The Haçienda

The Haçienda was a nightclub and live music venue on Whitworth Street West in Manchester, set inside a converted former yacht showroom and warehouse by the Rochdale Canal. It opened on 21 May 1982, conceived by Rob Gretton and bankrolled largely by Factory Records, New Order and label boss Tony Wilson, with its striking industrial interior designed by Ben Kelly.

In its early years the club mainly hosted gigs by touring and local acts, including early shows by New Order and the Smiths, alongside turns from Grandmaster Flash, Madonna and others, but it struggled financially throughout the mid-1980s. Its fortunes changed from 1986 when Mike Pickering's Friday night, Nude, built around house and electronic music, began pulling in crowds, and by early 1987 the club had gone from losing money most nights to selling out regularly. The club became closely tied to the rise of acid house and the Second Summer of Love, with Jon DaSilva and Pickering's Hot night credited as one of the scene's birthplaces alongside London's Shoom.

Over the following years the Haçienda built a roster of residents and regular DJs including Graeme Park, Jon DaSilva, Dave Haslam, Hewan Clarke, Greg Wilson and DJ Paulette, with Laurent Garnier also cutting his teeth there as a Wednesday night resident from 1987. From 1991 the Flesh night, run by Paul Cons and Lucy Sher, became one of Europe's best-known gay club nights and brought a new audience and legacy to the venue. The club's subculture was even noted by police chief constables in Merseyside and Greater Manchester as having helped reduce football hooliganism.

Alongside its creative success, the Haçienda became associated with serious security problems. Gang-related violence, including shootings and threats to door staff, led the club to voluntarily close for a period in 1991, and similar incidents continued after it reopened in 1992. Ultimately it was financial pressure, driven partly by low alcohol sales as drug use became widespread among clubbers, that proved fatal, and the Haçienda lost its entertainments licence and closed for good on 28 June 1997.

The building was demolished in 2002 and replaced by an apartment complex called the Haçienda Apartments, which retains some of the original branding and yellow-and-black hazard stripe motifs in tribute to the club. Decades on, the Haçienda is still widely referenced in accounts of the Madchester era and the development of British club culture, with anniversary events continuing to bring together former resident DJs.