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To some, it is just the name of a series of luxury flats opposite a vital stop on any Manchester food tour, but to others, it is a time capsule that represents everything that the city is and represents as a creative and cultural epicentre.
Even after nearly 30 years, the legacy of the Hacienda has never truly gone away, not just because the site of the formerly legendary nightclub has kept the name and even the hazard stripe motif famously emblazoned on the many metal pillars that kept the former boat showroom sturdy, as seen in photographs compiled by the Manchester Evening News.
Its shadow continues to loom large over the HOME cinema and its food and drink offerings, or even the bizarre cocktails available at Junkyard Golf, but also the likes of the wing bar Bunny Jacksons, The Gasworks, the Indian Tiffin Room and Hakkapo, amongst many other wonderful eateries in the area.
Not only is this due to its huge size and amazing location right next to Deansgate, nor even in the wake of 90’s nostalgia thanks to the Oasis reunion and beautiful tributes to Mani, but also because of what it represents and how it may have inadvertently caused a boom not only in Manchester music and culture, but also in food.
To explain why, we need to explain what the Hacienda was, why it did not last and why its legacy bleeds through almost the entire city in the decades since.
Formed by Factory Records, the record label behind New Order, the Hacienda was opened in 1982, largely managed by Tony Wilson.
The goal was to create a “cathedral” of music, creativity and culture, one that had been missing from Manchester since the late 1970s, but the result was something almost akin to a Manchester-flavoured version of The Roxy in London.
The tragic end of Joy Division with Ian Curtis’ death and the rise of New Order gave Factory Records the money to make the club, named after a proclamation in Formulary for a New Urbanism that “the Hacienda must be built”.
They bought an ex-boat showroom, Ben Kelly designed the interior architecture, and Peter Saville worked on the now-iconic graphics that remain evocative even to this day.
The rest was, as they say, a memorable but extremely brief history.
Not quite a music venue, not quite a pub and not quite a nightclub at first, the initial incarnation of The Hacienda was a little bit ahead of its time, struggling to make money and struggling for notoriety outside of being the first place Madonna performed in the UK.
That changed dramatically by 1986, as it was one of the first places to champion electronic and rap music, ultimately becoming the British cathedral for a musical movement known as acid house.
Spearheaded by the legendary Nude night, it was the centre of the Madchester scene, a merging of the Manchester rock scene of the 1980s that would later form a key cornerstone of
Britpop with acid house and psychedelic music more broadly, thanks to not only New Order, but
also the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays.
It was such a centrepiece that the late 80s became known later as the Second Summer of Love.
What went wrong?
Whilst an incredible cultural touchstone and a gift to Manchester, the Hacienda was infamously a money pit. It was largely subsidised by Factory Records and New Order, aided by successes like Blue Monday and True Faith during a time when music funded venues and not the other way around.
Ultimately, its popularity, which far eclipsed its success, was further stymied by negative press relating to gun violence and organised crime, as well as attempts by Manchester Metropolitan Police to shut it down for license violations, which would ultimately cause the Hacienda problems until it closed in 1997.
The death knell arguably fell as early as November 1992, when Factory Records declared bankruptcy following the infamous issues surrounding the Happy Mondays’ troubled Yes Please and the expensive production of New Order’s Republic.
Manchester before and after the Hacienda is night and day, and whilst the club itself ended, the influence of its music can be felt around the world.
There are countless incredible music venues that opened in its wake, as well as a thriving restaurant scene that brings with it some of the finest and most unique cuisine from around the world.
