Uk shopping: liverpool and manchester

Sorry, I cannot give you much information about Manchester and Liverpool. "Up North" is almost a foreign country to me. You will find most stores in the UK open on Sundays. Shops are allowed to open on Sundays for up to 6 hours. Most will; they open at either 11 or 12 am and close at 5 or 6 pm.

I'll be visiting Manchester in a couple of weeks' time and hope to get a bit of shopping done myself. I'm in the market for a new pair of shoes but otherwise I'm not looking for anything in particular, so any advice would be welcome! Has anyone with knowledge of Manchester joined the forum in the decade since this thread died?

Manchester has some of the best vintage shopping in the country and its very cheap! There is a selfridges and the northen quarter is a must visit. Check out Oi Polloi they are on 69 Thomas Street and worth a visit. I think the northern quater is a good bet overall.

Go to Flannels. Dont feed money into Selfridges.

Unfortunately it is smaller shops and second hand shops that may not open on a Sunday. This one appears to be at the Trafford Centre which is a large out of town (and dreadful) mall.

Only proper men's shoe shop in Manchester is Edwards.
http://www.edwardsofmanchester.co.uk/

It's on Deansgate, and in the same vicinity are the major dept. stores like Kendals, Selfridges, Harvey Nicks etc. which all have the usual designer concessions.
Nearby on King Street there is an Hermes store. That area of town is populated with high street brands. There is also an area call spinningfields nearby that has many major brand stores, Armani, Brooks brothers etc.

As mentioned upthread, in the Northern Quarter there are a good collection of independents, vintage stores, cafes restaurants etc. Flannels (label stuff) used to have an outlet (discount) store round there but they closed it and moved it to the Lowry Mall in Salford (tram ride, about ten minutes).

There is a free bus service (three routes) that runs till 7pm. all around the city centre. http://www.visitmanchester.com/media/45570/metroshuttle_map_july08.pdf
http://www.visitmanchester.com/discover/maps.aspx#/discover/shopping.aspx



The city centre is relatively small and you can get round it on foot no problem, most stuff is open on Sundays, even the indies. All shops open a bit later and close a bit earlier than normal on Sundays.
Edited by Infrasonic - 1/10/12 at 1:52pm

Thank's everyone you've been very helpful - Infrasonic in particular! I will certainly visit Edwards. Judging from the website they have a good wide range of stock, including some decent stuff towards my price range. I might not be able to afford them, but I'll also enjoy the opportunity to drool over the Gazianos in real life! I'll probably head to the Northern Quarter for a cuppa at North Tea Power at some point, so I'll check out the shops nearby while I'm there. Oi Polloi looks to be more at the streetwear end of the spectrum but I'll take a look - their website has some nice knitwear and cords that could cross over for casual wear. I have a vague memory that they stocked Shaggy Dog jumpers at some point, maybe I'm wrong but they don't have them on the website any more anyway. I'm not sure I will have enough time to get out to Flannels at Salford. I'll save that for another time!

 

Do the vintage shops in Manchester tend to have decent quality stuff? My only real experience with vintage shops is limited to those in Sheffield, which do not. Vintage just seems to mean old and second-hand here. We have a Cow in Sheffield which sometimes gets Ralph Lauren shirts in, but that is as good as it gets. Even so, I always get the impression that Cow is overpriced. Is the Manchester Cow any better? How about the others?

 

 

Most of the Vintage shops are on Oldham Street.
I've scored a few decent things over the years (couple of bespoke evening waistcoats for a tenner each was the best), but in general you're wading through crap to find the odd gem.
Oxfam originals has quite a good standard, but the prices are higher...HTH.

I went to Manchester today, and enjoyed my shopping. I only had time for Edwards, Flannels and Brooks Brothers.

 

I was primarily looking for brogues in Edwards and didn't fall in love with anything but it was nice just to browse. I'd never actually seen any Edward Greens in the flesh (hide?) before, so that was good.

 

In Flannels, I was after a plain navy suit and was thinking about Canali after seeing that they had some Canali for sale online. The best I tried on, however, was a Timothy Everest three-button in a lovely, very dark navy. I couldn't commit to spending £600 (down from £1000) then and there though, so decided to think it over and come back after lunch. I never did because lunch turned into a rather long and boozy affair! I don't think I'll pull the trigger after all; too pricey to justify right now. Still, it was a great suit and fitted well. Maybe the memory of it will serve as motivation to find a well paying job when I graduate! There was a nice Canali tie though which I might pick up online though.

 

I was really impressed with Brooks Brothers and now completely understand why it is so big here on SF. I wish there was more stores like it in the UK, or perhaps just more Brooks Brothers stores! They didn't actually have any staple navy suits in (maybe one less impressive aspect!) but I tried on suits for size and fit anyway, for when I next go back or if I buy something on B&S. The Fitzgerald jacket was the best off the rack, but could have done with being a bit longer (at 38R). I thought about buying one of the wool ties on sale, but went for a pair of navy Milano cords and a pair of staple grey Milano PoW check trousers. I was impressed with the staff and the quality and selection of clothing for the price. I'm sure I'll be going back again.

 

So thanks for the recommendations! Hopefully I'll have more time to check the other ones out next time.

 

 

Edited by Vloed - 1/28/12 at 1:21pm