If you were to ask someone to paint a picture that summarised ‘community’, you’d like end up with a drawing of Station South in Levenshulme.
From families clustered around tables inside to chattering pals catching up on picnic tables outside, to cyclists pulling in for a bike service and a takeaway coffee to people admiring the on-site urban garden, this is a community hub for all ages and walks of life.
This is a room where you’ll see cotton baby grows and lycra one-piece suits and oversized denim and linen dresses all running along together.
Station South has a regular programme of events, from planned cycling trips to maintenance masterclasses, pub quizzes and mini markets.
Every Friday, DJs pop up for the weekly Platform Social, spinning disco, funk, soul and much more, and they host open deck nights where anyone with a vinyl collection can get involved.
The building itself has been restored beautifully, with plenty of odes to its former life, from the wooden ceilings to the parquet floor.
It’s located around the halfway point of the Fallowfield Loop – in fact the busy cycleway passes directly underneath Station South. You can sit in the sunny side room and watch people cycling, running, scooting and skating along beneath you.
A sunny side room looks over the Fallowfield Loop. Credit: The Manc GroupThe outside space at Station South in Levenshulme. Credit: The Manc GroupA sunny side room looks over the Fallowfield Loop. Credit: The Manc Group
Outside, there’s a sunny terrace bedecked with festoon lighting, and their little patch of green has been thoughtfully rewilded with native wildflowers and hedging.
There are picnic tables perched beneath pergolas crawling with plants, and even a few raised beds growing herbs.
As is so often the case with these suburban venues, Station South has a little something for everyone and for every time of day. That means roast dinners on Sunday, family-friendly seasonal menus, local beers, great wines, and plenty more.
On its breakfast menu is a fall-off-your-bike-in-delight breakfast muffin – the Manc Muffin – an intimidating stack of sausage patty, hash brown, cheese, egg, and relish. They don’t scrimp on the fillings. You’ll get in a mess eating it and you won’t mind.
We also ordered a confit tomato, halloumi and butter bean toast dish with just the right amount of pesto stirred through.
That intimidating Manc Muffin. Credit: The Manc GroupExcellent Station South Coffees. Credit: The Manc GroupHalloumi, confit tomatoes and pesto butter beans on toast. Credit: The Manc Group
On a Saturday morning the place is packed and bustling in a comfortable, familiar sort of way.
And without the community Station South now serves, none of this might have existed.
A once bustling and integral part of Manchester’s public transport network, the former Levenshulme Station was gradually downgraded as electric trams arrived, war ravaged the economy, and the railways were nationalised.
The building slowly stopped serving passengers, then reduced to goods only, then became a coal depot that simply watch trains pass through on their way to Manchester Central, until that also closed in 1969.
Inside Station South now. Credit: The Manc GroupInside Station South now. Credit: The Manc Group
In the late 1990s, a small group of keen cyclists rallied to have the old railway line turned into an urban greenway that would link up key South Manchester boroughs – this is, of course, the Fallowfield Loop (not actually a loop, before you get lost).
But the building above whizzed through several different iterations as various retail units before being almost completely abandoned and quickly falling into disrepair.
In 2017 a group of Levenshulme locals started their mission to bring the dilapidated but still-beautiful building back into use.
Lively Irish pub Nancy Spains set to open in Manchester for the first time
Daisy Jackson
An Irish bar famed for its live music is heading up to Manchester for the first time, and is promising £2.50 pints to lure us in.
Nancy Spains will be venturing out of London for the first time promising to bring the ‘ultimate traditional Irish pub experience’ to the Northern Quarter.
If you were to ask what the hottest trend in hospitality is right now the answer would, apparently, be Guinness. We’re drowning in the stuff.
This latest opening is more about Murphy’s, another Irish stout, than Guinness (they actually won’t serve Guinness at all) but the craic will be much the same.
Nancy Spains is actually set to open almost directly opposite the aforementioned Salmon of Knowledge, taking over the former Corner Boy unit on Stevenson Square in the heart of Manchester.
To celebrate its opening, the pub will be serving its first 5000 pints of Murphy’s for just £2.50, so that it can show off the atmosphere that’s established it as ‘one of London’s favourite pubs’.
They’re promising an array of Irish whiskeys behind the bar, live music performances, and a lively late-night setting.
Nancy Spains was set up by three brothers who travelled all over their home county of rural Kerry researching Irish pubs, before launching two venues down in London.
They want it to balance a traditional pub with the vibrancy of the city.
Peter O’Halloran, co-founder of Nancy Spains commented, “We’re so excited to be launching in Manchester, bringing Nancy Spains to the heart of the Northern Quarter.
“After the success of our two venues in London, it was only right to bring Nancy Spains’ infectious spirit and Irish pride to Manchester. Slainte!”
Nancy Spains will open its first Manchester pub on Saturday 15 March at 21 Hilton Street.
Lucky Mama’s – The Italian restaurant serving pasta in a dough bowl and ‘pregnant’ pizzas
Daisy Jackson
Lucky Mama’s is a local sensation, thanks to its slightly whacky but delicious Italian creations like pasta served in a bowl made of pizza dough and its latest offering, a ‘pregnant’ pizza.
What on Earth is a pregnant pizza, you ask? Firstly we should stress this is a nickname we’ve bestowed upon the dish, rather than Lucky Mama’s chosen branding.
But essentially it’s a helping of fresh pasta that’s folded into the bubble crust of the pizza, like a half-calzone.
Lucky Mama’s started life when founders Mamadou Dhiam and Gaby Santos set up a trailer in their backyard in Eccles in the depths of lockdown.
But thanks to a formidably loyal following that’s spread the word of Lucky Mama’s far and wide, it now has two pretty pink restaurants in Greater Manchester.
Back in 2022, they threw open the doors to their Chorlton restaurant, before returning back to home turf for spot number two in Monton in 2024.
The recipes are fresh and pretty authentically Italian up until the last step, when they throw a curveball by loading their pasta into unconventional vessels.
‘Pregnant’ pizzas at Lucky Mama’sTraditional Roman pizzasLucky Mama’s pink restaurant in Chorlton
Their pasta pizza bowls are what they’re best known for and they fly out of the kitchen – this is where pizza dough is placed around a metal bowl before being baked in an oven.
Then it’s piled high with freshly made pasta, with popular flavours like cacio e pepe, mushroom alfredo, and rasta pasta.
Pasta is available in a regular ceramic bowl too.
You’ll find Lucky Mama’s at 565 Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton; and 217 Monton Road in Eccles.
Daisy Jackson -
3rd October 2024 
