'Beloved' city centre market to close down this weekend after more than 50 years

A ‘beloved’ outdoor market which has been open in the city centre for more than 50 years is set to close for good this weekend.

Church Street Market, situated near to the Arndale and the Northern Quarter, which has become known for its fruit and vegetable stalls as well as a popular book shop, will close its shutters on Saturday (September 14).

Currently home to Afro Caribbean Asian, McCalls greengrocers, McCalls Organics, and Manchester Bookbuyers, the market also housed the UK’s first ever grilled cheese restaurant Northern Soul until it relocated to a new venue on Tib Street in 2019.

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The market, which is actually located on High Street, has been earmarked for a 22-storey building featuring 361 apartments.

A planning application for the site, which was first filed in 2018 and approved later in 2020, suggests that, alongside the market, the new build would see units on 20-22 and 24-36 High Street also demolished. The new site is set to include commercial floorspace on the ground floor for shops, restaurants and takeaways.

In January 2022 McAleer & Rushe’s investment and development firm MRP bought the site from CEG for around £8m.

McCalls, which has been in business for more than 53 years and has been based at the Church Street markets for over 20 years, told the Manchester Evening News six years ago about how the proposals, which were first filed in 2018 and approved later in 2020, would lose 'the character of the Northern Quarter'.

Posting on Instagram earlier this month, the owners of McCalls Organics wrote: “This too shall pass. Our site is to be developed and with no suitable premises to go to, we will be closing