Thread: Fears for future of Manchester’s famed Curry Mile

There was some discussion of the Curry Mile in a thread not so long ago but dammed if I could find it.

Thought that this might be of interest to those that were posting there.


Rats, crime and inflation: fears for future of Manchester’s famed Curry Mile

Businesses are struggling and gangs have moved in, say locals, as custom on the popular Wilmslow Road strip continues to dry up.

When Nadia Khan used to visit Manchester’s curry mile in the 1990s, the street was filled with families and felt completely safe. Travelling from Milton Keynes to see family and friends in the area, she would be excited to see the bustling street lined with stalls selling clothes and bric-a-brac.

“Now a woman can’t walk on these streets on her own at night without getting harassed,” she said. “It never used to be like that.”
Her complaints do not stop there. The number of people begging on the street and at traffic lights has increased significantly since she was young, she said, and drug dealers have begun operating in the neighbourhood.
She said: “There are beggars everywhere you look, rats in the takeaways and [nitrous oxide] canisters from people using them in cars.”

The city’s well-known curry mile is actually a half-mile stretch of restaurants and Asian sweet shops on Wilmslow Road, just south of the centre. It has been the pride of Manchester, developed in the 50s and 60s to serve south Asian migrants working in the textile industry.

But this piece of history could be at risk of disappearing. Business owners, too, are complaining about crime levels in a neighbourhood that has been left to become filthy while they struggle to survive financially in a cost of living crisis.

Ali Yassin, who has worked on the curry mile for 16 years and now owns Krunchy Fried Chicken there, said footfall on the street has dropped massively since before the pandemic.
“People used to be out four or five times a week,” he said. “Now it’s maybe just once.”
Ali Hassan, who is manager of Jafra restaurant and has worked in different places along this road for the past 10 years, agreed. The price of a drum of oil cost about £13 before the pandemic, he said. It peaked at £38 a few weeks ago, and now cost about £32.

“Flour has also more than doubled,” he went on. “We’re struggling to pay the bills. The electric has gone from £800 or £900 a month before the pandemic to £4,000 now.
“From next year our business rates will be £33,000 a year. And we can’t get employees. It’s a struggle to find staff, especially Europeans. It used to be easy to get staff – Italians, Spanish, Polish – but they’re not here any more. Experienced people from places like Syria come in asking for work, but they’re asylum seekers and we’re not allowed to employ them. It’s a shame because they’re hard workers and they know the job.”
During Ramadan, most Curry Mile restaurants were fully booked with families gathering for iftar, the fast-breaking evening meal. But at other times of the year, especially in the winter, the restaurants struggle to survive, and this Ramadan was quieter than normal, he said.

And he echoed Yassin in saying that regular customers had stopped coming so often, which has led to many restaurants on the street closing down.
Hassan said the road was now roamed by gangs of teenagers selling drugs. He had witnessed a number of serious crimes in recent weeks. He said: “I’ve reported three guys with knives on the street out here, five people with a car who smashed into that shop, some guys with knives who stole a guy’s bike and stabbed him. That’s why families stop coming.”

Abdullah Albaydar, manager of a takeaway called Al Jazeera, said he did not want to complain about the area but he did think there should be more police on the streets.
“We need more support to maintain the area, and more patrols,” he said, adding that he had not seen more officers on the beat, despite the council and police having both pledged more support after calls by businesses for extra patrols to make visitors feel safer.

Manchester council recently won £2.4m of funding from the Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund, which includes money for initiatives such as street lighting and home security, and businesses hope this will have a positive effect. The council has launched a project aimed at reducing crime in the wider Rusholme area.

Greater Manchester police said it is taking a “zero tolerance” approach to crime and has increased stop and search around the Curry Mile in a bid to catch drug dealers and crack down on antisocial behaviour.
The police also said they would hold regular meetings with residents and businesses, and would specifically tackle concerns raised by the community, though Albaydar said he had not heard about any meetings.
But it is not all bad, he said. “There are places that have been here a really long time. We’ve been here 30 years.”

Where the old restaurants had closed down, new ones are taking their place, he said. “Lots of places are still doing well. There are still places opening – big guys.”
He pointed across the road to a shuttered premises. “There’s an African restaurant opening there. Bad and good exists.”

Rats, crime and inflation: fears for future of Manchester’s famed Curry Mile | Restaurants | The Guardian

^ i went there about a month ago and posted that its now full of kebab houses and couldn't find a decent curry house, the sand monkeys seem to have taken over - was a shock after having not been there in c20 years. It ain't the curry mile now as there aren't really any curry houses.

shitty little kebab and chicken shops run by greedy shitty unfriendly people. no class, no standards, no pride.

the area is overrun by intimidating youths and drug dealers in clapped out audis and bmws.

fuck 'em.

lots of decent asian food around in manchester and in other northern cities, you wont find it in these dilapidated unhygienic shitholes.

Asia’s top politicians and envoys??!!!???
How more fucking oxymoronic can you get Tax.

Tax, they’re third/ emerging world countries hostage to the $ and with a population of peasants that will overwhelm them as they continue to plunder and pillage wealth.

The EU is the beacon of hope for many and the world’s centre of civilisation. England is now a litter strewn lay-by on the way to it.

You really are getting a tad loopy in your seemingly ever increasing senescence.

I suggest you cancel your subscription to the Telegraph and take up yoga.

Originally Posted by taxexile

while we in britain argue endlessly about things like whether or not a woman can have a penis

here I must agree .

As the word is no longer taboo perhaps bathrooms, sports changing rooms, pools, gyms, saunas, rape and medical suites, refuges etc can simply be named with or without functioning penis and testicles, a logo should not be hard, Yep and noPE could suffice without wishing to be crude.

I am not sure of the ideal solution but a huge debate has driven excellent journalists and academics to despair, JK Rowling, Greer de platformed, Joanna Cherry, Hadley Freeman and many many others either silenced by a new academic Wokeness that is in fact a new form of censorship.


To avoid intimate examinations, strip searches, perhaps these folks could bring their removed, tagged, pickled tackle in a bag to gain admission to women's sports, refuges and prisons.

Those who wish to cross dress etc would still be free to do so and enter female only sports and places only once medically proven and once no threat to women and girls.

The right not to be offended seems to have surpassed the right to call a prick a prick .

Allowing those who have adult male testosterone to compete in explosive sports seems unfair. Perhaps the Olympics could like cricket have a Middlesex division, or am I beating about the bush?

I am all for civil rights , however the rights of the overwhelming majority of the population to protect for example young girls from predators seems to have been exceeded by some insane idea that a person with a penis can be a woman.

Originally Posted by david44

Those who wish to cross dress etc would still be free to do so and enter female only sports and places only once medically proven and once no threat to women and girls.

they just need cocks in frocks only sport

Originally Posted by malmomike77

they just need cocks in frocks only sport

indeed I think this is Pattaya's niche, I will of course yield to your experience in this department. In the keeping with the Bunny zetgeist of resurection I wash all and sunday a hoppy toaster

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

Asia’s top politicians and envoys??!!!???
How more fucking oxymoronic can you get Tax.

Tax, they’re third/ emerging world countries hostage to the $ and with a population of peasants that will overwhelm them as they continue to plunder and pillage wealth.

The EU is the beacon of hope for many and the world’s centre of civilisation. England is now a litter strewn lay-by on the way to it.

You really are getting a tad loopy in your seemingly ever increasing senescence.

I suggest you cancel your subscription to the Telegraph and take up yoga.

If the EU really is a beacon of hope, why do economic migrants insist on leaving France by inflatable boat, only to arrive in the litter strewn layby that is UK?

^ the EU is too civilised obviously

Originally Posted by taxexile

europe is just as fucked, socially and economically, if not more so, than the uk.

still existing in his very own 'fact free' zone.

Originally Posted by taxexile

talk to a frenchman about the state of their country at the moment or talk to a german about the decline of standards in their country, same goes for italy or spain, and you will hear the same stories. europe is just as fucked, socially and economically, if not more so, than the uk.

They'll tell you that it's better than being in the UK. Do you need facts shoved into your face again to show you just how wrong you are, taxi driver?

Originally Posted by Happy As Larry

Ali Yassin ... owns Krunchy Fried Chicken

KFC. - nice . . .

Originally Posted by Happy As Larry

Abdullah Albaydar, manager of a takeaway called Al Jazeera

The real question centres around that aspirational political pipe dream, referred to as multiculturalism. In truth, it is only multiple divided cultures.
No long before politicians of any colour refer to it as ‘diversity’.

Originally Posted by Switch

The real question centres around that aspirational political pipe dream, referred to as multiculturalism. In truth, it is only multiple divided cultures.
No long before politicians of any colour refer to it as ‘diversity’.

More irrelevant babble.

If Britain can assimilate the Welsh then it can meet any challenge.

Originally Posted by cyrille

More irrelevant babble.

You using the word irrelevant. That’s pure irony right there.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

If Britain can assimilate the Welsh then it can meet any challenge.

Wales used to be flat. The Welsh pushed the land upwards to form mountains. Just to keep out the English, and pikey Irish half casts like you.

Originally Posted by cyrille

More irrelevant babble.

How is it irrelevant in this context?