Canal Street (Manchester)

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Canal Street, Manchester

Canal Street

Canal Street is the main focus of Manchester's gay community and is lined with gay bars, clubs, cafés and shops. At night time (and in the daytime during the warmer months) the street is filled with partygoers, many of whom are gay and lesbian tourists from all over the world. The Manchester Gay Pride festival, formerly known as Mardi Gras and Gayfest, is held in this street and the surrounding area during the second half of August each year. The event culminates with a three day festival known as the 'Big Weekend', which is held over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The street looks across the Rochdale Canal into Sackville Park in the city centre of Manchester.

1 History
2 Canal Street and the Gay Community
3 Bars and Clubs on and around Canal Street, Past and Present.
4 External links

[edit] History

Canal Street was built alongside the construction of the Rochdale Canal, with pubs built to service the users of the canal. In the 1960s, the canals of Northern England declined in usage due to the collapse of the cotton industry. The Canal Street area then began to attract the gay community, who moved into the area from the 1960s. To begin with this was mainly a lesbian-orientated area, but as the years went by it gradually become the focus for gay men. As the confidence of gay people in the UK improved, more and larger bars opened along the canal side, turning Canal Street into the largest gay village in Europe.

In the early 1990s Manto (Manchester Today) bar opened. This was viewed as something of a revolution as Manto had large glass windows, allowing the casual 'passer by' to view what was going on inside. Previously many establishments catering for the gay community were often keen to 'conceal' activities from the general public. As the decade continued more and more establishments began to open, each with their own 'feel'. Manto was briefly renamed as 46 Canal Street; however, the Manto name returned to Canal Street in 2003.

In the late 1990s it was felt by many that Canal Street was becoming too 'mainstream', represented by the opening of a number of chain bars and the increasing number of 'straight' drinkers. Canal Street has always welcomed all comers, but it was felt by the gay community that the street was becoming too commercialised and losing its original ethos. A boycott was launched of the new Slug and Lettuce bar by the gay community, which eventually led to its closure, when it was bought out and re-opened as Queer. This, along with the re-opening of Manto, is widely seen as the turning point that led to the resurgence of Canal Street.

The Canal Street sign intact

The street's sign is regularly vandalised by removing the 'C' to read 'Anal Street'. More often than not, the 'C' and the 'S' are both removed, to read 'Anal Treet'.

The gay scene on Canal Street was a focus of the fictional TV series Queer as Folk, broadcast by Channel Four in 1999. "Village Voices" was a documentary also by Channel 4, about some of those for and against the Gay Village, broadcast in 1996. The rejuvenation of Canal Street in the Nineties was the backdrop for Manchester Slingback, a crime novel by Nicholas Blincoe.

Scenes in an episode of Coronation Street, broadcast by ITV were filmed in Canal Street, broadcast in October 2006. It includes shots taken outside Spirit, looking down Canal Street.

The memorial to mathematician, logician, cryptographer, early computer scientist, and gay icon Alan Turing is situated in nearby Sackville Gardens. At the canal end of the Gardens is the 12-foot high Beacon of Hope, an important memorial for all those affected by HIV & Aids.

[edit] Canal Street and the Gay Community

Canal Street's role in the gay life of Manchester is perhaps unique in its centrality and to how the community see themselves. The 'sexual liberation' of society and changing ideas about homosexuality have gradually meant that the area has been opened to up to those who would not have previously associated themselves with it thus fragmenting the formerly relatively homogenous 'regulars'. However, a unique and sometimes perplexing idea of gay community remains. As diversity and openness have increased, so has the Street's profile.

The continuing existence of a 'Gay Community' is also a questionable prospect. As society and Canal Street have become more diverse and pluralistic, there is little which may bind any such community together besides one of sexuality. This increased openness about sex in general, a more transient population and disaffection which some hold either over Canal Street or the 'Queer Life' in general, may ultimately lead to the end of the place of Queer as Folk fame.

[edit] Bars and Clubs on and around Canal Street, Past and Present.

Alter Ego (formerly Mutz Nutz) Famed venue for Poptastic.

AXM Bar Now closed due to an ongoing industrial dispute between its former owner and other bar owners in the Gay Village area. Renamed as 10 Canal Street.

Baa Bar, Corner of Bloom Street and Sackville Street

Bar Below

Company Bar Company Bar, a long-established men only bar, Richmond Street

Coyotes, a venue aimed at the lesbian community, Chorlton Street

Churchill's, Chorlton Street

Cruz 101, Princess Street

Denvers, previously Berlin's has since closed and is soon to become a Casino/Hotel

Eden

Essential, Minshull Street

Gaia, closed and is now a deli.

Hollywood Show Bar, Bloom Street (The name has now changed to "Cafe La Belle")

Legends, Bears and Leather Club

Manto

Manhattan, Princess Street

Monroe's

Moon Bar, Piccadilly Basin, Jackson's Warehouse (1km outside the village)

Napoleon's, Sackville Street, one of the longest running gay venues on Canal Street

New Union (one of the village's oldest pubs)

New York New York, Bloom Street

The Outpost, previously Wells Fargo

Paddy's Goose, Bloom Street

Paradise Factory, Princess Street - Closed to become "Industry" then once again reopened as Paradise Factory, sister bar to Manto. Has yet again since closed and the venue is set to relaunch, under new owners in 2008.