I visited Manchester's Northern Quarter neighborhood that doubles as NYC in movies. It's full of thrift stores and vibrant street art that made me want to live here.
Armani Syed
- I visited the Northern Quarter, a creative Manchester neighborhood full of independent stores.
- The streets have been used as filming locations to depict New York City in several movies and shows.
I visited the Northern Quarter, a neighborhood in my home city of Manchester, England, where I would shop most weekends as a teenager.
Growing up in Manchester, a city in the North West of England, my Saturdays pretty much looked the same. They involved taking a train into the city center and spending whatever pocket money I'd saved on vintage clothes or glossy magazines from independent stores in the Northern Quarter.
I often thought the creative neighborhood could make any imaginative girl delude herself into thinking she was in New York City and — after seeing it used as a movie double for the Big Apple time and time again — I learned I was right.
I went to the Northern Quarter on a recent trip to Manchester and got there by taking a train to Manchester Piccadilly — the main station in the city.
During a recent trip to visit my parents in Manchester, I decided to stop by the Northern Quarter to see if it still held up to my expectations.
I took a 2-hour train from London to Manchester Piccadilly station, the North West's biggest railway station with as many as 128,591 passengers a day, according to Network Rail.
For those looking to visit the neighborhood, the Northern Quarter is a 10-minute walk from Manchester Piccadilly.
I usually enter the Northern Quarter from Oldham Street, a long stretch of characterful buildings that house unique culture stores, bars, restaurants, and cafes.
This street is an atmospheric shopping hub where there's always hustle and bustle. Even during my daytime visit on a weekday, the Northern Quarter attracted many visitors that I masterfully dodged with my camera.
My first stop on Oldham Street, among a network of independent businesses, was Piccadilly Records, an award-winning record store that originally opened in 1978.
According to its website, Piccadilly Records began in 1978 in a different location and thrived in the post-punk 80s. The website adds that it was taken over by current management in 1990 and moved to the Northern Quarter in 1997.
I spoke to Martin, an employee who said the store has hosted artists such as Pulp and Laura Marling for live performances over the years. Manchester has a reputation for being the birthplace of many renowned musicians, including Oasis, The Smiths, Joy Division, and The Stone Roses.
Martin said the Northern Quarter was "very rough" in the 80s: "I was a punk and it had a charm. While the area has improved for the better, the rich history of music here wouldn't have existed without that roughness."
Across the street from Piccadilly Records is Night and Day Cafe, a sleepy cafe by day and a music venue that hosts live performances at night.
Manchester continues to have a vibrant music scene and its independent venues showcase new talent. I stopped by the Night and Day Cafe, a colorful space with a long history. It began as a cafe that served fish and chips — a British fast-food staple — and was purchased by a Dutch businessman in 1991, who developed it into an iconic musical institution, The Manc reported.
According to its Instagram, the venue faced various COVID-19 related closures and was only able to stay open after receiving financial support from the British government's Culture Recovery Fund. My visit to the area reaffirmed that the neighborhood wouldn't have half as much charm without its quirky venues that offer residents and visitors a memorable night out.
The streets are lined with trendy independent shops and thrift stores that make it difficult not to spend your hard-earned money but easy to find bargains.
I hopped from store to store on Oldham Street, losing my sense of time. I visited the quaint plant store Nice Things and industrial, rough around the edges thrift stores like Cow Vintage and Pop Boutique.
These stores played a big part in shaping my personal style, from my regrettable phase of buying grandpa sweaters — which is unfortunately well documented in my Facebook tagged photos — to the oversized tailoring I now enjoy.
I then headed to Stevenson Square, the street most frequently used to depict New York City in movies and TV shows such as Marvel's "Captain America: The First Avenger," and Paramount Pictures' "Alfie."
Whether it's the lofts with high ceilings or apartment blocks with slim windows, something about Stevenson Square's industrial aesthetic makes it easy to feel like you're walking the streets of Manhattan, and movie location managers seem to agree.
The 2011 movie "Captain America: The First Avenger," starring Chris Evans, was filmed nearby on Dale Street, Culture Trip reported. It added that the 2004 remake of "Alfie," featuring Jude Law, also filmed its New York scenes in Manchester.
In March 2019, Manchester Evening News reported that filming was taking place in Stevenson Square for the 2022 Spiderman spin-off "Morbius," starring Jared Leto.
Stevenson Square was also given a New York City makeover for season four of Netflix's "The Crown," where Emma Corrin depicts Princess Diana on her famous visit in 1989.
The visual effects company responsible for "The Crown" showed how it added details such as New York skyscrapers and fire escapes to complete the transition in a video on the Youtube channel Movie VFX in December 2020.
Chris Lawson, a Managing Director at the architectural firm CK Architectural said that New York may have directly inspired the architecture in Manchester.
"I would guess the due to the population density and vast access to money, New York would have pioneered engineering and tall building, and this would have gradually fed back in the other direction, inspiring the development in Manchester," he said.
Next up I brunched, as Carrie Bradshaw once told us all good New Yorkers do.
As Bradshaw, one of New York's most symbolic characters declared in season three of "Sex and the City," "There are very few things this New Yorker loves as much as Sunday brunch."
The Northern Quarter has a generous supply of independent brunch spots such as Evelyn's Cafe & Bar and Federal Cafe Bar. My personal favorite is Ezra & Gil, where a combination of good coffee and better decor makes it the perfect place to read while looking mysterious.
It would not be a successful trip to the neighborhood without buying trendy yet musty-smelling vintage clothes for less than the price of my brunch.
Blue Rinse, a popular vintage store, has two locations in the Northern Quarter. The store on Church Street is much cheaper as items are paid for by their net weight and cost £15 per kilogram, or around $20.
While this yellow and black racing jacket didn't flatter me in the way I hoped it would, I left with an oversized navy coat, and later that evening the added cost of some laundry soap to wash it — a true bargain.
The last place I shopped at was Afflecks, which is the closest place Manchester has to a pilgrimage site. It's an emporium that can offer you band t-shirts, healing crystals, and a new tattoo all in one visit.
Anyone who has been to Afflecks will know why I've placed such high praise on it. It was the place teenagers in Manchester would visit when their desire to rebel manifested itself into piercings.
Across four floors, Afflecks is a shopping haven for those who belong to creative subcultures. Inside one can find clothing, art, and lifestyle experiences — it's weird and wonderful.
Manchester is a very liberal city, both politically and socially, and its open-mindedness is apparent inside Afflecks.
Inside Afflecks, the staircase leading to the first floor displayed messages of social equality and nodded to the kind of environment it is. On the first floor, I was pleasantly surprised to find a CBD store that I didn't recognize from my teenage visits.
Growing up in Manchester meant that I was always surrounded by diverse communities and its culture of acceptance is part of the city's charm.
Manchester is a great place for art lovers because a number of its walls are lined with vibrant street art.
Much like the streets of New York's Washington Heights, graffiti-style street art brings the neighborhood to life. It felt like the city's creativity could be found in every corner of the Northern Quarter and it made me grateful to have grown up around such great art, music, and fashion.
As I departed and saw the familiar "And on the sixth day God created MANchester" sign that hangs on the wall at Short Street, I realized that Manchester may look like New York City but it stands in its own right.
For a split second, the visit made me consider moving back and setting up my life in a trendy Northern Quarter loft that costs a fraction of my current rent in London.
I went back to my parent's home feeling well fed, well dressed, and most importantly, I heard the harsh sounds of my Mancunian accent – that I lost to life in London – start to creep back into my speech.
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