A short walk from the Holt Town tram stop through some pretty unsuspecting backstreets, it’s not necessarily where you’d expect to find a hub of creative activity.
But strolling through Pollard Yard on a sunny afternoon, between its rows of multicoloured shipping containers strung with festooned lighting, in the shadow of an old mill, you can practically feel the creativity oozing out of every perfectly painted interior.
If you haven’t been to Pollard Yard before, it’s essentially a piece of formerly derelict land on the outskirts of New Islington which has been filled with a maze of shipping containers, providing affordable and flexible workspaces to a range of small businesses entrepreneurs and start ups.
What starrted out as a pilot scheme of 30 businesses in June 2019, Pollard Yard has now grown to house more than 130 containers.
It’s unlike Hatch, the other shipping container village in Manchester, in that the focus is not primarily to draw in crowds with food and drink offerings. In its current set up, although many of the containers have ‘shop fronts’, it’s not a place that actively encourages passing trade. Most of the businesses use the spaces as offices, studios or as a space to fulfil delivery orders.
Nevertheless, Pollard Yard is currently full and has a waiting list of small businesses waiting to get their hands on the reasonably priced workspaces.
It seems that Pollard Yard has been the perfect solution for the many new small businesses we’ve seen pop up since the start of the pandemic. And, although it wasn’t initially known as a place for food and drink businesses, a few more have found their homes there in recent months.
The most recent addition to the collection of food traders is chocolatier Cocoa and Bloom.
Owner Darcy had always wanted to be a baker, but she was told that she had to go to university first, which is what she did. But then in 2019, Darcy quit job her job as a Business Development Manager in 2019 to pursue her dream of working in pastry. She is currently study at Hopwood Hall College in pastry and confectionary.
Darcy had originally thought about opening a baking business but she spotted a gap in the market for selling beautiful chocolates of the kind you’d find in the windows of chocolatiers in France.
The perfectly crafted and wonderfully glossy chocolates come in a range of shapes, colours and fillings. There are ones that look like shells, others that look like gemstones, and many splatted with vibrant colours.
There is a changing selection of flavours which, for March, includes Lemon and Raspberry Cheesecake, Maple and Pecan, Jam on Toast and Chocolate Guinness Ganache.
More than half the menu is vegan too, but it’s not the grainy, tasteless, vegan chocolate you might have tried before. In fact, it’s barely distinguishable from the rest. As Darcy tells us, just because the chocolate is vegan, it doesn’t mean it has to be healthy.
All made using local ingredients where possible and there is a big focus on sustainability. She uses no plastic in production or packaging. Chocolates come in reusable tins lined with paper, which can be returned and refilled.
The business has been growing steadily and just a few months after she started trading in December, Darcy is now looking to hire someone who she can train in the lead up to Christmas. They don’t need to have any experience in pastry or making chocolate, her only criteria is that the person is creative.
It’s not just Cocoa and Bloom that is flourishing in Pollard Yard. Walking inside the Loaf MCR container, it’s an explosion of pink – pink counters, pink walls and a mural in varying shades of pink. As we arrive, the doors to the container were also being repainted in light pink as the previous pink was apparently a little too ‘pornstar’ for owner Aiden’s liking.
“Pink is really my colour,” laughs Aiden, from behind the pink face mask which sits atop his long beard.
Currently on furlough from his job at clothing company Belstaff, the idea for his venture came about after he wanted to inject some fun into his company’s instagram feed during the first lockdown by organising a weekly bake off. When Loaf Week rolled around, Aiden knew he didn’t want to make bread and so many a loaf cake instead – and was pleasantly surprised with the results.
His loaf cakes come in a range of flavours like lemon drizzle, cherry Bakewell, chocolate orange and carrot cake, each loaded with a variety of icing and toppings.
Aiden wanted to make cakes that were delicious and also reasonably priced. When he first started out, he was selling cakes to raise money for the NHS and he was then approached by Northern Quarter cafe Ezra and Gill to start supplying cakes to them.
Loaf predominantly operates as a wholesale bakery but does also sell to individuals and Aiden is thinking about expanding that customer facing side of the business. When you walk into a container, it does feel like a shop, with a small reception space, shelves displaying other small brand’s products and a counter to order from.
Loaf has also been collaborating with other businesses in the Yard like Cocoa and Bloom, where they have made limited edition cakes for occasions such as Mother’s Day. Aiden says that being surrounded by such a diverse mix of creative businesses has really encouraged these types of collaborations and the strong sense of community that he feels there has been a great support to him as a start up.
Next we popped round to see Le Social Wine who – just my luck – were about to start a wine tasting for some of their new bottles.
Owner, Jerome, who originally comes from Nantes in France, moved to Manchester in 2012. When he was first put on furlough from his job as an alcohol sales rep, Jerome missed that regular conversation with people that he was used to, and so, he decided to start up Le Social as a way of keeping that face-to-face contact, even if it was just a quick chat on a doorstep.
Describing himself as ‘the milkman of wine’, Jerome spent those first few sunny lockdown months, cycling around (often, as he tells us, in mini shorts), delivering bottles of wine, with profits being donated to Black Lives Matter charities and organisations connected to Pride Month.
Jerome was running this delivery business from home for a little while from home before deciding he needed a proper space to run the business. He moved into Pollard Yard in August last year and now sells his range of sustainable, organic and natural wines to both retailers and individuals. Jerome has also worked with Escape to Freight Island to set up a natural wine bar which will be reopening with the rest of the site in April.
Like Cocoa and Bloom and Loaf, Jerome is also growing his team and has just taken on another member of staff, Sarah, who will be working with him on Le Social.
Finally, we popped in to see Rachel from Palms Bakery who launched her business just before the first lockdown, as she handed in her notice at her job in early March last year.
The self-proclaimed ‘home of the shaggy cake’, Palms Bakery is based in one of the larger units in Pollard Yard. Rachel started off from home, making mini lockdown birthday cakes and weekly treat boxes. When she moved into the larger unit, it meant that she could create more cakes each day, rather than just one or two at home.
Her larger cakes are mainly bespoke, she has a chat with whoever is ordering and comes up with a design for them. Rachel says that many people just send her a picture of a cake they’ve seen on her Instagram feed for her to replicate, but she loves it when people allow her to get creative and make something totally new. The orders can be collected from the unit in Pollard Yard or they can also be delivered locally.
Rachel loves being part of Pollard Yard and says that the community of traders around her are very helpful. If she were to leave it would be because she needs more space or to take on more team members to help her complete orders.
We’ve seen in recent months the rise in the number of people starting up their own businesses, many of which are due to redundancies or lack of work, or simply from people having more time to devote to something that they are passionate about.
Pollard Yard is providing these businesses a foothold, a space where they can experiment, find their feet and eventually grow.
Lucy Hackett, Community and Site Manager of Pollard Yard, said: “What started off as a derelict piece of land back in 2019 has since flourished into an aspiring community of entrepreneurs, creatives and small businesses.
“The best thing about Pollard Yard? Easy – the people. It’s so wonderful to watch tenants network, collaborate and generally support one another to achieve their personal and business goals. We’ve got lots of exciting things lined up for the future which will hopefully enhance the experience of being a tenant here at Pollard Yard. So watch this space.”
As well as the affordability and flexibility of Pollard Yard, it’s being surrounded by so many creative minds that seems to be really helpful to the businesses located there.
It’s having someone next door to ask for advice, to collaborate with, or simply just that ineffable atmosphere of creativity I felt walking into the space.
It’s easy to see why so many start ups are signing up to have a container there and it’ll be exciting to see where these businesses are in the next few months, and who else will find their home there.
