Tucked-away tennis and basketball court with beer garden opens in Manchester

The timing of the launch of Courts Club, a new basketball and tennis court with adjoining bar and terrace in the city centre, couldn’t be any more perfect. After weeks of grey clouds and persistent drizzle, Manchester has enjoyed several days of balmy weather this week, set to peak at 26 degrees on Friday – just in time for the opening, Friday July 19.

The new venue is tucked away off Quay Street amid the towering blocks of the St John’s development, the former site of Granada Studios which is now being redeveloped with hundreds of flats and offices. It is already home to the gargantuan Aviva Studios and Enterprise City, which offers a cluster of workspaces for the tech, media and creative industries.

Work began on the St John’s development almost 10 years ago, but the work is far from over and the air is full of bangs and clangs and the sounds of sawing and drilling.

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Meanwhile, the freshly laid court, a pristine rectangle of orange asphalt surrounded by black metal fencing, is directly in view of the thousands of office workers in the glass towers that surround it. It is this demographic – the area’s new residents who will gaze down enviously at the cold pints from their desk on the 35th floor – that Courts Club hopes to reach.

It’s run by Shiko Group, a boutique hospitality company with a considerable portfolio of bars and cafes across Manchester and Leeds.

Anthony Ellis, co-founder, said: “This is a cross between leisure and a bar so we want a pretty diverse audience of people using the court daily. All the local residents that are in these towers, new builds and offices – we want this to be their local community hub.

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