The flat is in a great location for Arndale and Central Manchester. We stayed for two nights and went to see Harry Styles with our 14 year old at Old Trafford Cricket Ground.
It was clean and tidy, coffee and tea were provided and there was shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom, which was handy seeing as I forgot mine! The building itself is very quiet. The flat is small but well thought out and nicely decorated.
Some points to note:
1) All of the doors are fire doors and they have a tendency to slam shut behind you if you don’t use the door jams provided. Not something that anyone can help, but it did give us a jolt the first few times!
2) don’t rely on the first lift working, it was pot luck as to whether it appeared or not. Sometimes it was the lift on the other side of the hallway door that would arrive, but that one is missing a button to level 4, so if you get in that one you have to get out at level 3 and walk the flight up anyway.
3) the heating was on in the flat and we woke up in the night absolutely baking. These radiators could definitely be shut off for the next few months. As with most flat blocks, the windows only opened about 6 inches, which didn’t help enormously with airflow in the hot weather.
4) The Northern Quarter is subject to significant improvement works at the moment, and the block opposite is being worked on. As a result, there is construction noise going on from about 7AM until 6PM. While this didn’t bother us a lot as a pretty liberal family, the workmen on site are loud and unrelenting. There was shouting from first thing in the morning, they enjoy swearing at each other and we unfortunately missed out on any kind of sleep in after the concert the night before.
5) The area is what I would describe as up and coming, and there are some rough looking streets, and people. If you’re looking for a picture perfect view of Manchester from your window, this probably isn’t the place for you. As two people who grew up in big cities, this didn’t bother us though! The area has amazing potential.
6) There are many street closures in the area currently, coupled with the inner city one way system. If you haven’t driven in Manchester before/recently, don’t rely on Apple or Google Maps! We ended up using Waze, which is user feedback led and provides a more accurate picture of the ever changing roadworks. If you’re taking the train or metro in, this won’t be an issue for you.
We would definitely stay again, but next time we’ll be coming on the train!