THE VLM AIRLINES GUIDE TO...

MANCHESTER

Angela Dirkin is a ticketing supervisor for VLM Airlines in Manchester. Originally from Chester, she joined the airline four years ago and lives in the suburb of Heaton with her partner.

DRAWING ON ITS RICH CULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE, Manchester is a proud city. Rising from the ashes of 1996’s IRA bombing bigger and better, Manchester’s principal appeal has always been its extraordinary musical melting pot and laid-back boho atmosphere. Built over an intricate network of canals and mills, new life has been breathed into the world’s first industrialised city.

“I remember my first visit,” says 34-year-old VLM Airlines ticketing supervisor Angela Dirkin. “I was about eight and was following my sister round and I just remember looking up at the beautiful old buildings. My home city of Chester is a tiny old Roman town and I had never seen buildings so tall before. It’s really interesting seeing how these amazing new structures slot in among the historical buildings.”

Manchester’s latest incarnation is as a swanky champagne supernova. Not letting the side down for a second, Angela begins our tour at The Living Room on the city-spanning thoroughfare of Deansgate. An exclusive den nestling slightly back from its neighbours, it’s an upmarket chain restaurant and bar with a hotel atmosphere and wealthy young clientele.

“This is where we come for a good girly night out,” says Angela. “We’d get here for about 8.30pm for a cocktail at the bar – strawberry daiquiris and champagne usually – it’s not a beer sort of place. Upstairs is really good for food and they do a nice fish menu.”

After drinks at The Living Room, Angela and her friends will “go up and down Deansgate for a bit” and maybe pop into La Viña, a rustic Spanish tapas bar with enormous wine kegs and an abundance of wooden surfaces. The customer service at La Viña appeals to Angela. “I am very pernickety, working in the service industry,” she laughs, “so it’s important to me.”

As a teenager, Angela used to come to Manchester during the heyday of the legendary nightclub Hacienda, spiritual home of UK rave culture, but which closed in 1997. The Hacienda is now home to luxury apartments but its legend lives on among locals and music fans. “You don’t know you’re part of something iconic when you’re in it,” she says. “But I watch footage on the TV and think, ‘I was there’. We saw Manchester by night then, but the city has definitely changed and we have all kind of grown up together.”

One of the biggest changes to Manchester came with the 1996 bombing, which wiped out the city’s main shopping centre, The Arndale, resulting in a multi-million pound regeneration package and subsequent investment. “The city wouldn’t be what it is without the bomb,” says Angela. “Would it have got the funding for all this development? I don’t think so.”

For shopping, though, Angela prefers the boutique side of life and heads up to King Street – a small shopping street with exclusive brands and mainstream high street outlets – to really splash out. “There’s a good mix here,” she explains. Heading straight for British luxury fashion shop Mulberry, she confesses that she likes to “come and stroke the bags”. She adds, “Mulberry does very few pieces but they are quirky and lovely and appeal to my personality.”

On a typical night out, after some tapas and a few glasses of wine, “We then head off to a club somewhere. We used to go to Ampersand on Deansgate [one of the city’s most opulent and image-conscious clubs] but now we’re getting a little older we tend to gravitate towards hotel bars. They’re clean and nice and quiet and less full of people who want to be seen…” Describing herself as a “hotel addict”, Angela says her current favourite hotel is the Radisson Edwardian, a five-star des-res on the site of the old Free Trade Hall in the city centre.

The hall was built in 1853 near the site of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, and was, for a long time, the centre for the city’s main cultural activity and public debate. The hotel was built in 2004, maintaining the hall’s facade and including top of the range fittings throughout. Angela says, “It’s big and spacious with a really nice restaurant called Opus, and it’s calm with plenty of seating. We often hire a room for a night out. I like newer hotels because you know you’ll find attention to detail – and they do a lovely strawberry daiquiri here too.” Late-night drinks, though, are to be had in the Northern Quarter. Angela says: “There’s a little square with bars like Bluu, Matt & Phred’s Jazz Club, Rodeo and Socio Rehab, which is kinda dark and dirty.”

For the morning after, Angela will head back to the Northern Quarter, and specifically to Bluu for fishfinger sandwiches. (“The perfect hangover cure.”) Bluu opened in April 2004 in a former fish market, bringing a brasserie, ground fl oor bar and basement bar, and offering a menu renowned in the city for its old fashioned comfort food including mussels and chips, Lancashire hotpot and sausage and mash.

Appetite satiated, it’s time for a wander round the Northern Quarter’s shops. “On a Sunday my boyfriend and I might browse the skate shops or pop into Vinyl Exchange for records, but if I had a credit card to max out I’d head to Deansgate to the interiors shops as I’m renovating the house and decorating has taken over my life. Deansgate is great for DIY shopping,” muses Angela. “You’ve got Feather & Black and then nearby Habitat and Heals for cushions. You can never have enough cushions...”

WORDS BY HAZEL DAVIS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATHAN COX