All-day café and bar Junction to open in Manchester Central this spring with "incredible space" vow

This is how a new cafe, restaurant, and bar in one of Manchester’s most historic buildings will look. Junction is set to open its doors in spring, following a ‘significant investment’.

The new space will find its home inside Manchester Central, the city’s convention centre that opened inside an old railway station as the G-Mex in 1986. It’s set to be open all-day, in an effort to appeal to boujee breakfasters, coffee shop workers, and late-night diners.

The Manchester Central railway station shut down in 1969, as part of the Beeching review. Bosses say the venue’s history has inspired the architecture of Junction, with floor-to-ceiling windows set to give diners wide views of Manchester.

Shaun Hinds, CEO, said: “We are extremely excited to open Junction in the spring. This is set to be an incredible space that will be open to everyone, all day, every day. It will be a place to gameplan the day with great coffee in the morning, catch up on emails at lunch, make connections with new contacts, and meet friends over cocktails and small plates in the evening. We don’t think there is anything like this on this side of the city, and we know it will be a huge boost to this area.”

The new café, which has secured planning permission, will be one of the final acts of Mr Hinds’ tenure at the top of the business, after announcing last month he will leave to take up the chief executive job at Newbury Racecourse in Berkshire in June. His seven-year tenure has also seen the redevelopment of the archways on nearby Watson Street to create venues such as Three Little Words, the Spirit of Manchester Distillery and independent theatre group 53Two.

Junction will be open to both delegates attending conferences and the public, with each cohort having its own entrance. More information on the menu and when Junction will open is set to be released in the coming months.