A chain restaurant group in Manchester's indie heartland - the Northern Quarter? Surely not? Perhaps it was only a matter of time.
That's the way the Northern Quarter is going. People with money and small chains backed by big money...
Turtle Bay has thirteen locations across the UK, including the Manchester branch on Oxford Street, and will be joining Bluu as a chain (yes Bluu is owned by Marston's Revere Pub Co.) operating from Northern Quarter when it launches its second Manchester restaurant on Oldham Street (in the former Ryan Vintage store) this June.
Turtle Bay is currently doing well in the city offering reasonably priced Caribbean meals, but it’s new Northern Quarter location has come as a surprise to many. Will it fit? Is this big business attacking an area that allows small businesses to thrive? Will it affect the Northern Quarter’s quirky, non-conformist approach?
Turtle Bay, Oxford RoadHere’s what people we accosted on the street had to say.
Oliver Taylor of Northern Quarter's new cereal cafe, Black Milk, said: “It’s refreshing not to see things like Starbucks on Northern Quarter street. If you look at places like Chorlton, a hotbed for independents, they did well for some time to keep out places like Tesco, but finally buckled and now they’ve got two.
"It would be a crying shame to see chains muscling in, we’ve got a really good community here with the independents supporting and promoting each other as much as we can. Hopefully it won’t have too much of an impact on the small Caribbean places like Eat & Sweet and Q Cafe."
We also spoke to Jim and Matthew from NOTE skate shop on Thomas Street who told us about moving into their new store. When the pair viewed the empty Thomas Street store in June 2014 there were 30 other parties interested, however, the artists who own the block decide upon tenants based on what they sell. It needed to be different. The skate shop won through and the store now adds an alternative retail element to a drag more recently dominated by bars. This is the Northern Quarter way, they say.
The former-Ryan Vintage store on Oldham StreetPaul, a long-standing Northern Quarter resident, can smell the end: “This is the way the NQ is going. People with money and small chains backed by big money claiming units left right and centre before independents can get them.
"I know one Northern Quarter-based independent business that was very interested in the Ryan Vintage unit, but they just couldn't compete. It's a real shame."
Laura Morris, active Northern Quarter business forum member and owner of Edge Street's soon-to-open indie chicken restaurant, Yard & Coop, thinks the size of the unit played its part: "I hope it's not a sign of things to come, but then, who else could have taken such a huge unit if not a group. It's massive. I can't see how an indie could have done it.
"Still..." continues Morris, "the people I've spoken to aren't hugely thrilled."
To many Northern Quarter residents and business owners the arrival of Turtle Bay marks the beginning of big business in Manchester's beating indie heart, and the anguish is palpable.
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