A short walk from Holt Town tram stop, you find yourself surrounded by signs of Manchester's rich industrial heritage. Former cotton mills still stand between the trendy New Islington neighbourhood to the west and Etihad to the east. Some historic mills here have been beautifully restored into hubs for theatre, community and music. Others have been converted into modern residential apartments.
Lying in their shadow is a maze of shipping containers. Though rather than simply lying dormant on derelict land, they boast a forward-thinking remit and a clear nod to the city's industrious and entrepreneurial past.
Rusty corrugated iron may not sound convivial to starting a new business, but when used to create one of the country's largest shipping container villages for small business, you can see the vision.
Pollard Yard: A hub for startups
A hub for the region's most creative and promising start-ups, Pollard Yard is the work of property management firm Meanwhile Creative. It opened in 2018 and has grown to become an 160-container-sized yard with a mixture of both 20ft and 40ft units, which have been consistently full for several years - there's even a long waiting list to join to snag a container at the blossoming creative hub.
Butcher, baker's and candlestick makers, you can find pretty much anything here - spanning retail, music, podcasting, food, fitness, fashion, design and customer facing brands. From nails bars and vinyl stores to music studios and co-working spaces, if you can dream it, here it can exist.
An important, and crucially affordable platform for start-ups, these converted shipping containers start from £225 per month and offer easy, opt-out contracts, 24/7 access, on-site parking and a cafe at the entrance. One of the biggest draws is that the rent cost includes utility bills (aside from internet) too.
Expansion to Europe's largest container village
The success of this creative village has pushed Meanwhile Creative to expand further. And now, having spread its wings to Cardiff and Norwich, they're preparing to open Europe's largest container village over in the Victoria North area of Manchester.
When complete, it will encompass 300 affordable and flexible studios, workshops and independent business spaces. In the pipeline for three years, it's scheduled to open in September and is just 15 minutes walk from Manchester Victoria and Piccadilly.
For the first time in Manchester, Meanwhile Creative are also introducing their lock-up studios. Simple, unlined containers with lighting and electric, offering a low cost space for projects, storage, or creative work.
More than 90 containers will be delivered as part of phase one, with applications now open for creatives and independent businesses looking to secure a space. There is, as is the case with Pollard Yard, a waiting list, which speaks volumes of the need and desire for these spaces for creatives and businesses across Manchester.
Voices from the community
Back at Pollard Yard, a symphony of sounds can be heard from along one of its avenues. Like some of the mills around it, the creative village has become a hub for musicians to come together and create new work, collaborate and grow into their careers.
Dan Berry, a musician and producer from Manchester landed on Pollard Yard in 2019 after years of working from home. "I’m a freelance session musician, and a lot of focus of mine is on original music, producing music and performing live for bands," he says. "I’ve always had a studio, usually at home, but since I've had kids, that didn’t work for me. Here I can record drums, and dedicate loads of time to learning that, also producing and writing whole songs here. I love recording music and this space has allowed me to do that and do the whole thing top to bottom."
For Dan, it's the collaborative aspect of Pollard Yard that inspires him most, even recounting a last-minute trumpet player and finding one just walking about the shipping container village. "There’s a really nice ecosystem here and I’ve tried to make my space somewhere that is useful to others for songwriting. I can film live sessions in here too - that's been really collaborative and fun to do. There’s also an engineer called Noah, a container down, and drummers along here and we’ll just come and meet in here and take a song that needs some work and help each to develop stuff."
"A lot of the non-music business moved out because they couldn’t do meetings with drumming going on, but they’ve just moved to a quieter part of the yard, so all the music and noisy people are down here," he laughs.
Someone else who appreciates the collaborative nature of the container village is Sash, who last year opened Vinylfetishes, a mecca for all your pop, R&B and Hip Hop records. Think less Oasis and Stone Roses and more Madonna and Olivia Rodrigo.
"I collect records so I always had a passion. I was made redundant and thought I don’t want to work for anybody else and do something I do like," recalls Sash. "It was by accident that I found Pollard Yard because it’s not a very well known place. I had a walk around the Yard and thought this could do me. It was a decent price and for the size of my business I thought it was perfect."
"We’ve got so tight as a community here because everyone is chipping in, especially when we’ve done events for Record Store Day. It brings more customers as well. You do need to use social media to get this on the map and it’s worked with people online such as YouTubers coming down. We need more of these spaces, you can do much with these units and it helps out new starters. You just pay for the container, It’s perfect."
Food and drink start-ups have flourished here too, and the success of some of the early adopters has inspired people like Vic Watkins, who, in the last few months, has gained traction with her pickling and preserving business, Fizzel.
Having worked in hospitality for ten years, including bakeries and businesses, Vic decided last year to make the leap and start selling her own jars of pickled onions, apricots, ketchups, marmalades, jelly and pickles. She even makes pickle ice cream and pickle ice cream. "I was subletting a kitchen off a guy who makes ice cream in Hazel Grove, on an industrial estate," says Vic. "I've been a chef for ten years and I always fermenting, preserving, pickling, and just wanted my own business. My last job was at a bakery doing that so I just decided to go for it."
"It’s been great since moving here, I couldn't have asked for anything better. Very affordable, you can personalise as much as you want, and there's a good community. There's a lot of small businesses and creative people and they’re all here to help each other which is a rare thing to find - such a collection of people all in one place."
Vic thinks concepts like hers are becoming more popular, especially in the food space, as customers look for more in-person experiences. She also holds monthly events to meet customers and friends including this weekend's Pickle Party, which is being held at Pollard Yard. "People are turning back to buying from small businesses and wanting that interaction. They want something handmade and are more conscious of where their food comes from. People are bored of mass-produced foods and experiences."
Rachel Samuels has been at Pollard Yard since Covid, and credits the village as instrumental in getting her cake business, Palms Bakery, off the ground. "It was the most important factor in getting the business going, I wouldn’t have been able to afford a proper kitchen, rent a bakery or work from home because I live in a flat," she reflects. "The price I pay, there's on-street parking, it's central so can get to a lot of orders and people aren’t having to come from too far too."
Her bakery shot to viral fame online thanks to her colorful and unique cakes - from wild and intricate designs, and psychedelic patterns, to the beloved worker bees and flower print. In recent months, Rachel and baker Alex Nixson-Evers have taken on Pollard's cafe space too, selling coffee, cakes, and sandwiches too. "It's just a nice community, everyone helps each other out. I took on the coffee shop last year so now people can come and buy daily bakes."
"If I've got a job that needs doing, like a handy job, or some graphics or I need to borrow something, there’s always someone on hand. You’re not tied into long contracts so even if you’re just doing a project and need it for a few months, you can design it how you like. Even if you start a business, the rent cost isn't too high, so if it doesn’t work out you’re not bankrupting yourself. People sublet too. There should be more places like this. If this wasn’t here where else would you get such a good deal, so close to town. Because they’re opening a new one too and there's a waiting list, you know these types of spaces are so needed."
