Our Story

The 422 Community Hub is a project of Manchester Vineyard

The 422 Community Hub is a project of Manchester Vineyard, a local church in the heart of the Longsight-Ardwick community. The 422 Hub hosts a community cafe, a variety of free programmes and spaces to hire for like-minded organisations that offer opportunities, boost well-being and tackle poverty.  

 

We’ve spoken with hundreds of people in our community to gather ideas and hopes for 422, particularly as our neighbourhoods experience some of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Manchester Vineyard, led by Paul and Steph Lowe, has a heart to love Manchester in practical ways and make a difference on issues of injustice in our city, particularly around child poverty. 

 

We acquired the 422 building through a Community Asset Transfer with Manchester City Council and began renovating it in 2019. In August 2021 we opened the 422 Cafe through the generous support of many individuals, grant-making bodies, institutions and businesses. Since then, more of the building has opened up and is providing transformative opportunities and programmes. 

 

To read more about the story of 422, you can take a look at our 422 Project Booklet and to take a look around check out our Virtual Tour!

The Transformation

The Hub has undergone major transformation and great care has been taken to restore the beautiful original features of 422!

 

The transformation began in July 2019 and some parts of the building are now unrecognisable! One of the first steps was to shift the mess left behind by squatters. Once our various volunteer teams had tackled this, the real renovations could begin. Since then, many organisations have given free or discounted labour and materials to 422 which has made so much of the work possible. 

 

Our volunteer teams have filled over 8000 bin bags, giving over £300,000 in volunteer time since July 2019. 17 new windows and 28 new doors installed, 20 walls have been knocked down and two entire stages have been removed!

Find out more ways to volunteer here.