What next for city’s former crowning glory?
ST Ann’s Square and King Street have been at Manchester’s heart for centuries.
Steeped in history, the cobbled medieval plaza fronting St Ann’s church has long been associated with the city’s defining eras and moments, including most recently the aftermath of the Manchester Arena attack.
From World War II until relatively recently, it had also been steeped in luxury. For decades the address was a by-word for high-end jewellery, tailoring and fashion, while next-door King Street was the square’s even more opulent sister - a sloping parade known to many as the Bond Street of the north.
Between them these two elegant thoroughfares were the crowning glory of Manchester’s 20th Century shopping district.
But since the late 1990s their grand status has faded. In 2017, both are struggling to find their place in modern Manchester.
Changing shopping habits, eyewatering rents, sky-high business rates and competition from newer city centre developments mean that what was once the beating heart of Manchester retail now has nearly 20 empty units. Whited-out windows and ‘to let’ signs nestle next to the remaining brands.
“It’s like the area’s stuck in time,” admits one seasoned property insider.
As shoppers throng instead to New Cathedral Street, Selfridges or the Trafford Centre - and the food and drink scenes in Spinningfields, the Corn Exchange and the Northern Quarter boom - St Ann’s Square alone has eight vacant units. Another three lie empty in the arcade that runs through to King Street, one behind the church and one in St Ann’s Passage.
The former Habitat store - once one of the area’s most popular shops - was eventually replaced with jewellers David M. Robinson at ground level, but the spacious first floor above it remains empty more than four years on, still advertised as a ‘prime shop to let.’
Popular high street stores such as Office and Fat Face are bookended by huge vacant lets.
The Cheshire Watch Company, Harrington and Hallworth and Hermes Paris have all pulled out of King Street recently, Hermès moving to the Selfridges store on Exchange Square.
Ted Baker relocated to New Cathedral Street. Tommy Hilfiger closed in September 2015, before its lease was up. Even the Boots store has closed. One independent business owner, who asked not to be named, is blunt about the underlying problem.
“It’s not rocket science - it’s too expensive,” he said. “The rents are extortionate and the business rates are outrageous.
“Aquascutum had been on St Ann’s Square since 1953 and when they closed I found out the rent was £160,000 per annum and the rates were £60,000. That was in 2007. How can anyone pay that?
“My shop has been here for years, but it won’t be here forever.”
Business rates are a key bone of contention for those trying to remain in the district.
Some retailers are paying tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds in rates, more than in other parts of the city centre, partly due to the area’s heritage status. Despite the property sector calling repeatedly for buildings to be revalued - so rates can be recalculated - they have not been reviewed by the government for years.
“More shops are looking to get out of there.
“The issue on King Street has always been that the units were too small for the retailers,” says one property industry insider, pointing to the newer rival units that sprang up in the rebuild following the 1996 bomb.
“When New Cathedral Street opened up, all the bigger shops like Ted Baker and Zara went up there because they could get massive spaces.
“King Street just doesn’t work for modern retail. The units are too small for the big brands and rates are too high for independent boutiques.”
Howard Burns, of Arthur Kay and Bro jewellers, says his shop has managed to survive in St Ann’s Square for 120 years because it is unique.
“But he agrees overheads are driving out businesses that might otherwise stay.
“People like coming here because we are the oldest shop and we have some history,” he says. “We utilise new and old. The key to surviving for us is being unique. We have to be different and it’s driving the way we trade all the time.
“But it’s the rents and the internet that has changed things for retailers.
“St Ann’s and King Street are dying off because the rents are too high. It has lost its edge.”
In recent years there has been a drive to try and bring in food and drink instead
Award-winning tapas joint El Gato Negro, the five-star Hotel Gotham and Jamie’s Italian have all proved a success for King Street, although smaller restaurants and bars still face the same high rents and rates as shops.
Both Middle Eastern restaurant Suri and fine-dining destination Quill closed within months of opening in the same unit, proving hospitality isn’t necessarily any easier than retail.
The council’s city centre spokesman Pat Karney insists the food and drink strategy has been successful to an extent, but says some of the difficulty relies in absent landlords.
“We have had a problem historically with rents on King Street. Some of them are owned by London property companies and they are not prepared to move on rent levels.
“We have tried to move King Street from high-end shops to a whole experience of food and drink. That’s been relatively successful but there’s a very competitive environment for that in the city centre.”
Some feel St Ann’s, like King Street, should also be looking at food and drink. Only at Christmas or during specific festivals is there an active night-life on the square. One experienced property adviser says the council should now be actively looking to southern cities.
“They should go to London or Brighton, tap up some of these indies that are used to paying high rents and rates, float the idea of opening a Manchester base,” he says.
“El Gato Negro has done well because it knows what it’s doing: it invested heavily in the unit, marketed itself well and already had a reputation thanks to its original in Ripponden.
“We need more of that.”