Hanging Ditch falls victim to Covid-19

Independent Manchester wine merchant Hanging Ditch has announced it is closing due to the impact of Covid-19 on its business.

The popular wine shop and bar in the city centre blazed a trail when it opened in 2008 but has been forced to close saying that the Covid-19 pandemic had “sounded the death knell” for the business with footfall in the area having effectively disappeared and the small nature of the site making it “impossible” to trade safely.

Owner and founder Ben Stephenson, told local paper Manchester Evening News that: ‘The site was always difficult to run due to it being very weather dependent, which does not always work out so well in Manchester. However, the cosy shop was regularly packed like sardines on Saturday afternoons when the weather wasn’t so good.”

Although a loss to the Manchester wine scene, Stephenson is also the proprietor of Blossom Street Social, a wine bar, shop and “collaborative dining experience”, which will continue to trade and where, Stephenson said, “although Hanging Ditch has been lost for good, its sprit lives on”.