Manchester Craft and Design Centre

The place for unique gifts from local makers
The Craft and Design Centre is set in a beautiful refurbished Victorian market building with two floors of local makers and craftspeople, with on-​site café and meeting spaces available to hire. If you’re looking for wedding gifts and wedding rings, gifts for kids and adults, homewares, prints, photos and paintings, they’re all here under one roof, and what’s even better is that you can be sure that what you’ve found is unique and special. Many of the makers also offer bespoke services so be sure to ask!

I love all things individual and unique and you will always find something that fits this discription at the Craft & Design Centre. A great place to buy or comission handmade jewellery or original artworks from local crafts men and women. I always visit if a special occasion is coming up and with it being in the heart of the Northern Quarter is easy to get to on a lunch break if you work in town. Just remember unique isn’t cheap but you definately get quality.
#Art #Craft #Manchester #Gifts

A nice quirky old market hall which has been transformed into a selection of artists and artisans studios. Everything looks lovely however it’s almost all severely overpriced by about 2000%!
The café looks nice and was doing a good trade. They don’t look like they do any breakfast lines apart from pancakes but the cakes look delicious. I’ll pop back again to give it a try.
The shops/​studios are worth a look around once every year or 2. A great place to escape from a squall of rain!

I came in here on a recent trip to Manchester, just to go to the toliet and get some light.
It is over a few floors and they is very little room on the first floor.
They is a café here, with seating.
They is only one toliet here, hence you may have to wait, this is only on the ground floor experience, and it is the same toliet for both men and women. It isn’t a big building but still they is big queues for the toilets at peak times, so even an additional toilet would help.
I am not the biggest fan of art hence didn’t like it here very much hence was not a big fan of here, despite having 2 floors or so it isn’t very big hence you would expect it to be noisy, with all the people crammed in one little space, but as this is a more upper-​classed art centre, it was quite quiet.
This room echos, hence if someone talks slightly louder than others at the end of the room, you can hear them like they are shouting at a football match, hence another reason for this building being quiet, people stay silent like a library.
It is an old style building and I approached this place, wondering what is this place, and I muttered to myself that it wasn’t worth going in but still I did and I am disappointed I did.
I definitely would put this in a list to avoid for people like me, needing light after parking in a very unlit area nearby, I don’t even think this is a good enough place for that, The toliets here probably have a wait just as long as being in the busy Arndale, because at least they have numerous toliets there.
This is such a small, dull place, I didn’t think it would be on Unilocal never-​mind have 10 reviews of each 5 and 4 star. I am not calling everyone who has reviewed here wrong and deluded but they must of seen something that I don’t, as I am probably one of the biggest haters of Craft and Design, most places out of a topic, I don’t love can find a way to impress me and intrigue me to know more, but here just doesn’t do that for me.
How this place could improve:
— Wheelchair Access, I noticed that they was little places on the first floor, alongside a café hence if you are disabled or need a wheelchair then it is not worth even bothering.
— They is only one toliet for the ground floor and I think the whole building, it is unisex hence they will be long lines of both genders waiting for the same toliet.
— You can’t really get away with talking in here, because it does echo really loud, even the slighest sneeze sounds like you are being stabbed due to the loud echo!
— It isn’t very big here, and they is some independent places but it is just some.
— None of the staff, approached me to ask if I was okay and none seemed very friendly.

A great place to wander in to if you’re looking for some gift ideas this Christmas, or to be honest any gifts for any time of the year. There’s around 20 independent businesses in this lovely part of the NQ selling everything from jewellery to crafts, clothes and everything in between.
There’s a lovely café in the middle making it a proper place to hang out and enjoy some tranquility away from the sometimes crowded bars and coffee shops situated around the corner and they do a full range of drinks and hot food.
The architecture of the building is pretty damn impressive, pretty much the old market I believe and it’s great to see them restoring it somewhat to it’s original use. Check it out if you’re after a hidden gem.

I love this place! I really can’t believe I never knew it existed!
It’s an old market place that been turned a new market place, only it sells crafts and things of beauty instead of fish and chicken (see photo of converted shops). There’s a pewter smith, someone that makes beautiful birds, paintings, printed scarfs, jewellery. I didn’t get nearly enough time to go into the shops but the ones I was in were lovely. I intend to come back and get some Christmas presents here as there’s lots of stuff that’ll be more or less unique once I bring them up north to Scotland.
There’s also a little café if you fancy a brew and a sit down and the lady running it was very friendly.
The upstairs loo could maybe do with a refurb but this is a very minor point in a place I really felt excited in.

A lovely little place full of individual and unique treasures. Whether you are looking for a nice bespoke piece of jewellery or something to adorn your wall then this place is a real find. Many of the shops offer courses where you can make things yourself. Café serves a good range of homemade snack and cakes. I recommend the Aztec tea which was a lovely spice and chocolate tea.

If you’re one of those tired of high street jewellery or concerned about wearing something someone on the street already has. or just looking for something personalised to ‘stamp’ your mark on it, then this is the place to go.
It’s not on the main road and it’s poorly signposted. So use google maps or ask staff working in the northern quarter for directions. Don’t give up if you can’t seem to find it. It is a treasure trove for those who do.
I’ve had a bangle made from silver adjusted to be smaller here in one of the stores. Because most of them are the ‘smithies’ themselves, they can adjust and personalise anything for you. Even make things from scratch. My fiancée (now husband) made my engagement pendant here. He basically took the picture (yes, it was framed and all) to one of the silver smiths here. And they… just… made it. I never knew these kind of things could be possible. Pity I don’t stay in Manchester… or a lot of my jewellery is coming from there for sure.

Popped into the Craft and Design Centre today during Fiesta Del Fuego for a sit down and drink somewhere that wasn’t overrun with people. It was like a little haven. Out front, the tables were all taken, inside was the same story — but wait, what’s this? They’d opened up the back of the café onto a fenced off area owned by the centre.
Browsing the menu, we quickly got distracted from our main mission, talking about how great it would be to work near here — £5 for a takeaway lunch and a hot drink? Yes please! Back onto the drink thing, despite our initial determination not to drink much, we spotted the delicious sounding Persian Cooler — Beefeater gin, fresh mint, and rosewater lemonade. Remembering how delicious the gin and rose lemonade was at the Unilocal Teacup event, I went for this, and the other half followed suit. It took a while for the drinks to come out but when you’re sat in the sun and relaxing on a Bank Holiday, why complain?
The drinks were delicious, refreshing and different. I hope the Craft and Design Centre remains a hideaway for those days when you’re in the NQ but don’t fancy any of the bars.

BUY LOCAL.
Hard to find but worth the digging. Art & craft studios in an old mill. Just the place for an unusual gift or two. Definitely worth a look — particularly upstairs.

Angela’s absolutely right, this place is so easy to miss. When I first happened upon this place by accident, thankfully after I’d hauled Lex G all over the Northern Quarter in an attempt to locate Teacup she still had the energy to spot this gorgeous, adorable building and say, ‘What’s that?’ Me being the investigative Unilocaler that I am said, ‘I have no idea. Let’s have a look.’
Thank goodness we did, because I thought places like this only existed in small towns, at Cedar Farm (a beautiful little crafts-​driven farm with shops in Mawdesley that I highly recommend… ahh, my rural homeland radius) or in Brighton. Literally, I felt like I’d stepped into somewhere along the seafront in my brother’s resident city, because the last time I saw open studios and handmade jewellery for sale, I was indeed in that picturesque place by the sea.
From the outside the building is pretty, but when you walk in it really takes your breath away. Delightful little exhibitions, artists at work… I instantly made a mental note to bring mothers here, mine or in-​law, the next time they’re in Manchester as they love places like this. The centre has such a lovely quaint feel to it, and goodness me, tranquil? I couldn’t have felt more tranquil had you tipped a load of Kalms tablets down my throat and given me a Slanket and a chocolate Horlicks. And whether you’re naturally a chilled out person or slightly neurotic and over-​organised like myself, no doubt walking in here will instil in you a sense of calm that you’ll struggle to find anywhere else in Manchester.
The work for sale is exceptional, and I myself was instantly attracted to the wall hangings comprising of collages of iconic Manchester photographs, such as street signs, buildings, bands, restaurants and so forth. I could have stayed in here for hours. You’re bound to come home with something special and unique here gifts-​wise. Café Aromat has its own website and looks absolutely mouthwatering, so I promise that when we pop in again I’ll get some munch there and let you know how it is. I know, I suffer for my art don’t I. *Winks.*