The trendy food and drink phenomenon taking the region by storm
The article discusses the growing trend of food halls in Greater Manchester, highlighting their role in revitalizing town centres by offering affordable spaces for independent eateries and attracting visitors. Examples include Mackie Mayor in Manchester, Altrincham Market, Kargo MKT in Salford, and upcoming projects like House of Social in Manchester and Hatters Square in Denton. These food halls combine diverse cuisines, communal seating, and often historical settings to create vibrant social hubs.
Food halls are sweeping across Greater Manchester, turning derelict landmarks into bustling dining destinations and giving independent traders a cheaper route to hungry customers.
Altrincham Market, opened in its modern form just over a decade ago, is the template. Once a leafy suburb with shuttered shops and dwindling footfall, the town now draws thousands each weekend after the Grade-II listed market hall was reborn as a communal eating space. Wood-fired pizzas and bao buns brought the crowds; bars and boutiques followed, filling empty units and restoring weekend life to the high street.
The same formula is repeating itself from Salford Quays to Stockport. Kargo MKT, tucked into a quiet wing of the Lowry outlet centre, packs 400 diners onto a 2,000 sq ft terrace overlooking Old Trafford. Stockport’s 2019 revival of the Grade-II listed Produce Hall pairs local craft beer with street-food stalls, while Oldham’s Egyptian Room - the final piece of a multi-million-pound Old Town Hall restoration - seats traders inside 1840s neo-Egyptian stonework. Even traditional markets in Bolton, Bury and Radcliffe have cleared space for communal tables and rotating kitchens, and Wigan’s Feast at The Mills mixes live music with riverside seating inside the half-restored Eckersley Mills.
More are on the way. House of Social will open five kitchens across 12,000 sq ft on First Street this autumn; Market Place Food Hall has signed a 15-year lease for the ground floor of the 1920s Rylands Building, aiming for spring 2027. Prestwich’s £100 million masterplan promises a Mackie Mayor-style hall fronting a new village square; Denton has approved ‘Hatters Square’ with a glasshouse dining room overlooking Victoria Park; Stalybridge’s former Rififi nightclub will reopen as 1940s-themed ‘The Palace’; and Hyde’s old Woolworths site is slated for a two-storey hall beneath 21 apartments.
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