Don't miss a thing by getting the latest from the Manchester Evening News sent direct to your inbox It’s safe to say that walking down Canal Street in the seventies and eighties was a totally different experience to today.
While rainbow flags can often be seen draped across the walls and outside the bars today where drag queens, the LGBT+ community and allies proudly enjoy themselves, the few gay-friendly pubs in the area during the 70s were very discreet.
Most had blacked out windows so you couldn’t see what was going on inside - and for good reason as well. Since homosexuality had been partially decriminalised in 1967, Canal Street was slowly starting to grow an identity of its own.