Food History of Manchester

Key eras

1793, the first commercial Eccles cake

James Birch sold Eccles cakes commercially from the corner of Vicarage Road and St Mary's Road in Eccles, Salford, in 1793. Lancashire's flaky currant pastry survived industrial expansion to remain on Manchester pub dessert menus today.

1857-58, Smithfield Market hall opens

Manchester's Smithfield Market hall was built in 1857 to 1858 to serve as the trading floor for the city's central food market. It closed in 1972 and was Grade II-listed in 1973; restoration delivered Mackie Mayor as a food hall in 2017, anchoring Northern Quarter dining around the Eagle Street axis.

1908, John Noel Nichols invents Vimto

John Noel Nichols invented Vimto cordial in Manchester in 1908. Originally sold as a herbal tonic of raspberries, grapes and blackcurrants mixed with spices, it became the cordial Lancashire schools pour at lunchtime decades later.

1970s, the Curry Mile takes shape

Pakistani migrants who arrived in Manchester as textile workers in the 1960s opened restaurants and shops along Wilmslow Road in Rusholme from the 1970s. The strip reached seventy restaurants in 800 metres by the 1990s peak.

2018-2025, Manchester earns Michelin stars

Simon Martin opened Mana in Ancoats in 2018; it earned the city's first Michelin star in over forty years at the 2019 ceremony. Tom Barnes followed with Skof on Federation Street in May 2024 and earned a star at the February 2025 ceremony inside ten months of opening for the city of Manchester.

Immigrant influences

• Pakistani: Pakistani migrants made Manchester's Curry Mile along Wilmslow Road from the 1970s, peaking at seventy restaurants and shaping the city's nightly halal eating scene.
• Cantonese: Cantonese migrants opened Manchester's Chinatown around Faulkner Street from the 1970s. Mei Dim and other Faulkner Street basements continue the steamer-cart dim sum tradition daily.
• Italian: Italian families settled in Manchester's Ancoats from the late 1800s, giving the neighbourhood the nickname Little Italy and seeding the pasta and pizza rooms that still trade.
• Jewish: Manchester's Jewish community settled in Strangeways and later Salford and Prestwich. Halpern's kosher store on Leicester Road in Salford and the Bury New Road delis still serve the community today.
• Eastern European: The Sparrows in the Green Quarter, run by Kasia Hitchcock and Franco Concli, cooks Polish pierogi, Russian pelmeni and Tyrolean spaetzle for the modern Manchester table.

Signature innovations

• Vimto: invented Manchester 1908, Britain's first commercial mixed-fruit cordial
• Eccles cake: 1793 Lancashire pastry, still on Manchester pub dessert menus
• Manchester tart: school-pudding-era custard tart with raspberry jam and coconut
• Curry Mile concept: densest South Asian food row in Europe at its 1990s peak
• Bury black pudding: oat-and-pork breakfast staple, Greater Manchester tradition