GRIT Studios heads to Manchester’s Great Northern

Creative workspaces are coming to the grade two-listed Deansgate warehouse, occupying 7,000 sq ft while building owners Trilogy Real Estate and Peterson Group ready £213m transformation plans.

Stockport-based GRIT Studios is expanding its operations into Manchester city centre, offering up a variety of workspaces for around 80 artists. When it opens on 1 December, there will be a mixture of studios and what it calls “messy hot desks”. The desks start at £75 a month, while the studios start at £150 a month.

John and Sophie Macaulay created GRIT Studios in 2021 as a place for artists to work and collaborate.

John Macaulay said the appetite for city centre studio space was strong since so many of the historic mills that were formerly creative spaces have been converted into apartments. The Great Northern space is also ideal for GRIT, he said.

“It’s almost like the place has been purpose-built for us,” Macaulay said. “We’re ecstatic about it…

“It is such a light, airy space, with tall ceilings – it’s really going to be a big win for Manchester’s creative community.”

GRIT has already had an abundance of interest in its city centre home, with a variety of artists already signed on to set up residence – including Michael Browne, the painter of “The Art of the Game” at the National Football Museum.

A mural by artist Oskar with a K adorns a wall at GRIT Studios’ Great Northern space. Credit: GRIT Studios

Jack Albert, asset manager at Trilogy, said the developer was “excited” to have GRIT Studios move into Great Northern.

“As the latest development of our ongoing commitment to art and culture in the city, this addition to our community at Great Northern is a proud moment,” Albert said.

“We have partnered with John and Sophie from GRIT for a number of years, to host exhibitions, to commission local artists, and to run a pop-up artists shop. We have always been impressed with their professionalism, and their support for this important sector,” Albert continued.

“GRIT Studios in Stockport has been a great success, and we are so pleased we can offer the space for this facility to now operate in a prime city centre location, providing much-needed affordable space for local talent. We are looking forward to welcoming a new community of artists and makers to our Great Northern family.”

Great Northern will only be a temporary home for GRIT as Trilogy and Peterson gear up for their £213m project to deliver 150,000 sq ft of offices and 746 homes at Great Northern, while also preserving the grade two-listed warehouse. This scheme will be delivered in phases. Planning permission for the major endeavour was secured in February.

John Macauley is not perturbed by the ephemeral nature of GRIT’s Manchester home.

“We recognise this is a meanwhile space,” he said. “We are telling artists ‘it’s not your forever space, but it is your forever community.”

Great Northern is the first expansion effort for GRIT, but it will not be the last. The Macaulays are looking to open studio spaces in every borough of Greater Manchester over the next five years.

“We really have an ambition to grow,” John Macaulay said. “We recognise there’s strength in unity and the more artists we have in our community, the more benefits we can bring to them.”