Shudehill Post Office is in a great location if you're heading into Manchester city centre via…read moreRochdale Road and/or using Shudehill Interchange, being located next to Cafe North on Shudehill. It is housed as part of a Manchester Souvenirs and News store. When the Post Office first opened, I noticed a lot of teething issues, such as being closed during opening hours or the staff being poorly trained to deal with basic services such as posting letters, however, since then, they've improved. With the main Crown Post Office closing on Spring Gardens, this store has done a good job in preparing their staff for the closure with extra support and training, yet I do feel there is more to do - there is regularly only one staff member working the Post Office, even at busy times. I understand being just a counter as part of a larger newsagents, it is difficult to find the space, but it would be great if they could reduce the waiting times, or perhaps even install the self-service machines, similar to what we see at other Post Office locations. They are open until 18:00 with the last collection for mail during the week at around 17:15 - this is pretty standard for a Post Office, however there are many other nearby Post Offices open later with Deansgate closing at 21:30 and Arndale closing at 23:00 during the week. I'm not a big fan of the newsagents which generally sell overpriced drinks and cheap tat/souvenirs, however, the staff are generally friendly and the location is especially handy for me as I don't need to carry larger parcels into and around town after getting off the bus at Shudehill. 3*

Crown Post Offices are a dying breed now - it seems almost every Post Office is now becoming a…read moresmall kiosk in a newsagents or similar style store, this is one of the few good remaining Post Offices remaining. This is a large branch, on Spring Gardens which is just off Market Street. It has a ticketed queuing approach, where you get a ticket and wait for them to call your number, I much prefer this to the standard queuing as it means you can sit down, relax without squabbling over your place in the queue. There is also a good number of self-service postage machines (These are great but not ideal as they don't include all services such as if the postage is pre-paid). The staff here are pretty friendly and service is quick enough, this is a huge benefit over the smaller Post Offices around the city centre located in Manchester Souvenirs and News stores, as it can be hit and miss whether you get served quickly or not - the staff always seem to take more care at this location too. It can be cheaper to pre-pay your postage online depending on the service being used. I don't understand the logic behind this, especially if you have to visit a Post Office anyway to post the parcel and/or generate proof of posting. 4* - A very good Post Office location, yet working on transparency between pricing through all payment methods and adding services to the self-service postage machines to make it quicker, and confusion-free would be a huge improvement again.

Hell hath no fury like central Manchester in the office lunch hour. I despair, I really do. And…read moreoften I found myself here having to post things off while I was working at Spinningfields, so once I'd jostled through the crowds the last thing I wanted was apocalyptic queues whilst standing like a lemon with my parcel. Thankfully, this is a particularly large post office. It sells what you'd expect - envelopes, stationery, stamps, the works, but with a great many kiosks it means you're never waiting a ludicrously long time to get rid of your items. The staff are helpful too, I was talked through the ins and outs of how many stamps I should put on a card to enable it to reach Fuerteventura, for instance. Its location just next to the Tesco Metro makes it a very handy stopping off point if you happen to be in town. I worked this out when I had to head here today to post off a box and a letter, both recorded delivery. I'm around a mile from a Post Office, no matter what direction I walk in. The shop opposite my apartment building closed down a long time ago, and now I'm at the mercy of Mocha Parade (gimme me flamin' giro), Soviet, sorry, Salford Precinct (Gorky Park) and this. This is my default. I'd like to take a moment to announce that I'm a dumbass as well. Ticket systems? Lost on me. I become like a doddering old grandmother that's been handed an iPod for the first time. Don't worry, this happens at cheese counters and in hospital queues too. Small ballots of paper bewilder me. Anyway, I realised that I shouldn't have sauntered past the friendly-looking bloke stood next to the ominous looking machine. And the lady who handled my parcels was super friendly. It's quick and easy. Worth a visit if you're parcel-sending this Christmas. Although by now you're probably too late... sorry, there was no need for that. I reckon you are though. Okay, I promise, I'll stop now.

Has fun souvenirs however, they do sell fake Labubus…read more Bought a Man U hat for my husband. A cute t shirt and some magnets.

This store's a funny one to start off with, despite having a giant sign outside saying Manchester…read moreSouvenirs & News and Post Office, it appears to be a small Post Office from the Manchester Souvenirs & News branding, from this store you can expect everything you'd regularly expect from a Post Office which is located inside a newsagents with it being one of the many Manchester Souvenirs & News locations (and even more Post Offices) around the city. Located in Exchange Square, it is located in the former basement of WHSmith, with the lifts removed and upper levels now being home to JD Sport, this means that the only way to enter the store, despite being classed as "Manchester Arndale", is the one and only entrance, just outside the mall in Exchange Square, located next to Caffe Nero. The store is much larger than other locations such as Deansgate and nicer and more modern than the Shudehill branch, which opened around about the same time as this one. I really like the decor around the top of the store, showing Corrination Street and just typical, modern and cool Manchester decor, as that is the theme of the store after all. The newsagents part of the business had a good selection of drinks, albeit at inflated prices costing around £1.49 for an iced tea which are often available to buy for around £1 each (or at least 2 for £2) at other retailers nearby including the Co-op and Superdrug to name just a few. The service here was a little slow and confusing, with two different parts of the till, they were obviously understaffed and struggling to serve two tills, with one man working and moving between the two, and even then it appeared that he had a young child standing behind him (family run business), I personally dislike being served in stores by young children and find it to be messy and complicated. They had one post office counter which was typical of a store this size, of course it isn't a regular Post Office, who have a large branch in Spring Gardens just a few minutes away, or a smaller main branch (yet still bigger than this one) at the Town Hall, as well as many stores similar to this around the city. Understaffed store with slightly poor service and inflated prices are the big negatives, but overall being in the city centre, the location is good and they do offer basic/good services for drinks (despite the inflated prices), souvenirs and Post Office, in a really nice decorated store so I do feel it deserves a three-star rating, and it is in quite a handy location being the only store of its' kind in Exchange Square.

worst post office in Manchester. an Evri parcel point who doesn't stick to hours advertised and are…read morevery rude when you ask for your parcel to be told they're closed, when the advertised closing time for Evri us 7pm. I got there just before 6 and all post office shutters were down. I told them you're evri hours state 7pm not 6 and the guy couldn't have bed. less interested, they give Evri a bad name and that's saying something. Thus us the second time thus has happened, rudest and laziest post office staff in Manchester. Don't offer services if you can't produce if, never mind that you only earn 30p a parcel that's not my problem.

This branch of Post Office is one of three locations in Machester City centre, it is located just…read moreoff Market Street, in Piccadilly Plaza, fairly close to City Tower and it is inside a Manchester Souvenirs store. The branch its-self is quite small due to being located in a shop, and you have to go through the shop to get to the Post Office, which is slightly inconviniant, supported by the fact as a sub post-office it doesnt sell the range of other products (generally overpriced parcel stuff), nor have the self service machines. The layout is a little confusing with different queues for Special Delivery and a few others and regular posting, with no tanoid or system to tell you when someone's free. There is no Post Box nearby, the nearest one is probably near Morrisons (a gold one dedicated to an Olympian) at the other side of Piccadilly Gardens, meaning you might have to queue up to post a letter. Poor facilities, yet store is in a decent location with decent service yet due to it not competing with a regular post office with certain items being poor, confusing and/or inconvenient, I feel only a two-star rating is possible.

For the lack of better word, I call this composition "The Monument to Cleanliness". There is no…read moreplaque gracing the pedestal, on which is mounted a massive broom. By the side of the pedestal stands a spade. For a poetic soul this will be the place where God left his cleaning instruments and went in for a curry and a pint. And naturally, forgot to go back to collect them. Jokes aside, this seems to be one of the least known landmarks in Manchester. It stands just across the road from the former post office in Thomas St, and is hard to ignore. But it seems to have assimilated with the rest of the street to such extent that it's become a natural and hence unimportant part of it. Sadly so, I think.

Manchester Town Hall is located in Albert Square in the city centre - it is home to the main area…read moreof the city's famous yearly Christmas Markets. It is one of the nicer, older buildings in the city being built in the mid-1800s and in many ways is your typical victorian building. It has been refurbished of late and the town hall now has a small Post Office in the annexe - it is also well located being right next to Manchester Central Library and part of it is also in St Peter's Square, which is one of the main stops on the city's light railway transport, Metrolink. It is still used today for various reasons other than the Post Office, it also is a small base for the police and it can sometimes be used for voting counting in elections, more notably the 2016 EU referendum where the United Kingdom voted by majority to leave the European Union. The guide of finding key areas of the town hall could perhaps be displayed better, especially when approaching it from Albert Square and St Peter's Square, being quite large it does stretch across both. A really nice old building in the city with some use today - as far as town halls go this is pretty cool. 4*

Last night I was lucky enough to attend an event at Manchester Town Hall. It was Grant's True Tales…read more(http://www.grantswhisky.com/uk/truetales/about), and it was absolutely spectacular. I experienced a whisky tasting, some exceptional cocktails and personal, entertaining stories told by some very interesting people, including that lovely Alistair McGowan, one of the country's nicest comedians. But most of all I got to see the Town Hall, full access. We all know it's an incredible building, but ascend the stairs, see the mosaic tiles on the floor and the bees which adorn them, go into the main hall and see what event managers can actually do with the space. We saw logos projected on walls amidst the ornate windows, heard the soft buzz of the live music from the Food and Drink festival outside, drank some beautiful whisky cocktails and got to meet a bunch of like-minded people. Even if you're not someone who falls in love with buildings the way I do so quickly and willingly, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be overwhelmed by the Town Hall. It's staggeringly big, as beautiful as any cathedral, and it's steeped in history that's practically tangible as you walk around. But the cherry on the icing? Even the toilets are stupendous! Adding a lovely lavvy into the mix just finishes it off now, doesn't it...