The Haçienda

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Factory Records Catalogue Number
FAC 51 The Haçienda
« 50	52 »

Fac 51 Haçienda (also known as simply The Haçienda) was one of the best known nightclubs in Manchester during the Madchester years of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Originally conceived by Rob Gretton, it was largely financed by the record label Factory Records and the band New Order along with Tony Wilson. It was located on the corner of Whitworth Street West and Albion Street, close to Castlefield, in the centre of the city. FAC 51 was its official designation in the Factory catalogue.

Designed by Ben Kelly, the Haçienda opened in 1982 and survived until 1997, despite considerable and persistent financial troubles. During much of this time the club was mainly supported by record sales from New Order. It once served as a venue for Madonna on her first tour of the United Kingdom.

In 1986, it became one of the first clubs outside the US to start playing house music, with DJs Mike Pickering (of Quando Quango and M People) and Little Martin (later with Graeme Park) hosting the Nude night on Fridays. This night quickly became legendary, and helped to turn around the reputation and fortunes of the Haçienda, which went from making a consistent loss to being full every night of the week by early 1987.

The growth of the Madchester scene was boosted by the success of the Haçienda's pioneering Ibiza nights in the summer of 1988 and the launch of the Hot acid house night (hosted by Pickering and Jon Da Silva) in November.

Although peaking in popularity during the rise of the rave era with the like of Fantazia holding events there, most of the money ended up circulating to drug dealers due to the popularity of ecstasy on the club scene. The Haçienda itself saw very little of the nightly expenditure. By the time the Hacienda had closed in the mid 90s, the term "superclub" had been coined for its well marketed and managed successors such as Cream, Ministry of Sound and Gatecrasher.

After the Haçienda officially closed, and before it was demolished to make way for the block of flats built on the site, the Haçienda was used as venue for two free parties organised by the Manchester free party scene.

Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film 24 Hour Party People starring Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson, tells the story of the Haçienda. The movie was filmed in 2001, and required reconstructing the Haçienda as a temporary set in a Manchester factory, which was then opened to ticket holders for a night, acting as a full-scale nightclub (except with free bar) as the film shooting took place.

The Whitworth Street West site of the original has recently been rebuilt as city centre flats, but has kept its iconic name. Bassist Peter Hook from New Order is currently in the process of writing a book about the Haçienda.

The Manchester exhibition centre Urbis is hosting an exhibition celebrating the 25th anniversary of the club's opening, which will run from mid-July 2007 until the end of the year. Peter Hook and many other of those originally involved are contributing or lending material.

[edit] Trivia

A Hacienda is a large homestead in a ranch or estate usually in places where Colonial Spanish culture has had architectural influence. Even though the cedilla is not used in Spanish, the spelling "Haçienda" was decided on for the club because the cedilla makes the "çi" resemble "51," the club's catalogue number. [1]

The name comes from a slogan of the radical group Situationist International: "The Hacienda Must Be Built", from Formulary for a New Urbanism by Ivan Chtcheglov.

The Hacienda played host to legendary monthly gay club night 'Flesh' during the early 1990's amid the rise of a more visible gay culture and the pink pound.