Cultureplex to open in Ducie Street Warehouse
| 5th March 2019
A new social and cultural destination featuring a restaurant, lounge, coffee counter, events spaces with outdoor terraces, and cinema will be opening in July 2019.
Cultureplex will be located on the edge of Manchester’s Northern Quarter on the Western end of Ducie Street, overlooking the Piccadilly Basin in a former goods warehouse. It is the latest of the city’s heritage buildings to take on a new purpose.
Brought to Manchester by Bistrotheque founders Pablo Flack and David Waddington, the suffix -‘plex’ means parts or units.
Amidst the industrial pillars of Culturpleax sits a coffee counter, Klatch, serving fresh, healthy(ish) food and juices by day, then natural wines and craft beer by night. A vast central all-day space to work, lounge and dine, plus 80-seater restaurant Bistrotheque with an expansive open kitchen, a small but highly specced ‘Mini Cini’ and three adaptable meeting and event spaces for more selective gatherings, complete the ground floor of the building.
Programming Cultureplex is better thought of as a space for cultural experimentation than a traditional curatorial space, with community at the centre of the project.
Newly-appointed Programme Director, Katie Popperwell, and the team will deliver a quarterly themed programme of events and new commissions across film, performance, visual arts and craft.
In response to the changing cultural infrastructure of Manchester, the venue seeks to be a new kind of cultural institution designed to support the creative sector through structured workshops and training for freelancers as well as new opportunities to make and display work.
Katie says: “Manchester’s cultural infrastructure is in the midst of massive change, with F&B a more and more central part of the picture for many institutions. We’re flipping the model of a cultural space, allowing us to be playful with our programme, and really listen to the needs of the creative community.”