Openshaw’s wholesale food market is already home to 40 businesses, but ambitious redevelopment plans will soon see it attract many more.
New Smithfield Market is the heart of Manchester’s food and restaurant trade, where the raw ingredients for a thousand menus are bought and sold every day.
Established in 1897, the market was formerly located in the heart of the city centre, before moving to its current site in 1972. Now ambitious new proposals are being put in place to bring the character, choice, and colour of the wholesale trade back into the heart of the community.
The vision is to transform Openshaw's 112-year-old wholesale market into a hub for Manchester's thriving food scene, much like London's famous Borough and Spitalfields markets. The emphasis will be on organic, locally grown, seasonal produce. Permanent planned outlets include a smokehouse, craft bakery and dairy and visitors will be able to browse through stalls, enjoy a coffee or lunch, see an allotment in action, and wander through greenhouses full of fragrant produce grown specially for the on-site Market Shop.
A cookery school and education and training service will cater for everyone from committed gastronomes to local school kids eager to learn about healthy eating. A community food centre will provide a focal point for local produce, taking the wealth of the wholesale offer out to the casual shopper.
A key part of East Manchester’s regeneration plans for, it is envisaged that the New Smithfield Market project will transform the cavernous warehouses into a 'market village' complex for the 21st century. Initial work is soon to begin, with the first stage to include an extensive refurbishment of one of the trading halls; a new fish market; several new units, and improvements to public spaces.
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