Ancoats

Ancoats is where the Industrial Revolution actually began. Cotton mills lined the Rochdale and Ashton canals, Italian immigrants arrived in the 1800s to work the machines, and the district grew so dense with factory workers it earned the name 'Little Italy'. Most of those mills are still standing. What's inside them now is different. Cutting Room Square, the neighbourhood's centre, is ringed by Mana (Manchester's only Michelin star, tasting menu only, book three months ahead), Rudy's Neapolitan Pizza (queues from the door to the canal on Saturdays), Sugo Pasta Kitchen, Elnecot, Erst for natural wine and small plates, and Halle St Peter's, a 19th-century church now serving as a rehearsal and performance space for the Halle Orchestra. The canal towpath runs past New Islington Marina where narrowboats moor next to glass apartment towers. Pollen Bakery and Pilcrow pub anchor the eastern edge. The streets still have cobbles. The mill walls still have hoists. Ancoats is what happens when a city lets a post-industrial district evolve instead of bulldozing it. You end up with pasta in a building that used to weave calico. For visitors staying anywhere near Piccadilly, it's a ten-minute walk. Come hungry.