The Blues Kitchen Manchester

The Blues Kitchen Manchester opened on 20 May 2021 at 13 Quay Street, in a former Victorian eye hospital that had housed the Walkabout. It was the group’s first venue beyond London and its largest when it began operating. The Columbo Group owns the venue, whose founders are Steve Ball, Liam Hart and Riz Shaikh. The site is at 13 Quay St and has room for about 500 people.

A restaurant and bar occupy the ground floor, with a live-music space above that also hosts weekend club nights. The concert room stages gigs and other performances, while live music takes place daily. Separate audio systems serve the upstairs room and another area, and the PA was acoustically designed to maintain consistent sound levels across the room. The ceiling incorporates reclaimed 19th-century tin from a Manhattan church, alongside stained glass from Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey. An original 1920s Airstream caravan has been turned into a private party space.

Its programme includes blues, soul, jazz and hip-hop, with live performances and club nights. Friday events can differ between floors, with hip-hop, R&B and Afrobeats upstairs and soul and neo-soul downstairs. Roni Size, Ray Keith, LTJ Bukem and Zar have played there. In May 2026, the venue marked its fifth anniversary and had hosted more than 600 artists across over 1,250 events.