Affleck's Palace
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Recommendation added: 04/03/2006 20:40
By: Elphaba (YSUK rating +17)Elphaba has been thanked 4 times for this contribution
"I spent 3 years living in Manchester while I was at university in the city (UMIST). A month or so after I started there, the union held a Rocky Horror night at the Odeon, so I and a new friend set out to make our costumes. Fishnets were of course necessary, but we couldn't find any in the main shops in Manchester. At one smaller shop I asked the assistant, and she said 'have you tried Affleck's Palace?'. I'd not heard of it, and asked her where that was. She gave us (quite confusing) directions, but we found it in the end.
Affleck's Palace is a five-storey building in the Northern Quarter, only a street or so away from Piccadilly. The easiest way to find it is to walk down Piccadilly, away from the station and towards the town centre, turn right down Lever Street, and go into Affleck's Arcade on the left-hand side of the road. Follow the arcade through and you will end up in Affleck's Palace. Or, you can walk round the back of the Arndale centre until you see the strange, saxophone-esque sculpture - Affleck's Palace is the building with the mosaics and paintings all over it.
The building is full of small shops, boutiques and stalls. More of an indoor market than a shopping centre. It specialises in vintage and retro clothing, also second-hand records, clubbing clothes, anything really. Basically it's student shopping heaven - lots of cool and quirky things. Things I have bought in Affleck's Palace include:
vintage roller skates
black henna tattoo of a butterfly
red and black fishnets
pink hair dye
a cup of tea
beads for a necklace
various second-hand CDs
Do yourself a favour, don't spend all your shopping time in Manchester in the chain stores - take a look at something that's much more interesting, and actually pretty unique."
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