Hotels near The Northern Quarter

The Northern Quarter is the part of Manchester most visitors end up photographing without planning to. Red brick warehouses that once stored cotton now hold record shops, tattoo studios, vintage dealers and small coffee roasters, and most gable ends carry a mural. Afflecks, the four-floor indoor market on Church Street, has traded since 1982 and remains the place to buy something you did not intend to buy. Stevenson Square is the centre of the street art scene and gets repainted several times a year, so the walls you see in July will not be the walls you see in December.

Tib Street and Oldham Street carry most of the retail. Weekday mornings are quiet enough to get a table anywhere; Saturdays bring record fairs and queues. The whole district is compact, maybe two hours of slow wandering, though few people move through it that quickly. Coffee runs around GBP 3.50 and a decent lunch sits near GBP 12.

Pro Tip: Start at Stevenson Square and walk north up Tib Street rather than down Oldham Street. You catch the newest murals first and end at Shudehill, which puts you one tram stop from Victoria and Manchester Cathedral.