The Northern Quarter is always touted as the home of independent businesses - a bohemian district where creativity thrives and Starbucks are not allowed a look-in.

But there are a few shops here who fly the independent flag higher than everyone else, who have been here since the days where every building was a factory or warehouse and industry, rather than gin cocktails, was still at the beating heart of the neighbourhood.

What do these shops sell? Well - a bit of everything. Simultaneously niche and eclectic, you'll find vintage Beano annuals, pianos, Christmas decorations, TV props, guitars, books, autographed photos, ornaments, shop signs, vinyl records – even vintage erotic magazines.

Empire Exchange

Perhaps the best-known, partly because of the power ballads it pipes out onto the street, is Empire Exchange, tucked down a flight of stairs on the boundary between the Northern Quarter and Piccadilly Gardens.

"Decidedly different" reads a hand-painted sign above the door. "Visit our internet website," says another to the right. As you descend the stairs, you're faced with traffic lights, a cardboard cut-out of Kelly Brook, Batman wearing a vinyl record like a necklace, and a legless Freddy Krueger mannequin in a t-shirt that says ‘Your tent or mine?’. This is just the beginning.

Downstairs is an Aladdin's cave of second-hand trinkets, memorabilia and collectors' items, including a six-foot tall candle costume used by the BBC, priced at £300.

As well as acquiring old television and film props, Empire Exchange does dealings in the other direction too.

Manager Paul Williams said: "TV companies still come down here and hire stuff from us. They'll take some vintage annuals or old-fashioned footballs to dress a set up."

An old till, that chirps happily when opened, is still fully functional and covered in fridge magnets from around the world that have been collected throughout the years.

Shelves are stuffed with old video tapes, including a full range of James Bond VCRs. There are rotary dial phones in a glass cabinet, a three-wheel scooter hanging from the ceiling, stacks of old camera equipment, toys still in boxes, mannequins in football shirts from across the decades, a framed photo of David Beckham with Johnny Wilkinson, Toby jugs, a spindly old pram, even a sign from the London Underground. It’s all completely mad and completely brilliant.

"We've been going for roughly 30 years in Manchester,” said Paul. “We were in the Corn Exchange until the IRA bomb, and after the bomb we moved to this side of town.

"We've seen massive changes in the area, especially where we are now in the Northern Quarter. It's cocktail bars and live entertainment, but we're just a little hidden gem of a shop that's got bigger and bigger. We cater for everybody - there's something for everybody in here.

"Someone once tried to sell us a bit of metal he'd had taken out of his leg, something he thought was worth a lot of money. I just said to him "No, I don't want to buy that thanks!"

"We get every walk of life coming in, even if it's just for a chat. It's a community, we hope. Everyone says that we're a breath of fresh air and something unique. It's something different and we feel that we add some diversity to the city. The sad part about it is that there's not much like this left anymore. It's hard. We do feel under threat because Manchester's changing so quick.”

Clark Brothers

Another stalwart in the area is Clark Brothers on Thomas Street, opposite the revamped Bay Horse Tavern and just next door to vegan jazz cafe Folk & Soul. You've almost certainly strolled past it without noticing its existence, because it doesn't have a turntable or a French bulldog in the window.

This family-owned business sells, as advertised on its shop frontage, 'tickets and posters, shop supplies, seasonal decorations, replica trees, flowers'.

It's worth venturing inside for the onslaught of tinsel alone. Reams of the stuff drapes down from the ceiling, along with strings of pinecones, paper garlands, ribbons, balloons, Christmas trees of all sizes, fluorescent festive posters and signs. All that's alongside your usual, run-of-the-mill shop signage - emergency exit, toilet doors, open/closed, no entry, private.

It smells pleasantly musty - like a cross between an old library and the attic where you store your baubles January to November.

Clark Brothers was established back in 1948, and has been in this exact site for 26 years. Before that, it was in 50 Thomas Street - the building that has currently caused the road to be cordoned off while it is dismantled and demolished. This current site used to belong to the Fox Brothers, who left behind now-tattered wholesale catalogues advertising hair nets, penknives, torches, toothbrushes.

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The majority of trade still comes from local businesses, even though the neighbours have changed from warehouses to bars and restaurants - while I'm in there, a man pops in and picks up a few rolls of till paper.

Paramount Books

One of Clark Brothers’ customers is Paul Smith, owner of Paramount Books on Shudehill. Its ramshackle interior, where old parquet floors click and clack underfoot and books are stacked every which way all the way up to the ceiling, is well-loved across the generations.

Paul plays classical music into the street and blasts it into every corner of the shop. Mobile phone usage is banned. He keeps a basket of fruit next to the till and gives a piece to anyone who buys a book. There are a few squishy armchairs and an old piano in one corner, but otherwise it’s all paper and bananas.

It is, by all accounts, a perfect time capsule of a shop. He’s been here in this site for 35 years – before the Arndale car park existed.

“I do love the area, even now it’s changed so much,” he said. “On a Friday and Saturday night I like to see all the young people having fun. I loved my old neighbours, The Wonder Inn – they always had some great crowds in there. It’s a shame they had to move on.

“I’m lucky to own my building – they tried to move me out of here when they were building the Metrolink but we got a petition going to stop it. It seemed silly to knock down a lovely building like this to make room for a machine."

His father started the business by arranging a book swap and sale with his fellow factory workers. Instead of money, he would ask for two books in exchange for one - and the collection grew and grew to the eclectic range now in the Shudehill shop.

"Pick a subject that interests you and we’ve got it," said Paul. "I’ll take everything that I think people will read – even old cowboy books from the 1970s.

"In the old days football fans used to come in after the games at Old Trafford and buy their copies of the Football Pink from the Manchester Evening News. Now I get a lot of European football fans and students in here."

That explains the fact that he accepts both Euros and sterling, at a one-to-one exchange rate.

And the free-fruit-with-purchase? "It just seemed like the right thing to do. Usually you get to a till in a shop and it’s all chocolate and stuff that will ruin your body, I just thought it would be nice to spend a few pence and give people something healthy to take away with their book. It’s just a gesture of goodwill – a thank you for buying from me."

These eccentric little shops are thin on the ground these days, with neighbours slowly but surely morphing into cafes and bars.

They're left sticking out like sore, bedazzled thumbs. They look like gimmicky Instagram fodder but that couldn't be further from the truth. These are businesses with real heart and Manchester soul that could never be mimicked.

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