Present
The Northern Quarter is today popular for its numerous bars and cafes as well as its mix of music and clothes shops. Amongst these is Affleck's Palace, a former department store which has been turned into a multi-storey bazaar for alternative clothing and nick-nacks.
Meanwhile, the area is something of a mecca for DJs, with shops such as Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Vox Pop Records, Beatin' Rhythm, Eastern Bloc Records (formerly owned by Martin Price of 808 State, then by Pete Waterman) and, until 2009, Fat City Records (formerly run by Mark Rae). The Northern Quarter as a whole is characterised by its offbeat, alternative atmosphere. During the daytime, trendy hangouts include Cafe Pop (a cafe and shop selling retro clothing and household goods) and the Basement (a vegan cafe and meeting place).
Nightlife in the Northern Quarter includes music venues The Night and Day Café, Band on the Wall, the Roadhouse and The Ruby Lounge, The Mint Lounge where Clique (Manchester Evening News' "Club Of The Year 2010") and Funkademia are based, Matt and Phred's Jazz Club, the Frog and Bucket comedy club, the Northern Nightclub and several traditional pubs, as well as a number of restaurants. The area is also famous for its bar scene, which is constantly evolving; well established Northern Quarter bars include Dry 201 (formerly owned by New Order), Cord, Centro, Common, Odd, Bluu, TV21 and Trof.
The area is also known as a home to the creative industries, and in particular fashion design, with various designers, agencies, and clothing wholesalers populating its back streets. There are also a number of commercial art galleries in the area.
Between World War II and the 1990s, the Northern Quarter was not considered to be a residential area, but in recent years, Manchester City Centre has become more and more fashionable as a place to live. Although no official figures are kept (the Northern Quarter is not recognised for administrative purposes), it might be estimated that a little over 500 people now live in the area.
In November 2010 the area was awarded the Great Neighbourhood of the Year Award 2011 for Britain and Ireland at the Academy of Urbanism Awards in London.
Read more about this topic: Northern Quarter (Manchester)
Famous quotes containing the word present:
“However fiercely opposed one may be to the present order, an old respect for the idea of order itself often prevents people from distinguishing between order and those who stand for order, and leads them in practise to respect individuals under the pretext of respecting order itself.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
“Out in Hollywood, where the streets are paved with Goldwyn, the word “sophisticate” means, very simply, “obscene.” A sophisticated story is a dirty story. Some of that meaning was wafted eastward and got itself mixed up into the present definition. So that a “sophisticate” means: one who dwells in a tower made of a DuPont substitute for ivory and holds a glass of flat champagne in one hand and an album of dirty post cards in the other.”
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“The new man is born too old to tolerate the new world. The present conditions of life have not yet erased the traces of the past. We run too fast, but we still do not move enough.... He looks but he does not contemplate, he sees but he does not think. He runs away from time, which is made of thought, and yet all he can feel is his own time, the present.”
—Eugenio Montale (1896–1981)