Ancoats, Northern Quarter and Chorlton among hippest places to live in England
- Ancoats listed as the hippest hang-out in Manchester and 7th in the UK
- Chorlton ranked 10th in the UK
- Northern Quarter ranked lower, at 19th
The Manchester districts of Ancoats, the Northern Quarter and Chorlton have all been included in a list of the top 20 most hipster places in the country.
The list, compiled by TravelSupermarket, ranks places on their Hip Culture Outpost, Creative Capital and Traveller Value compared to the city centre.
Staff in the restaurants and businesses of Ancoats which TravelSupermarket singled out as hipster havens, have said that the area’s inclusion on the list was a positive thing for the fast-growing area.
Polly Hodson, who is a resident of Ancoats and an employee of Rudy’s Pizza, said that the area had “a fantastic community spirit.” However, she was also keen to point out that Rudy’s had a clientele that includes pizza purists from Italy as well as hipster types.
The exposure the list brings for the area goes against the notion that hipsters follow things which are “outside the cultural mainstream,” because the publicity it provides might mean the area actually starts attracting a more mainstream crowd, which changes an area’s “personality.”
One commentator observed the “increasingly homogenous experience of the Northern Quarter by its users” and the way its “authentic character” is now being “exploited”.
The Northern Quarter scored highly for ‘Hip Culture Outposts’ and ‘Creative Capital’ in TravelSupermarket’s survey, but poorly for ‘Traveller Value’. The catagory compares prices in the area with the city centre. But business continue to thrive in the Northern Quarter and target the hipster market.
Black Milk is a cereal cafe on the Northern Quarter’s Oldham Street, a stretch of road which is home to many vintage clothes stores, record shops and hip hangouts.
Andy Young, who works at Black Milk, said: “The Northern Quarter is the perfect hub for fresh and creative business models and cutting edge ideas.”
The cereal cafe is a phenomenon which has been extremely successful in London, and now Black Milk, Manchester’s first and only establishment of this type, is benefiting from a hip young crowd keen to follow this new trend.
“Inclusion of the Northern Quarter on the list is not a surprise. It is undoubtedly a good thing for the area and for Ancoats as well,” said Andy.