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Manchester, United Kingdom
Photo: Hans Musil, CC BY-SA 1.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Piccadilly-East Centre is the area in Manchester that covers Chinatown, the Gay Village, and Piccadilly Gardens. It is bounded by the A57 (M), Oxford Road, and the A62.
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The Portico has been an exclusive members-only library since the early 19th century and many of Manchester's luminaries have been patrons of the Portico over the years. Now hosting its own public gallery and providing admission to some parts for non-members, it is a slice of Manchester's history that has remained almost unchanged since its inception. Call for the latest information.
The Chinese arch in the central square of Chinatown was a gift to Manchester from the Chinese people in 1987 and is the only one of its kind in Europe. It is a beautiful and elaborate piece of artwork, reflecting the designs of Ming Dynasty China and is not to be missed.
This small park in the heart of The Village is notable for its memorial to Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science, whose homosexuality in an age of intolerance led to his suicide. The bronze statue on a park bench bears the legend 'Father of computer science, mathematician, logician, wartime codebreaker, victim of prejudice'. Also in the park is "The Beacon of Hope", an illuminated memorial to those who have died of HIV/AIDS worldwide.
Relax and watch the world go by in Piccadilly Gardens - the lung at the centre of the city. The Gardens are also home to the controversial concrete 'Berlin Wall', which houses cafés and seating.
Follows a lunar calendar, so the next is Saturday, 10 February 2024, starting the Year of the Dragon. Expect firecrackers, drums and weaving dragons around Chinatown.
The Village hosts a major pride festival every year when the whole region of town is closed to the public for an expensive and exclusive weekend for gay and gay-friendly people from all over the UK.
Excellent Mexican style fast food, specialising in burritos but also serving salads, nachos and tacos. Licensed.
Impressive and expensive tepanyaki restaurant. Really good food, but pricey.
A quiet, chilled, chic gem of Manchester. Serves fresh and fine cuisine to order. It's worth the walk and the money!
True Brazilian barbeque that serves eleven cuts of meat from chicken, pork, lamb and beef and a range of salads and side-dishes. Also tasty caiprinha cocktails.
A really cheap Chinese buffet.
City centre. A great sushi restaurant that also caters well for those that don't like raw fish. With a well-stocked, but small Japanese supermarket below (accessed from inside the restaurant).
By Princess Street at the south-western edge of Chinatown, Yang Sing has long been considered one of the best Cantonese restaurants in the country.
Greek restaurant with live music.
A very good standard and is unusual in Manchester in specializing in Beijing and the very spicy Szechuan cooking. It has a large Chinese following, which is always a good sign.
Serves traditional Japanese dishes at reasonable prices, with a full menu of drinks also available including Asian and world beers, spirits and wines.
A 100% vegan take-away just outside of Picadilly Gardens. Serves freshly prepared falafel wraps, hummous and a choice of fruit juices, smoothies and salads. Most items priced between £3-5. Receives great reviews and can get quite popular during weekends, but is worth the wait.
Indian restaurant specialized in traditional south Asian cuisine and finger food.
Very popular basic licensed Chinese restaurant.
Real ale outlet outlet close to main entrance to Piccadilly station. There is more seating upstairs.
Traditional pub with Victorian exterior, diagonally opposite rear entrance of Piccadilly station. Lunchtime food on weekdays. May close early if empty.
Nice little café with friendly staff on the edge of the landscaped garden. Serves good coffee, sandwiches, drinks, and sweet things. Everything here is both Fair trade and organic, so feel good when you go there!
Bar & cafe with a good reputation for food.
A modern hotel inside a fine old building with restored façade. Rooms are reasonably spacious for the UK, bathrooms modern and there is air conditioning. The beds are comfortable and the rooms have irons, safes, fridges and heated bathroom mirrors. Residential floors are secured; access requires your room key card. Breakfast has a good selection and may be included in the room rate. It is eaten in the hotel's own restaurant and bar in the basement and accessible by lift if you don't want to leave the hotel. The restaurant also has its own separate street entrance. In-room broadband is available for a fee. The reception area is modest. Parking is a few hundred metres away in a multi-storey public park; the hotel has none of its own.
An attractive hotel, converted from an ostentatious warehouse.
The hotel has 285 rooms and suites, some of them with French windows. It offers free Wi-Fi, non-smoking rooms, an on-site restaurant, fitness centre, concierge, room service and 16 meeting rooms. Modern rooms with large in-room bathrooms, more suited for business travel than couple city trips. Not to be confused with another hotel named DoubleTree near Manchester Airport.
Modern hotel in classic building.
Fine hotel with À la carte or Bar food menu
Aparthotel housed in a Grade II listed cotton warehouse, with high ceilings, long windows, soaring interior spaces and grand Victorian character. Each room has a luxury pocket-sprung memory foam bed, an Apple computer, widescreen LCD TV with Freeview and free wi-fi, local and national calls.
Largest shopping centre with 210 stores including many of the large familiar high street brands.
By car
This area has numerous one way streets and is best avoided by car.
By tram
Services mostly run every 12 minutes on all routes:
By train
Both CrossCountry services first call at Stockport, Macclesfield, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street before continuing to their final destinations.
The Piccadilly area is one of the busiest areas in the city, and intense traffic can make it difficult to get around by car, and dangerous to get around by bike.
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Manchester, Greater Manchester · International · MAN
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