I think it pretty much goes without saying you could very much so spend a full day on Tib Street and do so very happily too.
As we all know, we are all lazy little eggs in this world and if we can make our lives easier in anyway, we will. That’s why I have curated the perfect way to spend an ENTIRE day on one small street of Manchester. What a treat.
Morning
Kick off, of course, with coffee. Because no day truly starts until you have one. Now for this, we have a few options. If you wanna just grab a coffee and a croissant, newbie to the street, Just Between Friends is your stop. If an all out boozy brunch is your thing, treat yourself to some poached eggs in Evelyn’s and wash it down with a cocktail or two.
The next thing to do, even after you’ve just finished your breakfast is eat some more. So head straight to Siop Shop for a sweet treat and a bloody mental doughnut.
Afternoon
Afternoon’s were made for a few things, top of this list is shopping, sleeping, snacking and finally drinking. And you can do all of those things on Tib Street, if you wanted to that is. But I probably wouldn’t recommend having a nap, not least because this street can get a bit rowdy as the night goes on.
Shopping is easy, treat yourself to some vintage clobber in Bags of Flavour or go fancy and get some bespoke corsets and underwear in Kiku. Or you could absolutely lose yourself in Afflecks for the entire afternoon. But there’s plenty of other things to be getting on with so don’t do that.
I’m sure by this point you need a snack, that’s where Sugar Junction comes in. Fill your boots with boat-sized coffees and get a cracking sugar hit from their cakes. Or why not try their Afternoon Tea? Only right, isn’t it?
And if you still weren’t done with your shopping, Northern Flower have an amazing flower selection and plenty of nik naks in the basement to treat yourself to.
You can also have a wander around a shop that sells a ridiculous amount of drug paraphernalia a little up the road. If you see fit, at the very top of Tib St is a pet shop filled with geckos, pythons and even the odd wrinkle-faced tortoise.
There’s even an entire shop dedicated to BEER. Beermoth offer a dazzling array of bottles and cans of craft beers and ciders so you can take a few home with you for later.
Next up, probably while you’re in a bit of a cake coma, I’d recommend having a wander up and down the street to check out some of the brilliant street art. Deep breath here because there’s bloody tonnes, Tib St is basically a massive free gallery.
The memories of Tib Street’s zoo and pet past is adorned throughout and includes ceramic doves and terracotta parrots all stuck to the walls.
You can also find Lemn Sissay ‘Flags’ poem immortalised in the little letters on the right-hand side of the pavement of Tib St to have a read of. Some of the letters are missing making some words simply illegible. But it’s fun having a guess what it’s supposed to say. And finally, as everybody and their Nan knows, the Northern Quarter is also famous for its graffiti.
So of course, Tib St is not missing that. There’s a small box – something to do with electrics or water or BT – that hovers just outside the NCP car park that is always filled with some pretty iconic graffiti. From Heisenberg to Tony Wilson and the very famous Manchester Bees – it changes regularly and is pretty much always brilliant.
The next stop to kick off a big evening of biiiiig drinking is to head straight to The Daisy for cocktails and an entire menu of absinthe, yes absinthe cocktails.
They’ve somehow managed to turn what you and me know as the lethal spirit into delicious and decadent drinks. You’ll find them all served in the traditional glass fountain dripping iced water over a sugar cube.-
Early Evening
It’s tea time and of course there’s plenty of options on this humble street. Treat yourself to tapas and wine at Evuna, Sushi at Dive NQ, Burgers at Tib St Tavern or a few slices of pizza and some live jazz at Matt and Phreds.
You can of course opt for a visit to the legendary Kingfisher Chippy – by far the best chip shop in Manchester. It’s that good in fact, Harry Styles from One Direction has been there. If that isn’t a good enough reason to go, I don’t know what is.
It’s definitely time for a pint by now, if you’ve not already had one (or 5), and for that you need to head to The Freemount. The main door technically is on Oldham Street but there is a little way in nestled between Just Between Friends and Northern Flower. It looks like a pretty dodgy ginnel but chance it and get a few swift pints.
Late Evening
I hope by this point you’re well on your way to having the best day of your life? Well, a full day on one street and you should now have a serious thirst on you. If not, you’re about to have.
Believe it or not Tib St has places open until the early hours of the morning, including sports bars, pizza parlours and even an arcade bar. I told you this street has everything.
First place to go – Dive NQ because they have a brilliant Happy Hour and you can get drinks for just £3. Just across the way is another brilliant bar – Crazy Pedro’s – serving up some serious mezcal cocktails and some brilliant pizza slices to soak them all up.
Following that, it’s time to get competitive. Just a little way down from Crazy Pedro’s is the brilliant NQ64. This retro arcade bar is full of all your 80s/90s dreams, including some of the best arcade games ever made. For just a fiver you can get 15 NQ64 game coins to play to your heart’s content.
Next up is pool and there’s no better place to get involved that at Black Dog. Also open until 4am there’s plenty of pool tables to keep you busy and plenty of drinks offers available too.
And if all that wasn’t enough, you can get pizza at Crazy Pedro’s until 4am. Yep you read that right. So hopefully when you’re truly sloshed you can sober up with a few Kimbo Slices and stumble your way home with a bottle of Crazy Pedro’s Party Brew in one hand and a slice of dead good pizza in the other.
I’d just like to also point out before we wrap this whole thing up that Tib Street is even prepared for a zombie apocalypse. I can’t express enough, This. Street. Has. Everything.
There’s a little shop on the corner of Carpenters Lane and Tib St and that little shop is the Army Shop. Owned and filled with employees that are actually incredibly friendly, the shop is full of everything you could possibly need to survive in life.
So if it ever happens that there is a city wide take over of zombies, Tib St is where you need to be. Or… if you’re hungry, thirsty, want somewhere to watch sport, buy a tarantula, get vintage threds, buy a bunch of flowers or even see some free art, the list goes on…
