Levenshulme, Manchester
Creative TouristLocated halfway between Manchester and Stockport, for many people Levenshulme is just another place their bus travels through on the way to and from work. But here’s a quick history lesson. Did you know that Norman Foster drew inspiration from Levy’s local library when he was planning a refurbishment of New York Public Library? Legend also has it that that Dick Turpin travelled through Levenshulme and stopped off at the Blue Bell Inn for a half. And did you know that Arthur Lowe (yes, Captain Mainwaring from Dad’s Army) went to school in the area?
Which is all well and good, but back in the present day it’s also useful for you to know which shops, bars and cafes are worth your while to get off the bus for. Stockport Road is the main road in Levenshulme: here you’ll find arts-forward drinking holes such as The Talleyrand, top restaurants like Station South, plus perfect little indie cafés and bakeries like Trove.
Every Saturday between March and October Levenshulme Market, a community-run social enterprise with a variety of stalls every week, pops-up next to the train station. There’s also Bankley Studios just off Stockport Road, home to 30 artists working across a range of art forms from textiles to sculpture. Look out for their yearly Open Studios event so that you can see inside the studios yourself. Finally, don’t miss the ‘Street with No Name’, on the way to the station; although the street is 160+ years old and 77 yards long, it has never been given an official name, so the street sign commemorates this fact.
