Manchester suburb is losing its ‘last cheap food shop’

Levenshulme is to bid farewell to a stalwart of its high street as Iceland closes its doors. In a statement, the budget food chain said staff are to ‘enter into a consultation process and will be offered opportunities at surrounding stores where possible’.

Among locals, the move has created more anxiety than your typical supermarket closure. It prompted a petition in protest, which quickly amassed more than a hundred signatures.

Coupled with Stockport Road’s emergence as a hyper-trendy food-and-drink destination, many of those who signed their name did so mourning the loss of what they describe as Levenshulme’s ‘last cheap shop’.

“It’s a very good shop,” summarises Syed Navaad, 52, who stopped to chat outside on a bright October morning.  “I will be sad to see it go.”

His sentiments are shared by retired truck driver Steve Pritchard. “It’s wrong it’s closing; the one at Birchfields isn’t big enough. This one is,” the 70-year-old explained.

When asked how he feels Levenshulme has changed, he gave a short answer: “I think it’s a dump. I’ve lived here since 1971. It’s got worse. All you have is barbers and takeaways.”

He’s dismissive of the newer bars, pointing out he’s ‘a pensioner’ and he ‘cannot afford them’.

Syed added: “This is the last cheap shop.”

But five years after being named on the Sunday Times list of Best Places to Live, the people of Levenshulme have become used to change. The area is seen by a few as one of the city’s gentrification hotbeds, for better and for worse.

Long Boi’s Bakehouse, for example, breathed life into a corner shop that had been closed for 16 years when it opened on Forest Range and Birdhall Grove in 2020. Run by an all-female team, it has since been named among the best bakeries in the UK.

At the time, owner Jenny told the MEN: “I feel so proud that this little bakery in a slightly obscure suburb of Manchester is sitting on the pages next to so many people in the industry that we look up to and admire.”

Locals also banded together to renovate disused Levenshulme South railway station into the Station South bicycle cafe in 2017. Two years later, wine bars Isca and Nordie opened up, with the former moving to a bigger unit earlier this year.

Change is set to continue in M19. Plans are in place to bring its main railway station into the Bee Network — Andy Burnham’s public transport system — by 2028.

Commuters will be able to simply tap-in for a train as one currently does on Metrolink. Payments will synchronise with Bee Network buses and trams so passengers only ever pay the lowest fare across different travel modes.

Towns with Bee Network railway stations, like Levenshulme, will soon become even ‘more attractive’ places to live and visit, according to the mayor.

But with this come higher prices. House values are soaring  – the average was £243,423 over the past year. According to Rightmove, that’s two per cent up on 2023 and 12 higher than the 2021 peak of £221,491.

Here homes sell quicker than almost anywhere else in the UK. It takes an average of just 30 days for a house to be taken off the market – 17 days quicker than the previous 12 months – as the M19 postcode becomes more sought-after.

And as they wave goodbye to Iceland, many locals who have called Levenshulme home for decades fear they are being priced out of what has become one of the city’s trendiest suburbs.

“If I walked in there, I’d be looked at like I was going to rob them”

Irene Holliday, a 65-year-old care assistant, also describes the budget chain’s closure as ‘a shame’, given its longevity and current food prices.

“It’s been here for 40 years,” she said. “It’s got more expensive around here. Food has increased, as well as the general cost of living.”

Inside The Levenshulme pub, a staff member, who asked not to be named, says ‘it will be a shame to see [Iceland] go’ as she ‘loved Iceland’ and ‘loved the staff’ because ‘you could have a good laugh with them’, before listing some of them by their first names.

Both agree Levy’s changed a lot — and not always for the better.

“I have lived here for 30 years, the inflation has gone through the roof,” explained a 43-year-old, who asked to stay anonymous.

“It’s too dear,” he said of the newer spots. “The beer is far too dear. It’s a different class of people. If I walked in there, I’d be looked at like I was going to rob them.”

The Levenshulme’s clientele has changed too, the 32-year-old staff member added: “There are more students and younger people now.

“This used to be a ‘pub pub’, but the younger people came in with their hippie type of vibe. They would sit in the bars and then come here because they were feeling the pinch.”

“You can come and have tea here for £1.70, or you can have a bottle of wine for £150”

However, one architect behind the new wave of Levenshulme spots says it’s a place anyone can enjoy.

Caroline Dubois previously worked at Where The Light Gets In, the Michelin green-starred restaurant in Stockport. She established Isca — the trendy wine bar, coffee shop, and restaurant — in 2019 so she could take care of her children more easily, as the family already lived in Levy.

When asked for her response to suggestions Isca is ‘too dear’, she replied: “You can come and have tea here for £1.70, or you can have a bottle of wine for £150. That’s what we wanted to do, where you can do both if you want.”

It’s a strategy she says appeals to locals, estimating 60 percent of customers live nearby, with the remainder making the trip especially as Isca has earned its place on foodie guides.

Her prices are calculated ‘so everyone is well paid and well respected’. Isca staff are ‘paid above the living wage and they do not work more than 45 hours per week’, she goes on. Each ‘gets a meal and a glass of wine every shift’ and ‘free coffee all day long’.

“It’s not pretentious,” Caroline continued. “It’s not cool that farmers are so undervalued, because they feed the world.”

For Levenshulme, Caroline believes gentrification can be combated by ‘bringing the community together rather than segregating them’, but time will tell if that happens here.