The city centre rooms that 'don't make sense' but people absolutely love

Something new is happening in Manchester city centre. The private sector is providing free-to-use community spaces after years of council cuts.

Manchester city centre only has two such ‘third spaces’ at present, in NOMA and the Great Northern Warehouse. Architects behind both believe they’ve been a huge success, bringing in thousands of visitors.

Bosses behind both venues believe they are worth investing in for the community, despite not making sense financially for their businesses.

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Visitors come from all over Greater Manchester, from all walks of life, so the clubs are not just the preserve of the urban middle class in swanky city apartments or the monied south Manchester Victorian villa set.

However, there is uneasiness about their existence. Coun Chris Northwood, a Liberal Democrat representing Ancoats, ‘wishes we could get the public sector back to the point where local government can fund it’.

“It’s welcome (the fact that) there are community spaces that people can exist in without having to spend money,” she added. “The disappearance of such ‘third spaces’ is a huge challenge.

“But it’s problematic it has to be filled by the private sector, that does not always have the same motivation as the public sector in what they are doing.”

Over the past few years, third spaces funded by not-for-profits have left the city centre. One is MadLab, which went from Edge Street in the Northern Quarter to Stockport. The council does provide some, such as funding HOME, the National Football Museum, and the Central Library.

But they all can be reliant on selling tickets to some punters, or making money from a tea or coffee stand. The two new