Has Deansgate Locks had its day?

No nightclub looks particularly inviting in the harsh light of day, but there’s something especially aged and weather-beaten about the clubs sitting between the arches of Deansgate Locks. 

“If you can’t sing it, we won’t play it” reads one sun-faded window film. It’s all a bit Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, Girls Aloud and concealer on the lips, isn’t it?

Walk from one end to the other and you’ll pass Beehouse (closed), Comedy Store (closed), Ark (open), Popworld (open), Lola Lo (closed), and finally El Diablo (closed). Unfortunately, today’s students and every-weekenders don’t want to feel that they’re making the same nighttime pilgrimage as their eldest sibling did in 2016; it wouldn’t feel fresh or counterculture enough.

They opt for a revival of 90’s style raving, the success of which is debatable, but most notably more intimate, organic feeling ‘party bars’ have been on the up for quite some time. Nationally, chrome-and-carpet venues are struggling. The UK had only 787 operating nightclubs in 2024, down from 1,700 in 2013.

Students in Manchester corroborate this. Faith, Georgia and Anna, first year Criminology and Sociology students at Manchester Metropolitan University, describe to me a relationship with Deansgate Locks - and by proxy, clubbing in general - that’s shared by pretty much everyone I spoke to.

“People now prefer to go out to the pub or a bar rather than go to a club on a Friday night,” says Faith. “I’ve never even been clubbing on the weekend since I’ve been a student; in fact, I’ve only been clubbing about five times since I came here.

“Our go-to is the pub and then a bar maybe, like Terrace in the Northern Quarter,” she continues. “Clubbing is just a much bigger ordeal than the pub or going to a bar - it’s way more effort and really spenny.”

Anna adds: “I only go on Wednesdays because I’m in the cheerleading society so it’s obviously Popworld and Ark. I wouldn’t go there on a night out without my society though. I can basically get Popworld at home; I can listen to Taylor Swift anywhere.”

Asked how often they visit Deansgate Locks, Lana and Laura, fourth-year Business students at the University of Manchester, let me in on what can only be interpreted as a kind of social code.

“Well, we’re Uni Of, and we’re fourth year,” one tells me. Just enough social signalling - as if to say, of course not, we’re past that now.

“I went once in my first year,” says the other, “but I think it’s more of a Man Met thing.

"We tend to go to bars in Northern Quarter, live music, smaller places, Blues Kitchen - places where you can talk,” she adds. “It’s the location and the fact it’s not kept pace with what people want. It’s out of the way for us and we way prefer to bar hop. People aren’t into buying a wristband and being in one club with loads of floors all night, and that’s what Deansgate Locks is.”

Emily, stood with her friend Oli - both third-year Sports Business students at MMU - also pulls out the society card, as if it grants a kind of social immunity from ever having shown your face in the commercial clubs across the Locks.

“I only used to go there because I was part of the swimming society, so it’s where everyone went,” she says. “You don’t really have much of a choice. But I don’t go there anymore because the social used to be at Revs and then it moved to Popworld. And no one wants to go there. Popworld’s shit.”

Will there be redemption for Deansgate Locks? Emily’s not convinced. “I would never go in any other context than a sports social night, so I can’t see how they could ever make it a nightlife hotspot with the type of clubs they’ve got there now. It’s just not that cool to be honest.”

What’s happened then? In almost perfect unison, Oli and Emily answer: “It’s all freshers and influencers isn’t it?” 

And there it is - you either know better because you’ve been in the city longer, or you know better because you’re just a bit cooler. Oli adds: “I’m not sure whether I’d say they haven’t kept up with the times because there are still people who are into that kind of thing - you know; skinny jeans and Alexander McQueens.”

Talking with Aisha and her Chemistry coursemates, it’s clear this ‘rite of passage’ narrative is ubiquitous. “You sort of have to go in freshers,” she says. “It’s like a rite of passage, and I got dragged out by my flatmates. That’s literally the only time I ever go out to Ark.”

To me it’s obvious, there’s a post-freshers’ consensus; you buy a £60–£80 wristband for an event along the Locks each night of freshers’ week, you meet new friends, go out the next week with said new friends, probably to The Warehouse Project, Hidden or somewhere in the Northern Quarter, and vow never to return to the ABBA-laden Locks again.

In theory, it should be the perfect clubbing location. It’s nearer to South Manchester student hotspots than the Northern Quarter or Salford. It’s literally on the doorstep of Man Met student accommodation. Pavement licences are something of a moot point, meaning less restrictions around noise pollution and smoking area shepherding by security guards.

But the truth is, to this 21-year-old at least, people want something slightly less on the nose these days. Something that looks harder to get into. Not that access would require a certain amount of Instagram followers, but that it’s harder to find, in a derelict building or much more intimate in size and atmosphere. Somewhere a libertine instinct might guide you to, rather than 8-for-4 Sourz shots.

And with that, the pendulum has swung to spots like Hidden and The Loft, the former mindful of upkeeping its industrial edge despite its recent revamp. Northern Quarter, although fit to burst, feels empowered. Students are willing to shoulder the burden of a £13 double for a place where they can dance and talk. Spots like Lost Cat are Manchester’s downscaled answer to multi-level madness, and Gay Village has acquired the Locks’ sing-along monopoly.

Can Deansgate Locks ever make a comeback? Judging from the strength of sentiment among students, if it plans to ride out the current period of slump and wear its chrome-and-carpet identity like a badge of honour, they might be waiting a while before the hunger for this very particular brand of commercial magic returns. 

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