Shopping in Manchester
St Ann's Square Shopping
St Anns Square is a picturesque area which includes St Ann's Street, St Ann's Place and St Ann's Passage and is bounded by three distinctive buildings - the Royal Exchange, Barton Arcade and the elegant 18th century St Ann's Church, after whom the square is named. Adjoining the square and connecting it to King Street is St Ann's Passage. Ever popular with Manchester city centre shoppers, and a major venue for visiting Continental, Farmer's and Christmas street markets, it has several well known shopping outlets, including Tie Rack, Currys, Office, the Early Learning Centre, Habitat, Lakeland and Moss Bros, Gap, FCUK and the Barton, St Ann's and Royal Exchange Arcades.
Market Street Shopping
Shopping in Manchester's Market Street really is main stream shopping. Possibly one of the city centre's busiest and most popular shoppers thoroughfares, now entirely pedestrianised from Debenham's Department Strore at the High Street end and Piccadilly, right down to Marks & Spencer on the corner of Cross Street and St Ann's Gate at its bottom end. Many familiar high street shopping outlets are to be found here, along with various street performers who tend to set out their pitch here, as well as entrance the all-dominating Arndale Centre Shopping Mall.
The Shops - Trafford Centre
Opened in September 1998, this enormous new shopping and leisure complex has already been designated the "Temple to Consumerism", and is the largest centre of its kind to date in Europe.
Peel Holdings' Trafford Centre occupies a former wasteland site of 300 acres in the Dumplington district on the outskirts of Trafford Park.
It took 27 months to build, employed over 3000 building workers and cost some £600 million to complete.
King Street Shopping in Manchester
The King Street area of Manchester is a must-see for those visitors seeking a spot of retail therapy. The shopping zone is that area that connects Cross Street north to Deansgate and it is a Mecca for designer fashion aficionados.
It boasts top High Street brand names like Armani, Agent Provocateur, East, Jaeger, Diesel, Tommy Hilfiger and Vivienne Westwood - all having shops in this prestigious pedestrianised thoroughfare.
Chinatown Manchester
Chinatown is one of the busiest and most colorful areas of city centre Manchester.
Situated just behind Piccadilly Plaza, around George Street and Charlotte Street, off Mosley Street behind the City Art Gallery, the area bustles with life - tradesmen and tourists alike, and is particularly well worth seeing on Sundays, when ethnic Chinese traders from all over the county descend on the area to buy in food supplies from the proliferation of superstores, the herbalists, gift shops, restaurants and markets.
Arndale Centre - Manchester City Centre Shopping
Located in the heart of the city, Manchester's Arndale Centre in many ways dominates the central shopping area of the City. Begun in 1972, by its completion in 1979 it was the largest covered town shopping centre in Europe, covering some 30 acres in the old city centre, with 750,000 shoppers visiting it each week. With over 200 shops, major department stores, restaurants and fast food outlets it has become a busy and active shopping arcade.
The centre houses an 1800 space multi-storey car park, shopping malls on two levels, office space in tower, residential flats, and originally the Arndale Centre Bus Station at Cannon Street, so badly damaged by the IRA bombing of Manchester in 1996 that it never reopened, and has now largely been built over.
Affleck's Palace
52 Church Street,
Manchester, M4 1PW.
Telephone: 0161-834 2039
Afflecks is a revitalized city centre building with five stories of around 50 stalls and market-type shops, which provides shoppers with a novel buying experience.
Very like an Aladdin's Cave, Afflecks has become a platform for fledgling designers, punk, retro style and experimental fashion - a magnet to young shoppers, particularly on Saturdays. Affleck's Palace was opened in 1982, the brainchild of James Walsh, a Manchester-born hairdresser with a keen interest in the fashion industry.