At night time, and in daytime in the warmer months, the street is filled with visitors, often including LGBT tourists from all over the world[citation needed].

The area along the canal was perfect for gay men to meet clandestinely as it was dark and unvisited, but was near to good transport links such as Oxford Road and Piccadilly railway stations.

[4] Anderton, when questioned about the policing of the Canal Street area, denied that he was motivated by anti-gay prejudice and was merely enforcing the law on sexual activity in public toilets.

[5] It was created when Carol Ainscow, a gay property developer, alongside her business partner Peter Dalton, bought a garage repair building on Canal Street.

Unlike the other gay bars at that time, the building was the first in the area to be clad with large plate glass windows;[2] allowing the casual passer-by to view what was going on inside.

Following the passing of a number of non-discrimination policies on the grounds of sexuality in the late 1980s, the council was pioneering work in the advancement of lesbian and gay rights with a HIV/AIDS unit, sympathetic press and marketing officers like Chris Payne and Tony Cross, an Equality Group which appointed lesbians and gay men as officers - including Paul Fairweather, Marcus Woolley, Chris Root, Maggie Turner, Terry Waller and Mark Ovenden - to key departments like Libraries,[7] Children's Services and Housing[8] and much official emphasis was placed on strengthening the community element of the Village.

[14] This success led to a number of problems, however, with a resultant influx of straight drinkers including hen parties into the village and tensions amongst the existing LGBT community.

[17] In 2004 a boycott was launched against a new Slug and Lettuce bar by the village community because the chain refused to support Manchester Pride, eventually leading to its closure.

Manto's re-opened in 2015 under a new name of ON Bar initially struggling it found its feet again in 2016 when the London owners head hunted Tony D Cooper from the successful Via further up Canal St." Lofthouse quotes Amelia Lee of LGBT Youth North West as feeling that Canal Street is over-emphasised as an all-encompassing gay area: "It’s more for hen-do events than for LGBT people.

"[19] This change in the types of clientele attending or moving in and out of the area in recent years is believed to have led to a number of homophobic attacks such as the one on Simon Brass, who was thrown into the canal and left to drown by a gang of muggers in June 2013.

800 "upmarket" homes are planned to be built overlooking Canal Street, and the existing community including bar owners running late licences fear that "there will be untenable conflict of interest between future residents and longstanding LGBT establishments".