Brimming with character, culture and a city with its very own wild persona, Manchester is a place where colour and diversity are intertwined with the spirit of the North. Living in the city is obviously going to be a very different ball game to a night out visit in the eclectic lights of Manchester’s centre but what can you expect from making the powerhouse of all things northern, your home?
Hearty food and lots of it
If there’s anything us Mancs do best it’s a good pie. From cheese to meat to potato, a steaming, flakey, pastry pot of perfection warms the heart of us northerners and with a bakery on more or less every street corner on Deansgate or the Northern Quarter, you won’t go hungry in this city. And it’s not just pies either. We smash out the cheese toasties, the juicy burgers, the artisan pizzas and no one can forget the black pudding. From markets to MasterChef menus, we don’t mess around when it comes to food here.
Nightlife that blows your socks off
If you’ve visited Manchester, know someone who has or have even googled the city you’ll have an idea of just how electric Manchester’s nightlife really is. It’s a city that’s alive every single night of the week, whether it’s cocktails and canapes, pints and pasties or dancefloors and doner. Manchester allows for a whole host of subcultures to celebrate their own authentic uniqueness and vibrancy in all their glory. With the Northern Quarter providing a hip, outlandish, offbeat kind of partying, Spinningfields dripping with suave and sophistication and Deansgate booming with out of office boozing, you’ve got a pretty eclectic society. So whether it’s a Tuesday, Saturday or Thursday evening, this a city that celebrates whether you have work in the morning or not.
Apart from the fact we’re the best city in the country, there’s a whole lot of convenience that comes with living in Manchester. Take the airport for example – 10 minutes out of the centre and you could be hopping on a flight to somewhere a little less rainy. There are also 2 major train stations to take you directly to London, Newcastle and Liverpool with a Starbucks in one hand and a baguette to the other.
Affordable shelter from the rainy elements
Apartments are also not as expensive as you might think with many properties springing up for shared ownership in Manchester– a great scheme to get first-time buyers on the property ladder – you can get yourself an apartment here with a deposit of 5% and a mortgage of just 25% of the whole value of the home. If you haven’t checked it out and you’re looking to get your own place, this is an absolute go-to.
With opportunities for this spreading to Liverpool, London and Leeds, this scheme is quickly becoming the answer to all our first-time buyer prayers so have a look around and see what shared ownership could offer you.
Shop til you drop
Whether your chosen shop is Harvey Nichols or Primark, if you’re a shopaholic – Manchester has you covered. With Market Street providing the goods from designer to budget, a touch of retail therapy in Manchester is food for the soul. The city is a shopper’s haven and from indoor complexes to outdoor markets, chain stores to charity shops, you will have a heap of choice and probably a heap of clothing after prowling the shopping centre of Manchester on a Saturday afternoon.
So prepare yourself for a city that will shake you up, put you down and send you out into the world with a Northern sense of optimism and savage sense of humour. Living in Manchester is an opportunity to make every night a party, every day an adventure and all the time in between filled with eating, shopping and taking advantage of all the things Manchester has to offer.
