Art Deco gem...

Oldham Street has had an interesting retail history. In the 1920s and 1930s it was a smart destination lined with long lost department stores in grand buildings that attracted the great and the good. Bombing in WW2 damaged some of the buildings and a move of the retail core towards Deansgate affected Oldham Street. The Arndale Centre all but killed it off as the remaining stores moved out.

Oldham Street is back on the up again and is now the centre of independent retail in the city as one of the main arteries of the trendy N4. At the top end of the street I noticed a little Art Deco gem of a building. What it was originally I have no idea, presumably some smart store. It's now had some apartments grafted onto it with the Art Deco part having been turned into NING, a Malaysian restaurant that is highly thought of. It's amazing the number of cuisines you can find in Manchester these days. I haven't eaten here yet but I did get to try their food when they set up a field kitchen at the Dig The City Urban Garden Festival next to a garden I was working on. We worked our way through the menu while I was there. It was delicious. We also worked our way along New Cathedral Street drinking as we went. We ended up at the Harvey Nichols Champagne Bar. It took us a week. It was a hard life...