Theatre and Cornerhouse), and Liverpool Road (for the Museum of Science and Industry and Castlefield).
Car parks in the area include the NCP car parks on High Street (Manchester Arndale), Shudehill Interchange, Market Place (Blackfriars Street), and King Street West.