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Manchester's LGBTQ+ Walking Trail

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Everyone Welcome: Manchester LGBTQ+ Walking Trail

It’s always been queer up north, and Manchester has been at the very heart of LGBTQ+ culture for a long time.

From Victorian drag balls to Canal Street, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and the city’s famous Pride Parade, Manchester has always led the way with queer activism. Its people, its resilience, its unapologetic queer energy has been present for hundreds of years.

In 2003, a Heritage Trail was commissioned for Europride, funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund, to provide a better understanding of the city’s gay rights movement. The trail featured street mosaics designed by artist Mark Kennedy, unlocking many examples of queer life to remember, reflect on and celebrate. Some of these tiles still exist across the city.

Follow this updated version of the trail by local Playwright and Tour Guide, Chris Hoyle, which features new stops and new stories that reveal more of the city’s fascinating queer life.

Enjoy your tour of Manchester.

WALK THE TRAIL: DOWNLOAD THE MAP

*Commissioned and supported by Manchester ABID and Manchester Pride

1. The New Union

The New Union, originally called The Union is one of the oldest LGBTQ+ establishments in the UK.
1. 1 Jan 202331 Dec 2023
2. Manto

Manto, meaning ‘Manchester tomorrow’, opened in 1990, offering a modern, hip, queer bar for the next generation.
3. Alan Turing Statue

Alan Turing, inventor of the world’s first computer and celebrated codebreaker, is one of the most influential men of the 21st Century.
4. The Beacon of Hope & National Transgender Memorial

Erected in 1997, The Beacon of Hope was designed by Warren Chapman and Jess Byrne-Daniels as a symbol to recognise Manchester’s response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
5. Manchester Pride Festival

The city’s first Manchester Pride event took place outside the Rembrandt Hotel over the August Bank Holiday in 1985.
6. Gay Village

Canal Street was constructed in 1804 as part of the Rochdale Canal. When the cotton industry fell into decline, the area quickly became deserted and rundown. It was then reclaimed by gay men and prostitutes, forming Manchester’s red-light district.
7. Kampus: The Gay Centre & Proud Trust

In summer 2023 the garden of Kampus hosted a public art exhibition documenting the history of Manchester’s first Gay Centre.
8. Legends & Rockies

Manchester institution Legends nightclub was the home to the famous Northern Soul night ‘The Twisted Wheel’ and many popular gay club nights.
9. City Centre Police Courts

The present-day Minshull Street Crown Court is the site of the former City Centre Police Courts, where countless men were charged with homosexual offenses over a period of 100 years.
10. The Northern Quarter

Manchester’s first LGBTQ+ bookshops were opened in this area of the city. Long before Waterstones, in the 1970s and 1980s ‘Grassroots’ on Newton Street was the first bookstore to sell queer literature, including Gay News and The Mancunian Gay.
11. Manchester Art Gallery

Manchester Art Gallery has long been as supporter of queer culture. Artist, activist, and gardener, Derek Jarman had his first ever solo exhibition in 1992 and the gallery held a retrospective exhibition: ‘PROTEST!’, in 2021/22.
12. Church House

Church House was the site of the very first North-Western Homosexual Law Reform Committee meeting in 1964 (a time when all homosexual acts between men were illegal).
13. Henry Stokes

In 1830, Henry Stokes, a successful bricklayer, landlord and Special Constable was a strong pillar of the Manchester community.
14. Manchester Town Hall

Manchester City Council has a long history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community and gay rights. In 1985, the Council appointed Margaret Roff as the UK’s first openly lesbian Mayor.
15. The Midland

The Midland hotel has been a refuge for many stars since it opened in 1904. This is the spot where famed playwright Noel Coward met his idol, actor Ivor Novello, on the pavement outside.
16. The Hacienda: Flesh

Needing no introduction, The Hacienda is world-renowned. The club opened in 1982 and Madonna played her first UK live gig there.
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