Northern Quarter Apartments, Manchester

...Manchester, we stayed at The Northern Quarter Apartments.
The Northern Quarter

The Northern Quarter of Manchester consists of High Street and the 'original Northern Quarter' on Oldham Street, which is slightly North of the Arndale Centre and Piccadilly Gardens in the centre of Manchester. There are loads of funky little boutique shops, which are amazing for vintage clothes. There are plenty of coffee shops ( the one next to ...
...eateries. The nightlife in the Northern Quarter includes bars like Dry Bar which used to be owned by New Order, the "modern burlesque" club Mint Lounge, Matt and Phred's Jazz Club, the Frog and Bucket comedy club, and loads of older style bars, great for everyone. Some of the bars around the Northern Quarter are a little pretentious.

The Northern Quarter Apartments are located on Tib Street. The apartments are housed in one ... more

I love Manchester, and used to go quite regularly. Unfortunately money is tight so I don't get as many nights out down there as I used. When I do get down, I like to make the most of it.

Last time I was in Manchester, we stayed at The Northern Quarter Apartments.
The Northern Quarter

The Northern Quarter of Manchester consists of High Street and the 'original Northern Quarter' on Oldham Street, which is slightly North of the Arndale Centre and Piccadilly Gardens in the centre of Manchester. There are loads of funky little boutique shops, which are amazing for vintage clothes. There are plenty of coffee shops ( the one next to Pop is quite relaxed and cool) and small sandwiches shops and eateries. The nightlife in the Northern Quarter includes bars like Dry Bar which used to be owned by New Order, the "modern burlesque" club Mint Lounge, Matt and Phred's Jazz Club, the Frog and Bucket comedy club, and loads of older style bars, great for everyone. Some of the bars around the Northern Quarter are a little pretentious.

The Northern Quarter Apartments are located on Tib Street. The apartments are housed in one of Manchester's oldest buildings (a stunning 150 year old market building). It's on a main road, with a nightclub literally 5 minutes walk along the road, which can be noisy on a weekend, so it probably should't be your first choice if you're after a quiet night. There's a record shop next to the apartments and there's a very handy pizza shop which stays open late, on the corner of the street.

How to get there

The best way to get to Manchester and the apartments in by train, then you don't have the hassle of getting parked and actually finding it, as we did!
The closest Metrolink to the apartments is Market Street. It's walking distance from there to the apartments. To get there by car follow the signs for the Printworks. When you eventually find , look for signs for Church Street car park. If you've got a Sat nav you'll need the postcode M4 1LA. You can't park directly outside the apartments, you have to park in the NCP car park over the road and walk over to the apartments, which isn't ideal when you're three women laden with heavy bags! It cost us roughly £13 to park for about 24 hours. My biggest gripe to be honest is probably the lack of parking facilities next to the apartments.

Simple Bar - G20-21 Smithfield Buildings, Tib Street, Manchester M4 1LA

You will have to collect the keys for your apartment from Simple Bar, it's quite a nice place to spend an hour or two, which is luck, as we had to wait around half an hour before we could pick out keys up! It's quite a classy bar with DJs on a weekend, playing everything from hip-hop, funk, house to indie and breakbeat. It has a chilled atmosphere and also does food, it isn't a cheap bar, and looks like it's aimed at the young professional, especially those after a quick drink before going home from work.

The Apartments

From looking at Laterooms, we knew the apartments had plenty of facilities, including : -

DVD Player
TV - large black flat screen thing!
Wake Up Call Available
Pets Allowed
Car Parking Available Offsite - at the NCP over the road
Private dining services - your own kitchen, cooker and fridge freezer
Mountain Bike Hire - you'd have to speak to Simple bar about this, as I found no evidence of if in the apartment.
CD Player
[Channels] News
[Channels] Music
[Channels] Childrens
Radio

The front of the Apartments look very simple. There's a big brown door with letter boxes down the right side. It doesn't look particularly exciting or trendy and had us quite worried, but to be fair all the doors looked the same, and after trying the wrong door, we eventually found the right one.

There are about 6 apartments in the block, varying in size. Ours was on the second floor and apparently would sleep 4 people. There's a lift and a set of stairs upon entering the building. I doesn't look very flash within the entrance hall, and there was a pile of post and a telephone box in the door way.

Our apartment door was literally one step to the right after exiting the lift on the first floor.

The door opened into the apartment and the first thing I noticed was the fact it was bright, all the walls looks cream, well the ones I could see. We entered into a corridor, the first door on the left was a large double room, which looks gorgeous. There was a wardrobe, set of drawers and a large double bed. There were even ornaments and a pretty mirror on the set of drawers. The carpets were cream, and it was exceptionally clean! Further along the corridor was another double room, which featured the same furniture but with a different set out, again it was immaculately clean and looked like something from Ikea.

The living room area had a large black flatscreen TV with free view box, two brown leather, two seat sofas and a large coffee table. The dining area and kitchen had modern cupboards, expensive looking fridge freezer, oven, microwave and large dining room table with chairs. The was plenty of cutlery, plates and glasses in the cupboards. There were two tea towels and numerous towels available in the bathroom.

The bathroom looked very much like a hotel bathroom, all bright lights and white walls. It had a toilet, sink, and power shower over the bath, there was also a cute little yellow duck.

The whole apartment was very clean, to the point I was actually quite shocked.
The apartments Egyptian cotton bed-linen on the bed and the bed we so comfortable! I was really really impressed overall with the standard.

The apartments are all no smoking.

We paid £129 for one night, which for the standard of the accomodation I thought was reasonable. The apartment could easily sleep 6 people, two in each bed and one on each sofa. There is masses of space and there'd be no problem having extra people, especially as you didn't have to check in at the actual apartment. We booked on Laterooms.co.uk, which was the cheapest for these particular apartments. Plus there's cash back on Quidco when you book through them.
You can check in from 2pm and have to check out by 11, unless you pay a further £10 for a 12 check out, which we did. You will need to take the key back to Simple Bar when you check out.

Overall I think these apartments were fantastic. They were central, about a ten to fifteen minute walk to the sights of Canal Street, or a 2 minute walk to the nearer bars and restaurants of the Northern Quarter. I would definitely stay here again; actually I would quite happily live here!!
 

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