Northern Quarter institution serves final cuppa as area gets more 'corporate'

It's hard to imagine when walking around the bustling Northern Quarter of today, but when artist couple Wayne Lew and Jane Spindler decided to open their own artisan coffee and tea shop in Manchester it was one of the first of its kind. Back in 2010 they decided to open North Tea Power to showcase speciality espresso coffees and loose leaf tea.

And thus, a Northern Quarter institution was born. North Tea Power would go on to pave the way for what would become a coffee house boom in the Northern Quarter.

But on Sunday, the Tib Street cafe will fire up the espresso machine and the milk frothers for the last time. Victims of a "perfect storm" of financial factors, Wayne and Jane have decided they could simply not survive for another summer.

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They announced the news on Instagram earlier this week and the outpouring from customers past and present has been huge from those hailing them the "NQ OGs", a duo who for many "started the coffee movement". Reading those comments has been emotional for the couple, who have poured their heart and souls into the business.

Wayne, 44, says of the closure: "We had been thinking about it really since the pandemic. The reality is, we've been going without taking a wage for so long, we thought how much more could we do take?"

Jane, also 44, adds: "With coffee, when it's hot weather, sales go down anyway, and at this time of year people are going on holiday, it felt like we were dragging out the inevitable."

They were trailblazers in the Northern Quarter when they opened 13 years ago. But the couple have now watched as the industry, and indeed the entire bohemian district, has changed all around them.

And for Wayne it felt they could no