You can’t do weird and wonderful in Manchester without discussing Afflecks Palace, but why is it so important to Mancs?
We asked some of the staff what makes it so special.
We asked some of the staff what makes it so special.
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00:00And to put it simply, you can't do weird and wonderful in Manchester without talking about the building behind me, and that is Affleck's Palace.
00:06And it says quite a lot about the importance of Affleck's to the Manchester folk, that the Manchester shop is located here on the bottom floor.
00:13In there you'll find stuff like you can see behind me with lyrics of famous songs from famous bands from Manchester.
00:18And again, it just goes to hammer home how important Affleck's is to the people here and to the culture.
00:23As well as having a shop that is an ode to Manchester, Affleck's is home to a great many weird and wonderful shops.
00:28Places like Hempology, which sell t-shirts made of hemp, and Occult, where Lu Moon works.
00:34I remember coming here when I first moved to Manchester in 2011 and just being blown away by all of the choices of all the independent shops in here.
00:43It's like a real hub of acceptance and a place that you can feel very safe. We get a lot of tourists as well.
00:51They just love it here because it's a bit novel, but it's also a real kind of welcoming, familiar feeling as well being here.
00:58Affleck's Palace has been around now for 40 years, and one of the oldest shops in here is Milner & Tons, which has been around since the 80s.
01:04And Sam, who works there, is keen to emphasise just how important Affleck's is.
01:08I wandered into Affleck's one day when I came to visit the city. I thought it was the most creative place in the world.
01:14It was so weird. There was so much going on. Everybody here was categorically cooler than I thought I was at the time, and I was like, yeah, I want in.
01:22This is the scene. This is the culture. This is Manchester, like, condensed in a little ball.
01:29I feel like, you know, if you're a young kid coming and you're trying to figure out your style or what you want to be when you grow up,
01:34this is like the first place to kind of get that, like, tester of just different things that you have an actual interest in.
01:41Just around the corner is Harry, who visited once and now works here.
02:04For Alistair, who runs Vinyl Resting Place, community is key to Affleck's.
02:08I first started coming to Manchester on, like, weekends, you know, from school.
02:11But this was exciting because there was, like, loads of different shops.
02:14You had the chance of maybe seeing someone like Ian Brown or, like, a local celebrity just shopping here as well.
02:19Everything it stands for with the independence and letting people just blossom and do their own things is a great thing,
02:25and there's not many places... It all seems to be revolving about money, but with this place, it's got, like, a heart to it.
02:32So, a photo booth on the second floor is a perfect summation of what Affleck's is, really.
02:37Random, brilliant, exciting things, perfectly curated to the people of Manchester and the people who want to spend time here.
02:43You know, everyone in there works together. Everyone's running a passion project, and they all want each other to succeed.
02:49And that's why, if you visit in Manchester, you'll have to come.
02:52And if you visit once, you'll end up visiting again and again and again, because it's just that kind of place.
02:57So, for Manchester World, I'm Theo Huston-Betts.